For a long time, I was really dismissive of the idea that a psychology undergraduate degree has any value.

From my perspective, you couldn’t really do anything with it – you’d still need graduate school or medical school to provide therapy.

And any job you would actually be hired for? 

They’d take any degree.  Anytime someone asked me for advice on becoming a therapist, I would tell them to do a “useful” major and then go to grad school.

At least, until recently when I was speaking to a new acquaintance.

See, there’s one really important skill I learned in a Humanities/Liberal Arts major that I didn’t even realize was a skill until I started writing my book and until I had some people ask me how to capture their processes or train people.

Can you tell what it is? 

I (and almost anyone else in this major) can just think through how to organize my writing and just write a lot without much issue.  Especially if it’s something we know a lot about.

Now, this doesn’t mean my first draft is immediate gold or that I’m a perfect writer.  I still need to do edits, revisions, and add stuff in.

What this does mean is that it doesn’t seem to take me as much effort to write down a whole bunch of information in my head in a fairly organized way.

So, when people are concerned or lost about how to write down a process, it used to baffle me – It’s pretty straightforward, just write it down!  Of course, I wouldn’t say that out loud to them, but knowing now that not everyone has that same reference point, it makes much more sense to me. 

Why is it so hard to capture head knowledge?

As I’m conducting research for my book, I’ve found that leaders struggle with two things around capturing the processes that live only in their head:

1.     They don’t innately know how to organize it all

2.     Even if they did, they don’t always have time to sit down and write it all out

When you’re running at 50 miles an hour and trying to keep your head above water, it can seem like a jumble of information in your head.  And sitting down to just reflect and brainstorm can seem like a luxury.

So in this week’s issue, I’ll share 5 ways to capture and write down your processes in a way that might only take you 15 minutes at a time, or even less if you just do it while you’re working.

Strategy #1: The “Voodoo Operations” List Brain Dump

In every organization, there are a ton of unwritten rules, quirks, processes, and workarounds that aren’t documented anywhere (i.e., you keep a running tally of all the historical volunteer matches in your head).  Create a running list of all the specific workarounds and system quirks that a new person would struggle with.  Here are some idea joggers that will help if you finish these sentences:

• People always forget…
• The weird thing about this system is…
• The system doesn’t tell you…
• We have to manually…

Strategy #2: The “Seasonal” Brain dump

One CFO I worked with brought a very valid concern about her tasks: some of her tasks don’t happen all the time.  

Some happen weekly; others happen monthly.  Yet others happen every six months or they might happen quarterly or maybe just randomly.  If you find yourself struggling with how often things happen, do a brain dump of all the tasks you typically execute/run/are responsible for and categorize them into:

• What are things that have to be done weekly?  Monthly? Quarterly? Annually? 
• What are the things that just may randomly come up?

Strategy #3: The Brute Force method of documenting processes

The most basic way to document a process is to literally write out all the steps.   If that seems daunting, it’s because it truly is a very manual and slow way to do it.  

Good news is that you may not need to write it down the long way anymore.  There are lots of tools nowadays that help you do it – you can do screenshots, you can use a transcription tool where you just talk into computer and writes it all out for you, you can also record your screen as you’re doing a task so you don’t even have to go out of your way to do it, just start recording your regular work. All of that is perfectly fine to use and a lot of it is free.  The how doesn’t matter here, just document everything possible.

Strategy #4: The “Real Life” walkthrough

Instead of writing the “official process”, you can also record yourself doing the task in real time to show how it’s supposed to be actually done.  This is even easier than setting aside other time, you’re already doing the task, just document as you’re doing it.  

Example: An individual donor sends in a $5,000 check gift.  Document every single step of what you do with it – How did the physical check arrive?  Where is it logged? Who deposits it? How do they deposit it? Who creates the tax acknowledgement form? Who sends it?  How is it coded in your books? Etc. etc.  

You can take 20 minutes abstractly to document all this, or take an extra 5 minutes while you’re physically doing it to record yourself.  

Strategy #5: The “Email Treasure Hunt”

If you’re at a loss of what to document or capture, I have good news – there’s a good chance you already wrote it down somewhere without realizing – your email.  Take 15 minutes and search through your email history/archive and you’ll probably find years of emails containing critical instructions, questions, decisions, and processes already preserved.  You can copy and paste those emails into a document and just spend time organizing the details and have an instant process built on years of actually doing the work.

A few more things you should consider

Here are some additional things you should consider when capturing processes that used to live in your head:

1. Document the exceptions for each process – what are common errors that come up?  What should people do or who should they contact if something isn’t working the way they expect?  Make sure people know what common errors that may come up.

2. Document the WHY – Because you live and breathe the work, you’ll often assume that everyone else can understand why something is happening.  They don’t.  When capturing the steps of how to do something, include any additional information that’s needed at certain decision points or any criteria that may exist to move to the next step.

3. Plan for where these documents will live – Decide where these documents will live and how everyone can access it.  Ensure that it’s common knowledge how someone stepping in can take up the work.

4. Identify who will take over certain processes – If you have leaders or staff underneath you, start identifying who can take over certain processes (or all of them if there’s only 1 choice).  Make sure they’re aware of where the documentation lives, how to access it, and spend time watching them do it so if they can’t, you can help now while you’re still able.  Have no staff or volunteers you can hand off to?  Consider your Board chair or someone else on your Board to be the designated substitute.

Here are some tools that would be good for capturing knowledge

Video Capture Tool (free options)

• OBS Studio is a free and open source software you download onto your computer and you can use to record your screen and talk through a process. 
• NeetoRecord is similar to Loom, it lives online so anyone can access it anytime (so long as they have your link).  The best news?  It’s free forever.

Video Capture Tool (paid options)

• Loom is widely used and there is a free option, but to get more security, you’ll have to pay up.

Screen Recorder Tool

• Scribe is a tool I’ve loved using in the past.  You walk through a process and it automatically does screen captures of the steps you take and writes out in words what to do.  There’s a free option that’s pretty powerful, but you’ll have to weigh that against security concerns unless you pay for a subscription.

Voice Recorder/Transcription Tools

• Wispr Flow is a great tool to transcribe your voice.  I haven’t used it personally, but I’ve heard great things.
• Lispr for Windows is a great transcription tool that lives on your desktop.  It doesn’t record anything (so they say, but who really knows?), but I use it all the time to either dictate emails or when I’m writing long form content.  Just using it for dictation?  Totally Free
• Granola is a personal favorite, mainly because its transcribing feature is so accurate.  I don’t use it to record virtual meetings, only live interviews for my book and thoughts for my book when I’m on the go.  There is a free plan, but it only keeps meeting notes/transcriptions for 30 days.  That’s more than enough for me since I’m just using it as a fancy recorder, but that may be a consideration for you.

It may seem daunting at first, but the more you can focus on this now, the easier everything is later.

And truth be told, it may be a good opportunity for you to start delegating things off your plate so you don’t have to feel like you’re holding everything together alone.  

Don’t know where to start, just pick 1 and try it out.  I bet you’ll get further than you realize.

Got another strategy that works in capturing processes?  Email me and let me know!

PS – if you’re looking for professional development for your leaders on a budget – my imPACT Leadership Academy was designed for sustainable, effective development on a budget.  Learn more on my site here: https://www.myleadershippotential.com/impact