Anatomy of a Well-Crafted Procedure

If you want to delegate more work or outsource ( so you can focus on doing higher-level work that earns you more money), creating well-crafted written procedures is vital. Consider this document that you're looking at now the anatomy of a well-crafted procedure, a blueprint, if you will.

An effective written procedure is based on three keys described in this 2-minute video.

youtube.com/watch?v=gWjOCzmk1vQ


⚠️ Important CAVEAT

Before describing the steps of work to be done, you need to realize this👇 as well.

The Introduction should explain...

Every well-crafted written procedure begins with an introductory explanation, like this one. The purpose of this introduction is to provide an overview of the steps but —just as importantly— to motivate them more to do the work.

Why are we doing it this way?

The person to whom you are assigning this procedure will be more motivated to do the work if they understand the reasons behind the process.

It's easy to overlook this or underappreciate it. But it's not a small thing. It's vital.

In most cases, the reason can be brief. In a few cases, it can be left out altogether if the process is simple, mundane, and not likely to require much thought. But for any procedure that involves making assessments or making decisions, it's vital.

And that brings us to the types of steps that might be described. They fall into the following types of activity:
  • Gathering of resources or information
  • Evaluation of resources, information, or circumstances
  • Decisions about what next steps to take (e.g., more gathering of resources or addressing bottlenecks to progress)
  • Actions to complete the step
  • Marking the task as complete by finishing the last step (SweetProcess does this automatically)
  1. 1

    Gathering of resources or information

    Very often, the first step of a procedure involves gathering resources or information. Resources could include:
    • Files that are uploaded or linked to (e.g., Dropbox files, Google Drive, Microsoft docs)
    • Web-based information (linked to) 
    • Videos (linked to or embedded in a step)
    • Passwords & usernames to log in to web accounts
  2. 2

    Evaluating or Assessing

    In many procedures, there are moments when the person doing the task has to make some evaluation or decision. You need to be mindful of these moments, because they're usually important and deserve more attention than we tend to give them.

  3. 3

    Decisions are important too

    When the person doing the task needs to decide based on the evaluation or assessment, think this through carefully. This is another place where people get stuck, confused, and unmotivated.

    Confusion feels overwhelming👇

    What do I do now?

  4. 4

    Action steps should be simple

    The trick to explaining action steps is to keep them simple and modular. Don't try to put too many actions into one numbered action step. If you have more than 3 bullet points or numbered points, consider breaking the action step into more than one step.
  5. 5

    Test the procedure by delegating it

    The acid test for finding out how well you crafted a procedure is to give it to someone with much less familiarity than you and ask them to do the steps. Then see where they get confused or fail to act as you expected or hoped.
  6. 6

    The Systems Workshop

    If you are interested in learning more about how to create systems for your law practice and how to effectively document and refine SOPs, then check this out.