In this Series…

I’m covering the 25 best ways to start documenting your systems and processes in a way that your team will love so your business can grow and scale.

Step 7: Don’t Be The Bottleneck

Good leaders are problem solvers. And, by nature or out of habit, when we see a problem, we instinctually go into “problem-solver” mode.

The Problem-Solver’s Fairy Tale:

Once upon a time, there were many processes that needed to be documented. The King or Queen of the land decreed, “I will solve this problem, and the whole kingdom will celebrate for years to come!”

Soon, a list was created, and then, one by one, those documents were brought to life, implemented, and in no time at all. Everything was perfect across the realm.

The end.

The Reality:

The King or Queen wakes up to their alarm going off at 5 am and realizes they have another day of work ahead of them. The fairy tale was just a dream.

So, motivated by the dream, they go to work, and a list gets made. The first process doc is started (yay!). Then something comes up (boo!). Then something else comes up (ugh!). Then another thing comes up (OMG!).

And while the intention was great, their day-to-day adds too many urgent issues to solve — most are likely due to not having process docs in the first place — which puts creating the docs lower and lower in the list.

Eventually, it becomes “too much work,” and the cycle continues: No process docs leads to urgent fires, making it impossible to create the process docs.

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The Solution:

Divvy up who is creating the process docs.

They don’t have to be perfect. All you need is a start that can be improved over time.

Having something documented is much better than having nothing documented.

Follow the other parts of this guide, provide the right tools, and keep things simple and easy to build.

Add a validation step, and now you can delegate the draft creation, and when it’s ready for review, it’s a simple 10 min edit session rather than the full list of docs staring at you in the face.

If your team struggles to finish, simply prioritize and only assign one to each person at a time.

It really is that simple.

(or, hire professionals, like those who write 25-part guides about creating great process docs)

Summary

1. Prioritize which workflows get documented first.
2. Delegate the creation of draft process docs to the team members that are doing the work.
3. Validate the drafts. It’s easier to edit than to write.