Get started on the list of processes you need to hand over

Hey there,

First, the good news: All the information you need to capture what needs to happen while you’re away for a month already exists.

It’s in your head.

Some of it is in your team’s heads.

Which means that the job is not to invent or design, as to document - in a way that’s quick, practical and useful. And in this newsletter I’m going to show you how to go about it.

I’ll cover:

Principles for creating evergreen documentation
How to stop yourself getting too much into the weeds
A process for documenting a business process or activity

Let’s dive in

Principles for creating evergreen documentation

I’m a fan of German design master Dieter Rams.

One of his 10 principles of good design is worth remembering here:

“Good design is long-lasting - It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.”

This principle doesn’t just appliy to tangible products, like record players and shelving, it also applies to business processes.

Here’s how you apply it:

Capture “What has to happen” without getting bogged down in “How we do it now”. For any given process, the “What has to happen” is ultimately some sort of outcome that is meaningful to your customer or client. Footage has been created. A dog has been walked. A full set of annual accounts has been submitted to HMRC. Activities along the way represent the outcomes that make that ultimate outcome possible: You've arrived at the client location with your film equipment. The dog has been taken to the park. A draft set of accounts has been approved by the business owner.
Make your process description technology agnostic. Refer to the things you use to do it (what I call ‘Props’) in the abstract - ‘our accounts system’, ‘our CRM System’ ‘Stores’, rather than the specific: ‘Xero’, ‘Capsule’, ‘22 Park St’. That way you can change the technology without changing the process.
Make your process description individual agnostic. Refer to the Role that’s responsible or involved, rather than to a specific person.
Create prompts for people who know what they’re doing, rather than detailed instructions for people who don’t. My favourite example is ‘Film cool stuff’ - a one line prompt in an activity called ‘Create Footage’.

When you describe a process like this, to be deliberately unfashionable and generic at the right level, it lasts. Because you've captured "What has to happen", not "How we do it now".

How to stop yourself getting too much into the weeds

When you first start creating this kind of documentation, it’s easy to get yourself bogged down in detail, trying to nail down every step of every activity to the nth degree. Especially if you’re the boss, worried about whether this is going to work smoothly without you.

You can avoid this by constantly reminding yourself who you’re documenting the process for - a competent human being.

One of the great things about humans is that you don’t need to tell them everything. Give them a clear and simple framework and they will fill in the gaps from their experience, using their skill and judgement. And if you already created and shared your ‘FedEx Sentence’, they’ll have something to fall back on even if the totally unexpected happens.

So if you find yourself documenting the equivalent of ‘make a cup of tea’ in excruciating detail, you’ve gone too low. On the other hand, if a person following the description you’ve produced has to stop and ask you “What am I supposed to do here?”, you’ve stayed too high.

How to get to the sweet spot? Do this:

A process you can follow to for document any business process or activity

Of course it’s a process. What else would you expect from me?

It looks like this:

Starting at the left-hand side:

1) Choose a Process:

You choose a process to work on, and a Process Partner to work on it with you. That Process Partner is usually the person you identified as a potential delegatee in the Activity Delegation Prioritisers sheet you created last time. The name you put in the ‘Who to?’ Column.

2) Describe Process

You describe how that process currently works to the Process Partner. Importantly, the Process Partner controls the conversation, starting with this prompt:

Process Partner: “What happens when…?”

For example, “What happens when a Client signs up for our service?”, or “What happens when the client has booked a dog-walk?”, or “What happens when a client needs to submit their Annual Accounts?

You: “Well, ….” Describe what happens.

The Process Partner makes notes of your answer, asking clarifying questions if needed, until there’s a pause.

Process Partner: “And then what?”

You: Describe what happens next.

And so on, until the answer to “What happens next?” is “Nothing, that’s it. That’s the end.”

Between you, you've produced your first draft.

3) Sketch Process Score

The Process Partner uses their notes to sketch out the process in diagram form, with checklists, as we covered in an earlier newsletter.

4a) Test Process Score

Then, using a paper copy of their sketch and their notes, the Process Partner tests the documentation (what I call a process score) by trying to actually do the process, following their notes from your description.

As they go, they make notes on their copy of the diagram, indicating where things are unclear or confusing, or obviously wrong.

4b) Observe Process Test

At the same time, you observe them testing the process score. You also make notes on your copy of the diagram, of where things could be clearer, or where corrections need to be made.

5) Agree Improvements

Once the process test has been completed, you both get together with your notes and discuss what went wrong, and how to prevent that next time. You agree improvements, then repeat steps 3) to 5) until you have something you’re both happy with - a document that enables any competent person in your business to run that process to your client’s satisfaction, without having to ask you, or anyone else, how to go about it.

Remember:

You will not get this right first time.

I’m always amazed at the difference between what people say they do and what they actually do. And so are they when they see it in action. That’s why this is such a good way to capture what has to happen. It won’t take many rounds to get something good enough.

Only the documentation can be wrong. Not the people.

You’re not questioning your way of doing things, you’re making sure that how it works is usefully documented. You’re not testing the ability of your Process Partner either. Both of you are testing the clarity and usefullness of the documentation - to support a competent person.

You’re aiming for good enough, not perfect.

The aim is to get the documentation good enough to enable the other person to run that process as well as you can. So that you don’t have to be there to make sure it happens ‘properly’.

6) File Process Score

Finally, once you’re both happy with what you’ve produced, open your Activity Delegation Prioritisers sheet and tick off the ‘Sketched’ box against this Activity.

Then File the finished process score in your shared space, so it’s accessible to everyone.

Now, pick the next item on your Activity Delegation Prioritisers sheet, book some time with your chosen Process Partner and do it again.

Repeat until you've ticked 'Sketched' for ever activity or process you need to hand over in order to get a month off.

And that’s it.

Here’s what you learned today:

You’re not programming a robot, you’re supporting an intelligent human being to take responsibility and use their own skill, experience, empathy, creativity and judgement to deliver what they, as a part of the business, have promised to the people your business serves.
You don’t have to do it all by yourself. Get your team to help you get this stuff out of your head. It’s in their interest as well as yours. And if you'd like more help, don't hesitate to get in touch.
You won’t get it right first time. But it won’t take many attemps to get something you can have be confident in.

After the last newsletter, I hope you made your list of activities to delegate.

Now's the time tackle the first one on that list.

The sooner you start, the sooner you'll get to that month away.

Feel free to book a quick chat to explore how I can help.

Thanks for reading!