A guide or a process you run: why a document is not enough
A beautifully written guide goes stale in its first month if nobody runs it. This is how a guide becomes a process people follow.
Most companies have guides. They sit in a folder, a wiki or on someone's computer, and they were written in good faith. The problem is not the guide's quality but that the guide and the work live in different places. The work is done from memory, and the guide is opened only after something has already gone wrong.
A process you run does three things a document does not
First, it is where the work is done: the guide, the form and the video sit in the same run as the task. Second, it lets no gaps through: a step cannot be signed off without required data. Third, it leaves a trail: a name and a timestamp on every step.
When the guide changes, the change shows in the next run. No old version stays on anyone's computer.
Where to start
Pick the process that has gone wrong most often. Not the most important, not the largest – the one that causes the most questions. Turn it into a run, and see a week later how many questions never came.
