And Now a Word from Your Friendly Office Process
Processes — Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em, am I right? They’re notoriously challenging to document and socialize, but if you don’t put the TLC into developing them, and doing it right, their absence will haunt you, say when people leave the company and no one knows how to do anything or the one person who knows how to run your payroll goes on vacation.
Here’s a little PSA from every process you’ll ever build or will ever follow.
I can only be as good as you make me. Here are a few things you must do to help me help you.
Get even more tips from our sources and inspiration for this section: Teamwork’s Process documentation 101: What is it, the benefits and Process Bliss’s Process 101.
Decide exactly what it is that you want from me.
A clean list of objectives, expected outcomes, and the people who will be using me would be most helpful to my quest to meet your expectations. Don’t keep me in the dark, okay?
Figure out how to “fatten me up.”
What information will feed me and from what sources? Who will input said information?
Make me a habits chart.
I’m not your kid. I promise I find this helpful and not stifling. Break me down into all my steps, break those steps down, and then assign people to manage each step.
Make me official.
Put me into a map or a flowchart so others may understand and use me.
Test me out.
I will only be able to do my job if someone who isn’t you can also use me. You want me to be able to do my job, don’t you?
Don’t neglect me.
Decide how you plan to maintain me. How often will you review me? How will you add things to me as you go?
