Game in the Brain

After Documentation or Document as you go, the next step is Process Documentation.

Everything – from Memo, Directives, Non-Conformity, etc… can be placed in the Process Bible of the Department. Everything that is relevant to the failure of the process, mistakes that can be made by the people executing the process, interruptions, challenges, complications etc…

When failures, complication, lessons, etc… occur you can document it IN the process step. Anything that would make the task easier, improve reliability, improve quality, etc… can be made in the Process step. Any gains and losses can be written in the lines of the process. [1]

Process Documentation is the Programming of the Organization (from the team to the department, to the company_, updating it with Experiences, Lessons, Measurements, New Information, etc… is giving the Organization a Living Memory that allows it to Adapt to new information.

Centralizing this, Maintaining this Memory, Evolving new processes based on what is kept on the memory (the new information), and matching these all to goals, budges, and constraints allows a bunch of people to be on the same page, have the same goals, and coordinate more efficiently.

Google Docs has made this a lot easier. I think a Giant White board or Corkboard would suffice as well (with the processes visible and accessible to all) in pre Internet. With poor internet a Doc can be kept but definitely there needs always a Visible, Accessible, Searchable (organized well), and Commendable/Feedback available form for people to interact it

The Process Document is the Operating System of the Organizations Hardware (the human brains that make up the organization).

[1] I got this sense from reading a bunch of Historical Texts. Particularly Manuals and treatises where everyone who uses it – uses it as a process guide and write in to the margins their notes.

As to correcting a bad practice. Placing the evidence (the Non-Conformity, Issues, Complaints, etc…) along side the process step that results in it, makes the correction self evident without assigning blame.

Of course, having performance reviewed, being able to give feedback, documentation, clear roles and functions etc.. are all basics that are needed in the first place. An organization can be huge, and such blind spots for these basics can occur. Right now I have a department that doesnt have any KPI or performance feedback I have to set up (Work Load Monitoring). Its helpful to assume that an Organization will always be so complicated as to overwhelm our working memory and perception.