The Procedure Paradigm
Whenever I’ve gone to a new company, there’s always a learning curve to just get the hang of the basics. I asked if there were procedures for such a task. Nothing but perplexed looks. The more I asked, the more I realized that everyone had their own way of doing things. Their methods were all based on tribal knowledge and the reasons were lost in the past. In this post, we'll explore the importance of formally documenting important processes.
The likelihood of someone using a tool is heavily dependent on how that someone views value in that tool. I often see an identity crisis in a facility's procedures: SOPs, Guidelines, Work Instructions, Job Aides, Checklists, One Point Lessons, Procedures, Task Sheets, and the list goes on. All of these have instructions for how a task should be performed, yet they each carry a different brand - different formats, different processes for maintaining them, different sign off requirements, and different repositories. Workers have formed their own opinions for which of them are valuable or necessary - in some cases, none are!
Our whitepaper on Document Hierarchy - Planning for More Usable Procedures provides a functional roadmap from which any regulated, risk averse industry organization can build their plan for organizing documents.
