From 'Meh' to Must-Have: The hidden value of process documentation

Right-sizing Business Process Documentation

Most people seem to have a Love ?? or “meh” ?? relationship with Process Documentation. I'm here to transform that 'meh' into a resounding 'must-have!' From a bureaucratic exercise to a game-changer. If you're ready to move from 'meh' to must-have, read on to discover how simple documentation can revolutionize your workflow by revealing improvement opportunities.

Business process documentation:

?? Powerful communication tool

?? Focuses conversations, gets people on the same page

?? Surfaces and eases measurement of impact

?? Nimble and transformative

?? Great tool to identify areas for improvement to increase efficiency and quality

By right sizing your approach to process documentation, you can meet all of these needs with a relatively small amount of effort (often less than half an hour) to start reaping results.?

First, let’s take a trip.

After a brief detour, I think you'll have a new perspective about process documentation.

Let’s say you and your family live in Seattle, Washington and have decided to take a road trip to visit family and friends in Des Moines, Iowa this Summer. It’s a relatively long drive – about 1,800 miles. However, it’s one you have taken before, and going by car will allow you to see some of the Landmarks and attractions along the way – some of which you had missed during your previous trips. You want to make the trip enjoyable and memorable for your family.

Of course, you know your starting point and your destination, but the journey in between can be approached in diverse ways. You have a few extra days and can spare a few stops along the way. As you prepare for the trip, you realize you can approach the trip two main ways:

1. Meticulous plan: Schedule every day and hour for each day and night.

Pros: Detailed, predictable

Cons: Time-consuming, inflexible, requires a lot of up-front planning

2. Overall journey: Identify major stops but focus on the main path of your journey.

Pros: Adaptable, quick to prepare, reusable, nimble to adjust for unexpected events

Cons: Requires adaptation, additional tools needed (Smartphone for navigation)

Being the busy family you are with little time for detailed planning, you opt for the second approach that needed less time up front and allowed you to be more adaptive and flexible and be able to be more spontaneous.

So, you head off on the trip equipped with 1) your road atlas to give you the “high-altitude” view and see attractions and landmarks, and metropolitan areas and 2) your phone with GPS and mapping capability that allowed you to take short side-trips and make good progress by avoiding traffic when possible along with specific directions to the restaurant at mealtime.

You’ll be happy to know you had a terrific time along your journey, saw the sights you most wanted to see, and enjoyed precious time with family and friends. And the journey back home was great since you were able to choose to stop at some a few other attractions.

Back to business

Now that you’ve returned from your trip, let’s get back to our process documentation.

Process documentation is similar to road tripping. When I need to share the overall process that a team follows to accomplish tasks or prepare a deliverable, I rely on a high-level process summary that lets me describe the major steps. The overall process summary includes just 5-7 steps. This high-level process summary is something that can be prepared quickly either individually or with just one or two select team members. Having this high-level summary helps to ensure everyone has a mutual understanding of the process being talked about and knows, in general, what is being done.

When I need to zoom in to detailed, step-by-step directions, I pull out the details. How detailed this is depends on the situation.

I don’t sweat the details for many of the main steps – practically no time is spent on some of the steps. To start with, choose just the ones that have the most impact or those that are most troublesome or challenging. These are the ones with the most opportunity to improve. As needed, I will go back and work on the details for processes not done during my first round. Use the same guidance to focus on the steps that are more complex or challenging.

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Example of high-level process

What might the high-level process look like? Let’s use putting together an internal newsletter as an example. List out the process in 5-7 steps (no more than 9):?Break down the process into manageable steps.

1. Ideate:?Brainstorm and generate ideas for the newsletter content. List the main points and messages to be conveyed in the newsletter.
2. Create an Outline:?Organize the key points into a structured outline. Share the outline with colleagues or stakeholders for feedback and input.
3. Write a First Draft:?Develop the first draft of the newsletter based on the outline. Share the first draft with colleagues or stakeholders for feedback.
4. Revise and Design: Incorporate the feedback received into your draft, make necessary revisions, and design the layout of the newsletter.
5. Publish and Share: Complete the newsletter and publish it on the desired platform, then share it with the intended audience. Measure the engagement and performance of the newsletter.

Each of these steps may have more detailed instructions and guidance depending on the needs of your team and the organization. Perhaps your team needs to improve the quality of the outline step to help your colleagues and stakeholders provide feedback more quickly.

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Key takeaways

• Business Process Documentation: Helps clarify work, articulate team value, and serves as a foundation for improving efficiency, scale, and quality.
• Start high level: Start at a high level that spans the entire process. Keep the number of steps to 5-7. This is your “road atlas” view.
• Detailed, Granular Steps: For complex or troublesome steps, narrow your focus and break down the steps into sub-steps. For example, "Write a First Draft" can be divided into Research, Draft, Revise, Edit. This is your detailed smartphone “day-trip” or side-trip view.
• Efficient Documentation: Short, focused sessions can make significant progress. Visual documentation simplifies conversations and connects ideas.
• Lightweight and Adaptive: Focus on key pain areas to quickly identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
• Documentation Importance: Ensures clarity, business continuity, and centralized information. Keep your documentation only as detailed as you need it to be. Doing so will make it easier to maintain.

Tips for AI work

• AI and Process Documentation: Strategically implementing AI into improving how your team works is augmented when combined with a clearly-defined, process. You can then focus AI on generating a clearly-defined deliverable in your process.
• BPM and AI: Business Process Management (BPM) is essential for improvements using automation and AI. Some say bite-sized automation and AI applications yield better results. There is some evidence that separating tasks for AI Agents into certain process steps yields better results faster and allows you to gain more insight into performance.

What do you think?

?? Where have you applied simple, lightweight process documentation to help you improve performance?

?? How have you used process documentation to help align a team with the specific part of an overall process?

?? What are some of the major complaints you have heard about process documentation?

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