Those of you who have worked for me know that I am a stickler for documenting. Things like goals, agreements, commitments, action items, accountabilities, next steps, due dates ALL need to be in writing.
Every relationship involves a contract, explicit or implied, between all parties. Each party agrees to do something and receive something in return. This applies to everything from a marriage, friendship, partnership, business deal or buyer-seller relationship.
Companies continue to streamline, downsize, right size, re-engineer, re-structure to increase profits and keep up with the relentless demands of investors and other stakeholders. With businesses becoming leaner and leaner, fewer people are required to do more things and do them faster.
Given this environment, documenting key directives, agreements, conversations, commitments, plans, corrective action, due dates is essential. Otherwise, it’s “hearsay” as they say in legal circles. While good people generally have good intentions, they occasionally drop the ball due to the sheer number of balls they have in the air at one time.
A lot of good things happen when you put pen (or, keyboard) to paper (or, screen):
Random thoughts and ideas floating around in your brain become organized and crystallized.
- Writing things down fosters a sense of achievement and progress.
- Your mind is cleared of excess clutter, freeing up space for new ideas…You can think big and aim high!
- Not having to remember every little thing makes you calmer and more relaxed, reducing stress.
- Converting thoughts to words enables you to communicate your ideas to others clearly, in a commonly understood language.
- Your managers and employees tend to remember to do the things they committed to.
- Your ideas are memorialized for all time (Note: we are still reading and learning from men and women who documented their thoughts 4,000 years ago!)
So, when in doubt, put it in writing…I guarantee you will be glad you did!