In school, or at some point in you life, have you ever had to write out instructions?
Not like "Feed the dog, food in hall closet" but like "How to sharpen a pencil"... well that's basically what writing a procedure is like.
You can't assume that someone knows how to pick up the pencil and carry it to the sharpener, insert it and turn the handle... you have to write out every single step of the entire process.
Today I finished my first draft of my first procedure written completely by myself.
My subject matter?
How to enter payroll for 150 Union employees.
Yep, for real.
Starting with collecting the schedules down to where to file the cards and everything in between.
Hopefully I didn't leave much out though I doubt it was 100% accurate.
Two of my boss types are going to literally follow the directions and get back to me with what needs to be changed or what is missing.
This was the hardest thing I've had to do in ages.
I know it doesn't sound that bad but having to stop and think about things like going to the start button on your computer to find Microsoft Excel and not just saying "Open Excel" is tough.
It's like anything else in life, you just do it. You know how and you continue on without even thinking about it. So stopping and thinking "What if I have never used Excel? What if I didn't know how to copy/paste?" then proceeding to walk through all of that, it's frankly exhausting.
Since I started at this job I have edited procedures and reformatted procedures but this was my first one being built from the ground up.
I can't explain to you how happy I am that I have it finished or well, at least mostly finished.
(Sigh)
It did make me think about parenting quite a bit.
I mean, when I'm trying to explain something to Rupert and I have to reiterate it a hundred times and am wondering what he doesn't understand... well it's a lot like this.
All of a sudden a light bulb goes off and I'm like "Ah ha!" and we start with the basic basics.
It's amazing what children learn and how quickly they retain the information, they're sponges!
If only you could assume that about adults as well, especially when writing a procedure :)
Just for fun:
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