Benchmark Business Group

Documenting Changes Keeps Everyone On The Same Page

May 12, 2020

We’re hitting pause on our newsletter to bring you a tip each week as your business deals with COVID-19. Our goal is keeping your attention focused on what you can control.

The good news is these will be short. They will be practical. They will help you improve your business, not just in response to current events, but long term.

This Weeks Tip: If there’s one thing 2020 has highlighted it’s that change will happen if you’re ready for it or not. During this pandemic, you’ve probably heard quite a bit about the importance of embracing change; like how to be flexible and adapt to the situations at hand.

The need for change has come quickly and has been unexpected. Changes being made to adapt to a new way of working have been implemented on the fly and have become “the way we work now.” When processes (documented or not) change quickly it’s easy to forget exactly how, or even why, we’ve agreed to complete a task differently moving forward.

This week our challenge to business owners is simple. Clarification comes with documentation. The changes you’ve made to deal with the pandemic may be temporary and some of them are positive changes that may need to become permanent. As restrictions around the pandemic ease up and you begin engaging in pre-pandemic business activities, the question becomes “How are we doing it now?” Your team needs to be clear about what changes are being kept, and what changes are no longer needed. If there’s no clarification on what the process is NOW (as a result of pandemic) then your team may find themselves playing the same game with multiple sets of rules.

It’s easy to see how complications and frustrations can quickly multiply when you are focused on getting through a crisis. Stay ahead of this as changes continue to occur by documenting the processes. Clarify to ensure that everyone is playing the same game with the same rules.

Taking this small step as transitions continue will save you a lot of time and frustration.

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