Living Breathing Documents

Do you suffer from “Shiny thing syndrome”?

Do your team dread you going to conferences, knowing you will come back fired up to try the next ‘sure-fire-silver-bullet’?

In 1998 my then-managing director announced we would be implementing ISO 9001. The announcement was met with huge resistance. The concept of “Say what you do, document what you do, do what you say” seemed like nothing more than cruel torture designed by a company as a way to increase paper sales. I started out as one of the loudest opponents - so our MD made me a lead implementer. I collected my ISO internal auditor certificate a year later and with wisdom and insight that has served me well over the past decades.

The “next shiny thing syndrome” is something many employees greet with a roll of the eyeballs and the knowledge that this newest fad that has been introduced will likely pass along with all the rest before it.

For many businesses, the challenge does not lie in finding new ideas,  or introducing changes designed to help adapt to the ever-evolving economic climate,  but rather in choosing one thing and  allowing it to be around long enough to be effective.

Making an idea or trend stick and become part of your culture  is  not easy because people inherently avoid change. People want the certainty  that any change they put in place will yield results before they go ahead and do it.  Unfortunately business does not generally operate this way.  Anybody who has put in a new computer system will know, it takes the team a while to learn the new process and systems and, for the most part, you initially land up being slower and feeling like you are going backwards before you gather forward momentum.

Added to this conundrum is the fact that systems that we put in place today need to be able to evolve and adapt with the changes that a business inevitably goes through.  It is here that having a documented system can make the difference. The secret lies in ensuring the documents you create are not just there to tick a box but rather as a reference point and guide.

The value of having a company's knowledge and information documented is often most fully appreciated when a key team member leaves and when a new team member joins.  Companies that keep their IP well documented ensure that experienced team members do not leave with all their knowledge only stored in their head. This allows others in the team to reference notes, documents, templates, processes etc and benefit from the skills and knowledge learnt over the years.  Often this is most acutely felt by new people joining the team.  When a company has a really solid induction process, it enables new team members to understand what's expected of them, where they fit in, who they report to and where they can go for information and training to enable and equip them to be effective. Having new team members use your documents - and update them as they are taught and learn - is an easy way of ensuring your documents stay fresh, ‘alive’ and relevant.

Do you have an induction process,  a training manual,  a manufacturing process clearly documented,  your standards documents updated and available,  your sales process and customer journey clearly laid out?   These are a few of the processes a company needs to have to run and operate well. Documenting these processes enables you to identify where your bottlenecks are and your opportunities for improvement. Giving ownership of this to the people who do the work helps keep them relevant and updated.

Which process, if clarified and documented, would most benefit your business right now? 

Here’s to your success!