In the world of organizations, there are many folks who find business documentation about as exciting as watching paint dry. They might yawn and say, "It's kind of boring. Writing it is like a never-ending story that never seems to stop. Finding it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Reading it is like deciphering an ancient language that is unstructured and not understandable.”

For this reason, lots of organizations treat documentation like it's a one-time magic trick. And when do they want to see this magic trick? The moment it’s useful!

This leads to one-off peaks in documentation effort. Need to onboard a new team? Let’s create a lot of documentation. Need to build training materials for new software? Let’s spend a lot of time creating and updating training documents. And so forth. And so forth.

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“Most organizations only bother with writing and creating documentation when they need the immediate benefit from it, occasions like when they welcome a new teammate or when a team member leaves and their knowledge disappears in thin air.”

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🔮The problem with this old way of thinking 🔮

But, here’s the catch - when the trigger moment and reason for using the documentation is over, most documents are forgotten. They are never looked at again. And when this happens, documents, like fine cheese, can get a bit moldy with time. Things change, so documents need a fresh coat of paint now and then.

When organizations neglect documentation in times of lesser benefit, they find themselves on an annual quest, like the periodical search for a lost treasure. Here’s what happens then:

• They forget what documentation exists.
• They can’t find documentation anymore.
• They can’t guarantee if documentation is still up to date.

So, they spend loads of extra time rewriting and checking things. But, guess what? They could save time by simply keeping their documents fresh.

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🌌🪄 Seeing Documentation Differently 🪄🌌

Picture this: instead of treating documentation like a forgotten relic in a dusty attic, what if we see it as an evergreen garden, always blooming? Imagine everyone in the organization playing a part in taking care of this enchanted garden. This change will not only save time, but it also ensures that documents are ready to lend a helping hand when needed. It's like having a magical library where study books are always of the latest edition.

Here are the benefits of changing your organizational mindset about documentation, when you start seeing it as a continuous system that can be integrated in your organization:

• You save time creating documentation.
• You know your documentation is up to date.
• More awareness and use of documentation

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🧙 Watch Out for This Pitfall 🧙

Now, hold onto your wizard hats because here's where things can get a little tricky. Some big organizations go a tad overboard with documentation. They end up with so many documents that it feels like a never-ending story. This results in many documents that are unnecessary, but that others still expect you to update.

To avoid this pitfall, remember, there's a balance in everything. If a document brings more benefits than it takes to create and maintain, then it's worth keeping. If there is however no benefit received from a document, just archive them.

“With documentation, less is more. Too many documents are almost impossible to keep up to date, especially if you need to update all of them within a short period for that next onboarding moment of a new colleague.”

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🧙 Watch Out for This Pitfall 🧙

Now, hold onto your wizard hats because here's where things can get a little tricky. Some big organizations go a tad overboard with documentation. They end up with so many documents that it feels like a never-ending story. This results in many documents that are unnecessary, but that others still expect you to update.

To avoid this pitfall, remember, there's a balance in everything. If a document brings more benefits than it takes to create and maintain, then it's worth keeping. If there is however no benefit received from a document, just archive them.

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