Hi Everybody!
When it comes to building templates, do you find it best to write out your current practices or rather research ways to improve upon your foundation? What tools have you found to strengthen your operations? Thank you!
Best answer by Victoria Peters
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+15
Hi
Great question 🙂
We definitely haven’t found the best way yet! But I think it all comes down to.. time and urgency.
Options are (probably in order of least time intensive to most):
At the end of the day, I think 2 is the best middle ground.. 2 or 3 relies on a time investment (and who in the team will make that investment.. often the decision makers are the ones without enough time to make calls on the changes).
If adapting the process is urgent - decisionmakers will have to set aside the time to work on it!
+7
Once we have a starting template we are always looking for increased efficiency. I have a recurring work item setup for our practice where team members can add in feedback for our templates as they come across them. During our less busy times we review and determine what should be revised within a template.
There is no perfect, just progress. I start with where I am and go with that, revising as the need arises.
When we try to document a process, we started using loom to record a video BUT we also use the transcript and edit that into a list of steps - beats writing everything from scratch.
Thank you everybody! Such good feedback. I definitely agree with laying out your current procedures and then building from that. Much easier to see where you are and create better efficiency from there rather than starting from scratch. Thank you!! Also I
+7
Thank you,
+10
Loved all of this!
I would also add, test, test, test - especially automators. I have set up dodgey automation more than a couple of times!
We have a Test Contact that the team is free to use to test work items. When we have a winner, we will convert it to a template or update the template we were trying to tweak.
For new processes I like to work from a list in Word or Excel. Once I have the order of tasks sorted I copy and paste to Karbon, set up sections and add automators. I love the ‘split into tasks’ that Karbon offers. This is so useful when templates are being suggested by team members who are intimidated by the thought of building a template in Karbon, they simply send me the process in a doc.
I also try to meet with a cross sections of team members who will be using the work item once we have a draft. Unintended consequences, tasks that can be combined or reordered, missing steps often come up through these conversations. There is the added benefit of buy-in when the bigger team is consulted.
And finally, I like to add a detailed description to the tasks when building a template. This adds so much clarity to the task. As long as this is current it can save so much time as the work passes through team members, new people join or take on the work. We have included links and Loom videos in these descriptions where appropriate.
This is such valuable information!! Thank you so much,
+1
Loved all of this!
I would also add, test, test, test - especially automators. I have set up dodgey automation more than a couple of times!
We have a Test Contact that the team is free to use to test work items. When we have a winner, we will convert it to a template or update the template we were trying to tweak.
For new processes I like to work from a list in Word or Excel. Once I have the order of tasks sorted I copy and paste to Karbon, set up sections and add automators. I love the ‘split into tasks’ that Karbon offers. This is so useful when templates are being suggested by team members who are intimidated by the thought of building a template in Karbon, they simply send me the process in a doc.
I also try to meet with a cross sections of team members who will be using the work item once we have a draft. Unintended consequences, tasks that can be combined or reordered, missing steps often come up through these conversations. There is the added benefit of buy-in when the bigger team is consulted.
And finally, I like to add a detailed description to the tasks when building a template. This adds so much clarity to the task. As long as this is current it can save so much time as the work passes through team members, new people join or take on the work. We have included links and Loom videos in these descriptions where appropriate.
This is a great tip
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