Every organization lives with the risk of someone being “hit by a bus.”
What happens if your development director, programs manager, or events coordinator suddenly disappears? For most orgs, the answer is chaos.
That’s because critical processes live in someone’s head, not in a shared place. There isn’t a playbook, a checklist, or documentation in sight.
A lack of process documentation isn’t just a risk for the worst-case scenarios, but also for common ones: someone quits, goes on leave, or changes roles. In those moments, you can be stuck scrambling to piece together how things worked, falling behind for months.
People leaving the organization is inevitable. It’s sad when they’re someone who does so much, but it doesn’t have to be devastating if you document the process.
Some tips for process documentation:
- Start with the recurring tasks: Anything that happens monthly, quarterly, or annually – think reports, events, renewals, or donor touchpoints efforts – is worth documenting.
- Use a format that fits: Paragraphs of text about how something is done is rarely the best approach. Whether it’s a checklist, timeline, screen recording, flowchart, or simple bullets, make the format fit the process.
- Record the who, what, and when: Ownership and timelines around each step are just as important as the step itself. Who do you work with to do that thing? When does it happen? Capture those details.
- Perfection isn’t the goal: When you start documenting, don’t focus on making it perfect – it can be messy and a little incomplete. Get a draft, then refine it over time.
- Store it somewhere central: For most process-related info, my org uses Confluence as a “wiki,” but any platform works as long as everyone has access and knows where to find it.
- Update regularly: Processes change from time to time. Set a reminder to take a look at your process documentation and update them as needed.
