In most small businesses, how the work gets done lives in two or three people's heads. It works well until one of them is unavailable, and then a routine task becomes an emergency.
Why it never gets written
Because it is imagined as a project. Someone pictures a manual, decides there is no time, and nothing happens for another year.
It is not a project. It is a page at a time, written by whoever already does the thing.
Start with the ones that hurt
Not the whole business. The three or four tasks where you already know there is a problem: only one person can do it, it is done monthly so nobody remembers, or it goes wrong regularly.
That is where documentation pays immediately.
Keep the format small
One page. When it happens, who does it, the steps in order, what usually goes wrong, and who to ask.
That last section is the most valuable and the one people leave out. The steps handle the normal case. The exceptions are what actually need writing down.
Have the doer write it
Not the owner, and not the person who thinks they know how it is done. The person doing it today. Their version will be accurate, because they are describing what happens rather than what is supposed to happen.
Test it by handing it over
Give it to somebody who has never done the task and watch. Every question they ask is a gap. Fix those, and it is finished.
One a fortnight
Twenty-six documents in a year, which is more than most businesses of this size need. Nobody has to set aside a week, which is why it actually happens.
Leave a Comment