It's not out of your head until you've written it down in a form that someone else can follow.

Hey there,

Before you can take that short break from your business, you, and your team, will want to reassure yourselves that the processes you’ve defined over the last few newsletters will actually be used.

The only way to do that is to practise them before you go away.

And before anyone can practise, you'll need to get them written down.

So in this newsletter, I'm going to talk you through how to capture a process simply and effectively. We'll look at

• The simplest way to capture a straightforward, linear process
• How to sketch diagrams for processes that have multiple routes
• How to combine the two approaches to build a powerful system for documenting 'the way things get done around here'

If you've been reading this newsletter for a while, you've already come across the first thing we're going to talk about...

The simplest way to capture a straightforward linear process...

...is to create a checklist, like the ones we used for 'Open for Business' (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-I8P6jm9XzKUBuazuxL-n86JBoR9smyzbFG869t7fQU/edit?usp=sharing) and 'Close for Business' (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w8NpYh1qOM5ZVRzRMo1bRPGtHLkiwBtR_sfw0rjJXnU/edit?usp=sharing)

This kind of checklist is easily set up in a spreadsheet format. All you have to do is:

• List out the steps in the order they need to happen.
• Next to each step, add an explanation of what to do. No need to go into too much detail, just enough of a prompt to remind people of what they already know. If more detailed instructions are needed, put them in a separate document and link to it from the checklist.
• Add a checkbox next to each step, so that people can use the checklist to track their own progress.

Make sure the checklist fits on an A4 page (at a pinch A3), so anyone can print it out easily and check things off as they go.

This also means they can keep a record of the process as actually carried out. This can be helpful when the checklist process involves some sort of customer interaction, e.g. checking a car for dents and scratches before you hire it out to a client.

How to sketch diagrams for processes that have multiple 'routes'

For anything other than a step-by-step linear process, it's much more effective to draw things out as a simple diagram. This can be hand-drawn on a piece of paper, scanned with your smartphone, then saved as a pdf to your shared drive for reference.

that's exactly what I did to get this:

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Here's how to go about producing a diagram like this:

Step 1 - List activities:

List all the activities you need to carry out in order to complete the process.

Name each activity with an active 2 or 3 word phrase that is an 'ACTION' followed by a 'THING' e.g. 'Receive Question', 'Find Answer', 'Check FAQs'.

The idea is to remind the reader what they need to DO, together with the THING they do it to or with.

It should be easy to know when you've done the thing. You've either received the question or you haven't, you've either found an answer or you haven't, you've either checked FAQs or you haven't.

As a rule of thumb, if your list of activities is longer than 7-ish, you are probably trying to capture more than one process. To help identify this, think about what you're trying to achieve and try to sum it up using the naming convention described above. If you have to use more than one ACTION or name more than one THING, you've got more than one process. Split them out by ACTION THING, and carry on from there.

For example, the process outlined above is summed up as 'Answer Client Question'. If it was 'Answer Colleague Question' or 'Answer Supplier Question' it would probably look similar but different. What I don't want is something that has to be summed up as 'Answer Client or Colleague or Supplier Question'. It's much better to split things out.

Step 2 - Sequence the activities:

Once you're happy, with your list of activities, think about the logical order in which these activities must happen.

For example, you can't answer a question until you've received it, but you may be able to answer it off the top of your head right away. That's one route. So in the diagram above there's an arrow straight from Receive Question to Answer Question.

Think about the next simplest route. In the example above, you might be able to answer a question almost straightaway, by looking the question up in the FAQs. That's another route.

Now think about more involved routes, for example, if you can't answer a question straight away, you have to defer it, then find the answer before you can answer it. This route goes through several activities before arriving at the end.

And if finding the answer takes you a while, you may have to let the person know you haven't forgotten about it along the way.

Step 3 - Sketch the diagram:

Draw each activity as a bubble shape with its name inside, roughly where you expect it to be in the diagram. I draw from left to right because that's how my clients usually like to read things, but you can start right and go left, or start top and go down, whatever works for you and your team. As long as you are consistent across all your diagrams!

Now connect the activities together with arrows that show the dependencies between them, starting with the simplest possible route.

So in the diagram above there's an arrow straight from Receive Question to Answer Question. The simplest and most common route through this process.

The next simplest route is from Receive Question to Check FAQs and Answer Question. But this isn't the most common route, so the arrow connecting Receive Question to Check FAQs is bent, to show it's an alternative to the usual route. The arrow from Check FAQs to Answer Question is also bent, to show its an alternative route.

The most involved route in the process sketched above involves several activities. There's another bent arrow from Receive Question to Defer Question, which must happen before Find Answer.

Then, from Find Answer you can either go straight to Answer Question, or from Find Answer to Notify of Progress, and back again to Find Answer. This is to show that you might have to keep the question asker up to date more than once, while you find the answer.

How to combine the two approaches to build a powerful system for documenting 'the way things get done around here'

Once you've mastered checklists and process diagrams, you can combine these two pretty simple approaches to produce a suprisingly powerful means of documenting how your business works.

For example, behind each of these activities there could be a simple checklist:

'Receive Question': might be:

• If the question came via email or message, acknowledge receipt
• Make a note of the question in your Day Book

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'Answer Question' might be:

• Answer the question
• Make a note of the answer in your Day Book

While, behind other activities, such as 'Find Answer', there might be another diagram:

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Similarly, behind each of these activities there may be a checklist or a diagram.

And so on, and so on...

You'll know when you've covered everything, because at the lowest level, everything is a checklist.

In fact, this is exactly how we've built OurScore, the software I use to capture a business's unique way of doing things, because believe me, trying to do this manually is a pain in the *rs*.

I know, I did it using PowerPoint for years.

I don't advise that at all.

And in fact, for where you now, that's not necessary.

All you need now is just what you learned today:

• Checklists can be a great way to map out smiple, linear processes
• For anything more complicated than that a diagram works well. And it can be a hand-drawn sketch.
• Checklists and sketches combined can be surprisingly powerful.

AND:

To know that the most important thing right now is to simply get started. You can probably do that with a few checklists, and maybe a couple of simple diagrams. I've found from experience that for some clients, these diagrams are more than enough to prompt people to do what they already know how to do.

Because once people are actually using what you've written down, they'll soon tell you where it's wrong, or where it could be better, and you'll soon be making changes and improvements.

So, get started.

If you haven''t already, put together your ' Open for Business' checklist and your 'Close for Business' checklist.

Draft a diagram for how to answer client questions.

Draft another one for how to add a new Frequently Asked Question to your FAQs list, and your website.

You'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get something out of your head and down on paper.

And you'll feel all the better for it.

Next time we'll look at how you get your team to actually use what you've produce.

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Thanks for reading!

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