Listen instead on your Monday Morning Drive:

With all due respect to the folks who’ve documented their processes and the followers of the many business operating systems who are in the documentation process, I’m not a fan.

When process documentation works, I couldn’t be happier for you. However, these initiatives rarely achieve their intended results.

You’ll have no trouble finding a consultant, coach, or system that’ll rope you into a pointless documentation process that could take months or even years to achieve these admirable outcomes:

1. Learn what works and what doesn’t.
2. Teach everyone their roles and responsibilities.
3. Enhance teamwork through organizational clarity and alignment.
4. Promote efficiency.
5. Ensure that we don’t miss important steps.
6. Create transferable, trainable knowledge.

This is all so you can grow and make more money while being your best…or some other positive mantra.

However, the issue with process documentation is that you assume your processes work. If they don’t, why would you want to document that mistake?

If your processes work, write them down. But how do you know they work? Is your business perfect? Are your results always as expected? 

Why Documentation Wastes Effort

A prospect once told me he would start working on the big strategic issues inside his business after finishing his yearlong process review.

He said, “We can’t address the problems in our business until we’ve documented our processes. That’ll be our starting point.”

I wanted to beat my head against the desk.

Documenting a dysfunctional business’s processes, other than for analysis, wastes effort. I’ll counterintuitively support process documentation later in this blog post, but first, I have terms and conditions for that endorsement.

When someone reaches out to me about their need to document their processes, it’s never because their processes work. It’s always because mistakes keep happening. They want to hold someone accountable or work around someone who refuses to be held accountable.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Dead Ends and Bottlenecks

When I follow an order through the system to understand your process — specifically for diagnosis — I look for dead ends and bottlenecks.

• A dead end is when I hear, “It depends.” That means there’s no clear path, and someone has to use their judgment to decide what to do next.
  
  That’s not a process. That’s winging it.
  
  In our industry, we often “wing it,” which usually works fine. However, if “winging it” looks like a poor process that leads to mistakes, we want to eliminate that dead end.
  
• A bottleneck is when multiple processes flow through one person or one checkpoint that impedes flow. Sometimes, a process needs a speed bump, but a bottleneck is when vital tasks wait in a queue to be processed. A bottleneck cuts off oxygen for subsequent steps.

Say show prep is difficult, items are overlooked, and it takes multiple trips to get the right items to the show site. (Sound familiar?) Reviewing the current process will reveal dead ends, bottlenecks, and major missing steps. 

We don’t want to document that process, because it’s not working.

When we try to document broad processes from the first step, the result is always a front-loaded series of steps. The longer a process takes, the more likely there’ll be shortcuts later. Plus, no one will follow it because no one wants to read it.

The Beauty of Working Backwards

Instead of documenting an existing broken process, which a business operating system tells you to do (I call it the “fix it as you go” method), start by defining that process’s finished product.

Show prep isn’t a singular process. It’s many processes stacked together. So, to define the show prep process, you can’t start at the beginning. Start at the end.

For our purposes, show prep is pulling, labeling, documenting, and preparing the correct equipment and accessories to ship to the show site on time. Everything arrives as needed and when expected.

This doesn’t mean prep is perfect.

A good show prep means no one on the show crew has to ask where anything is or when it’ll arrive. All changes and shortcomings (late deliveries) are communicated.

To summarize: 

• The prep is documented and communicated.
• The warehouse loads the truck as scheduled .

You can add more outcomes, but show prep is typically the warehouse manager’s domain. Their control ends once the gear is on the truck and deliveries are scheduled.

Of course, the show crew needs other information, but that’s not part of the equipment prep. Let’s stick to one very broad process.

Now, we work backward. Truck loading is the final step in prep. It’s one of many processes you’d document. The Warehouse Manager ensures that the truck is loaded and ready to leave when dispatch requests it.

Let’s work backwards from there:

• The warehouse manager sends the load manifest with case contents and details on outside deliveries to the crew.
• The equipment is loaded for safe unloading and, when possible, for the highest priority needs first.
• As each item is loaded in the correct order, its contents must be checked against the official manifest to document that it was loaded.
• The Warehouse Manager assembles the load team and reminds them of the process, priorities, and safety requirements.
• Is everything labeled? Are all sub-rentals accounted for? Are outside or out-of-sync deliveries verified? Are we ready to load?
• Double-check the pull. Is the prep manifest complete?
• The prep lead informs the Warehouse Manager that the prepped order is ready for review.

Final Thoughts

Let’s review our goals:

• The order is documented and communicated.
• The warehouse loads the truck as scheduled.

By defining the outcome before you define the steps, you improve your chances of preserving the process’s intent. You avoid front-loading the steps and neglecting key outcomes, like double-checking the manifest, and you invite the team to use their skills and experience to execute the movements or tasks using the method that makes the most sense that day.

When you look at process documentation as a promise fulfilled, you reduce the need for unnecessary steps. You can improvise the process, which makes the best use of your more experienced team members, but you can’t deviate from the outcome.

So, before you document processes, make sure they’re doing what you need them to do. You can do that by working backwards.

I love processes. If you need help with yours, give me a call.