20 WAYS TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE – Documented Procedures

The last productivity tip highlighted that promotion your best performer in a team to manager can often be a mistake if they’re not management material.  The opposite problem occurs when a manager is brought in from the outside and doesn’t understand the business or take time to get to know the people and work they’re now responsible for. Some Managers are too proud to let anyone think they don’t know what’s going on, which leads to the inevitable drop in productivity.

This type of manager can be spotted a mile off.  They’ll be the person bringing a direct report (the “right hand man” or “administrator”) to all the meetings with them, never has the information when asked for it, and will always have to go and check before bringing answers to the table. It means they’re not doing their job properly.  This is normally a short-term problem if clear procedures manuals are provided, robust management systems are in place (coming up in point 9), and the Manager is given a proper handover and induction period.

Providing documented procedures of the work, systems and processes is one way of bringing new starters up to speed in a short space of time, and prevents knowledge leaking out of the business with each leaver.  Procedures and manuals can be quite daunting to put together initially, but once set up it’s a simple matter of updating them as changes are made and communicating changes to all involved.