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    Clarity Out of Complexity
    Clarity Out of Complexity
    Clarity Out of Complexity
    Ebook138 pages2 hours

    Clarity Out of Complexity

    By Rosemary O'Donoghue

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    About this ebook

    Transform a complex, chaotic workplace into order with easy-to-follow work instructions. Clarity out of Complexity shows you how to create concise Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that people will actually use. It guides you through providing useful information, writing in straightforward language, and presenting in a structured layout that is easy to read. You are provided with a starting template that guides you to include the information needed. With procedures like these you can streamline your business processes, consistently train your people, and always provide top quality product and services.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRosemary O'Donoghue
    Release dateJun 3, 2017
    ISBN9781370700653
    Clarity Out of Complexity
    Author

    Rosemary O'Donoghue

    Rosemary O'Donoghue writes for work and for fun. A Technical Writer with a science background, she has published travel books and a business book, Clarity out of Complexity: Writing Effective Workplace Procedures, to share some of the wisdom she has learned from many years of writing for a wide range of industries. She gets excited about how good procedures (as opposed to longwinded, boring, repetitive procedures) can dramatically lift the performance of a business.In between (and often during) jobs, Rosemary enjoys travelling and writes daily to capture her experiences and entertain friends, family and random people she meets. In recent years she has discovered a passion for sailing and spends months at a times on a boat coastal cruising along the NSW and Queensland coast of Australia. She has written about her experiences along the way in her book North on Rocinante and will soon publish Second Season, also about her sailing experiences. She has published travel stories about Italy, Greece, Malta, Hong Kong & China.Rosemary is currently combining her technical writing and training expertise and her passion for sailing creating a self-discovery learning guide about coastal cruising.When she's not on the water, Rosemary lives with her partner, her cat and her pet python in Sydney, Australia.

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      Book preview

      Clarity Out of Complexity - Rosemary O'Donoghue

      1

      Introduction

      About the Book

      People don’t often get excited about procedures. And based on the way they’ve been written in the past, it’s no wonder. One of the big problems has been that procedures simply weren’t easy to follow.

      In the past, organisations have invested vast amounts of money getting people to create cumbersome, ineffective procedures simply to comply with regulatory requirements. Often those who create them are qualified people in highly paid positions. In many cases, without business procedures written and provided as proof during audits, the businesses would not have been allowed to operate.

      These procedures are passed into operations and people are meant to follow them. But because they’ve been written following old-style templates and protocols, using formal language and corporate-speak, often with little consultation with the people who are meant to follow them, they make absolutely no sense to operations people. If employees are diligent and thorough, they may read them several times, to try to decipher them, wasting more time. If they are impatient, get-things-done types, they will skim through, say I’ve read ‘em, sign off, and work out how to do the task themselves.

      Because procedures can be hard to follow, it’s often easier for people to work out their own ways of doing things. Because it’s a trial and error approach they inevitably make mistakes. Also, everyone does the job slightly differently, adding their own flavour, so the product or service varies in quality. The mistakes, and the variations in quality, cost the company time and money.

      With a rethink about how to write procedures you can make the effort pay off. You can write procedures that make a huge contribution to the success of the company.

      For some, it may seem radical to throw out the old ways. But we’re in a new technological age and the way we work, and especially the way we communicate, has changed. While in this book we focus on paper-based procedures, the concepts can be adapted and used with tablets and other mobile devices. The concepts apply to new technology, even if the medium of communication changes.

      Prerequisites

      This book is pitched at someone who has:

      Basic computer skills, especially using MS Word. You don’t have to be a power user, as I’ll cover a few tips

      Reasonable writing skills. Once again, you don’t need a degree in literature. I’ll be passing on quite a few tips on writing clearly and concisely

      Basic digital camera skills

      Confidence in talking to people, developing rapport, asking questions and listening carefully to answers

      A logical approach and attention to detail

      You don’t need to already be an expert in any of these, but you will learn to write procedures that make a tremendous contribution to the success of the business if you follow this book diligently.

      There are activities throughout the book to demonstrate the points and help you learn. I suggest you get yourself a notebook and do them as you go.

      What We’re Going to Cover

      There are a number of things that make procedures effective: a combination of useful information, layout, language, and how the procedures are implemented. We’re going to cover all of these in a way that allows you to build on each concept and practice as you go.

      First we’re going to look at what makes an effective procedure. I’ll describe what I mean by a procedure, how procedures are used, the benefits you can get from good procedures and what makes a procedure easy to follow.

      Then we’ll look at the elements of good procedures, one at a time. Chapter 2 covers making sure the information in your procedure is useful and appropriate. Chapter 3 deals with getting the words right, and Chapter 4 talks about getting the layout right. As we look at each of these, you’ll need to do practical exercises and look at how each of the concepts are applied, or not, to your current procedures. The aim is to help you self-discover what has gone wrong with previous procedures. (This is assuming your procedures and systems aren’t already perfect. I’m guessing that you wouldn’t be bothering with this book if they were.)

      The next step in your learning is using a template that helps you set out the information logically. I suggest you simply use the template available on my website for now and adjust it later to suit your company needs. To get used to the template and make sure you have the MS Word skills that you’ll need, you can create your first procedure using information from a procedure your organisation has developed previously, or an area that you have expertise in yourself. Chapter 5: Putting it into Practice talks you through adding your information to the template.

      After that, in Chapter 6, I’m going to give you some tips on gathering information. You’ll need to apply the information-gathering tips practically, by going to the coal-face and watching an expert perform the task, as you take photos.

      Chapter 7  covers risk management – something that is a top priority for most organisations. How much safety information should you put in your procedures? I’ll help you decide.

      You will then create a procedure from the information and photos you have gathered. This marks the conclusion of the procedure-writing process.

      However, you’re not finished yet!

      You still need to make sure your procedures are workable. Chapter 8 gives guidelines for ensuring they are accurate, safe and fit for purpose.

      In Chapter 9 we zoom out to look at the big picture, to see where procedures fit in managing company information as a whole. Managers often find this useful, because it gives context and helps them see how all the pieces fit together, as documentation can sometimes be overwhelming.

      Chapter 10 provides some guidelines on document management as procedures are not going to improve your business if people can’t locate the latest version of the one they need to follow.

      In some ways Chapter 11 should be the first chapter as it explores how to work out what procedures you need. However, you really need to understand how to write procedures before you can make sound judgements on how to structure them.

      Because you will want your procedures to have your company look and style, in Chapter 12 I cover how to customise the template and what you should and shouldn’t change.

      Chapter 13 talks briefly about getting people to use your procedures. It’s the final step in improving your organisation using effective procedures.

      To go with the book, you can download a free template from Techwriting.net.au.

      2

      Effective Procedures

      You’ve Got to Leave Your Office

      One thing I want to say up front, is that you’ve got to leave your office to write good procedures. You’re going to need to get down on the floor (the factory floor, I mean, not your hands and knees), get your hands dirty, look at where the procedure is performed, put up with the noise and dust and heat or cold, and talk to the people who are doing the core work of the business. No matter how glamorous your office, or no matter how well you know the process in principle yourself, you are going to have to watch real people performing the task, take photos of actions, and collect information from the real world. You can’t just read a book about it, or attend a training session in a classroom, convert old procedures to the new layout or even ask workers to come to your office and tell you all about it. Keep this in mind, and be prepared to get out there amongst it.

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