Documentation

You have to stop putting out fires.

In your relationship, has your partner ever said or done something that made you feel angry or bad or sad?

...and then you didn't give them the feedback?

...so they just kept doing it?

...and speaking up became harder and harder?

...until at some point, it exploded?

Do you really think the fires in your business are any different?

Every fire starts out as a tiny candle flame you can just blow out.

So the fact that there's a big fire you need to extinguish just means someone didn't deal with the problem soon enough. That's why I sometimes call them "fake fires."

How to deal with the fake fires

Of course, if you're running this thing the biggest problems will always be yours to deal with.

But most of the time your team can deal with the small issues, immediately, if they know what to do.

“Your task is to optimize one system after another, not careen through the day randomly taking care of whatever problems erupt. Your job is not to be a fire killer. Your job is to prevent fires.”​ – Sam Carpenter, author of Work the System

Remember how I was saying that you know too much? One of my main principles in organizing the business is the following:

Everyone should be able to know everything.

Note that I didn't say "everyone should know everything." They should just know how to find it. That's what you get when you document well (I recommend Notion if you're looking for a tool).

This is really the Big Clue that unlocks the ability for your company to work async (I'll explain that on the next page).

So what should I document?

Three things:

• Information / Knowledge. Things like branding guidelines, brochures you send out, access details to software, testimonials of past customers.
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). How to do things that run the business. This is really the core of your documentation, and this should allow even inexperienced people to do what's necessary to keep the gears turning.
• How to deal with problems. This will be included in your SOPs but I think it's forgotten often enough that it deserves a separate spot. Exceptions cease being exceptions if you document how to deal with them.

The hard work will be that you will have to start documenting. It's going to be a ton of work at the beginning. But you'll feel so happy that it's out of your mind.

Then make your team use these procedures, and update them whenever they feel they can make an improvement.

This turns the business in to a system.

Because that's what it is.

And once you deal with it from this perspective, everything changes.

You've already gotten some hints at how to deal with everyone needing your attention all the time.

But there's more, and there's great tools that help you do that.