06/17/2026
Most process documentation fails before anyone writes a single word.
Not because the team doesn't know the work. Because nobody stopped to ask what actually matters before they started documenting.
Here's the exercise that changes that.
Get two to four people who do the work well in a room. Give them sticky notes. Before anyone writes anything, define two things: what triggers this process and what done looks like.
Then have everyone write down the major steps independently. No discussion yet. Just get it out of their heads and onto paper.
Put everything on the wall. Look for patterns. Combine what overlaps. Cut what doesn't.
What you'll find surprises most teams. Your best people are doing things differently without realizing it. The disagreements that surface in that room have been quietly costing you consistency for years. The sticky note exercise doesn't just document your process. It creates alignment that didn't exist before.
And alignment at the process level is what makes accountability possible. You can't hold someone to a standard that was never agreed upon.
Five to eight steps. One to five pages. Simple enough for anyone to scan in 90 seconds.
That's your Core Process.
What's the one process in your business that lives entirely in one or two people's heads?
