A Good Recipe for Writing Procedures
| by Don Reed | ||||
I love teaching business training classes. I tend to get engaged, intelligent participants who are eager to learn, willing to share, and with a desire to improve their organization. Frequently, I get as much out of the experience as they do.
In a recent Well-Defined Processes class I had a particularly great group. As usual, I came up with a very simple process example to illustrate concepts about processes. In this case, I talked about baking a cake.
One participant really latched onto this concept, particularly in terms of writing procedures to document processes. “I am going to ask for cake recipes,” he said (in terms of developing procedures for his organization). It is a great point. Look at the back of cake mix box and see how effectively and efficiently it guides you through the process.
There is no unnecessary detail or descriptions of how to do things that you don’t need to be told how to do (like getting a mixer or turning it on). There is no needless long-winded description of the chemical reactions that take place between the ingredients while mixing, and no explanation of the physical transformation that takes place while the cake is baking. It has just a few simple steps with effective use of graphics that helps you properly execute the process.
Do you have too much information in your procedures? To make your procedures usable, focus on the things people need to be told in order to execute the process, and leave out pointless directions and unnecessary explanations.
Categories:
Business Training Seminars
Tags:
operational improvement • procedures • processes
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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title A Good Recipe for Writing Procedures. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com
4 Responses to “A Good Recipe for Writing Procedures”
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July 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hi
A lot of useful info – thanks.
A few questions/comments:
1] In the 3 or 4 tier ISO document hierarchy, processes are not shown. It will be useful if this was shown, ie that processes fit in between the “Quality Manual” and “Procedures”. So what is the message in leaving out processes in the pyramid? To maintain the 1994 hierarchy?
2] Do the six mandatory procedures also require processes?
3] If a certain process is trivial enough, is it acceptable to only document the procedure?
Thanks
Andre
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:27 pm
The 4-tier ISO document pyramid is just that, a “document” pyramid. A process is documented by one or more procedures so a process and a procedure are tow sides to the same coin. ISO does not require you to document all of your processes with procedures but, you do need to describe the sequence and interaction of your processes in your quality manual document. All of this talk of processes and documents highlights that these are all abstractions of what really goes on in your business. Control is what ISO is looking for, not documentation. Exhbit control by knowing your processes with “profound knowledge” and you will do just fine.
April 8th, 2010 at 2:34 am
do you guys think they will upgrade this product to a better one ?
April 8th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Alita, which product do you mean?