One task written out step by step, with who does what, the tools, and how to tell each step is done.
A procedure that lives in one person's head works until that person is off sick. Written down well, it lets someone in their second week do the job the way your most careful person does it. Open the nightly close at a made-up bakery to see the parts worth copying. The steps of your own task have to come from whoever does it now.
Who it's for
A manager, owner or team lead writing for the people who carry out one task: closing a shop, receiving a pallet, running payroll, sending the weekly newsletter. Send it when someone new starts, and again when the task changes.
It's a poor fit for work that needs judgment at every turn, such as handling a complaint.
What a good one contains
- A version, a review date and an owner. Version 3.2, reviewed on Monday, November 9, owned by the shop manager. Without those three, nobody can tell whether the copy on their phone is current.
- What changed. Two lines up top: the register drawer now stays open overnight, and the fridge check moved ahead of mopping.
- One task with a start and an end. The sample runs from 5:00, doors still open, to both people out by 7:00. Opening the shop is a separate procedure.
- The tools, ahead of step one. Nine of them. Nobody should learn halfway through that the safe key went home in a coat pocket.
- Numbered steps with one doer each. Closer, shift lead, or both. A step that belongs to "staff" gets done twice or not at all.
- A check for every step. "Clean the slicer" is an instruction. "The crumb tray is empty" is something a person can see.
- What to do when it goes wrong. Six cases, from a warm fridge to an alarm that won't set, each with an action and a person to tell.
- Where the record lives. A page can't collect initials. The sample points to a paper log and says what a finished night looks like on it.
Write it where the work happens
Draft it standing in the room, or have the person who does the task best talk you through it while you type. Then hand it to someone who has never done it, and watch. Every question they ask is a line you left out.
Keep it short enough to follow with wet hands. When a step keeps being missed, sharpen its check before you add words.
When the task changes, change it in the conversation where you made the page, then replace the page and raise the version number. The link on everyone's phone stays the same, so nobody closes from last month's steps.
How to send it
To named people. It says where the cash goes and when the alarm is set. Only the people who do the closing should be able to open it.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
