Our world is a whole of documents, flooded with them. Analysts compete with each other with grim statistics about the information explosion.
And yet, despite this, most of us write documents the same way we did a hundred years ago. No, don't raise an eyebrow. I don't mean on the technical level. Technically, we've already stopped working with typewriters and print orders, and computing is leading us forward. Indeed.
This article will describe methodological tools for improving our documents and moving them into the twenty-first century. It won't discuss the advanced technology required for this but instead will rely on the tools and capabilities each of us has on our computers in the Office environment. This article will provide tools for any organization to write documents that are easier to write, read, and understand. The central guiding principle is a better internal organization of the document, making it easier for both the writer and the reader.
This article implements its proposed method, which may help readers understand its importance. However, remember that the technique's power lies in its simplicity.
Understanding the Needs
We love new things—rustling fashions, shiny technologies, changing clothing trends, and more. Too quickly in life, we rush to adopt new things. However, new technology is not a reason to use it. Not all that glitters is gold. Therefore, before proposing a new writing method, we must first explain what's not good enough in the current situation and what justifies reading this article and implementing it in the organization.
Quite a few problems currently make documents challenging for us:
People find it challenging to write a new document. It's easy for all of us to read a colleague's document and comment with many ideas, but faced with a blank page, it's as if all our ideas have disappeared and flown out the window. We look at the page, somewhat embarrassed, struggling with the first words and lines. Usually, after that, everything flows. We want to help the document writer and make the writing a bit easier, and for us as an organization, reduce the writing time. This is because the barrier of the first few lines causes many people to postpone the entire task as much as possible to avoid dealing with the somewhat foolish sitting in front of the page.
It's not easy for people approaching a document to know if they've found a document that will be helpful to them. Today, we are exposed to many documents in the technological era of advanced search engines. Usually, we browse through several documents until we decide what can be helpful to us. When we come across a document, performing the proper filtering is difficult. I remember a case about six years ago when equipment failed at a large organization's factory in Petah Tikva. They brought an expert from Germany to help solve it. After a brief diagnosis, the expert told them: The problem is such and such, but why did you bring me? The same failure occurred five months ago at the Rehovot factory, and we solved it. No doubt the incident was embarrassing. Undoubtedly, it was even more uncomfortable than it sounds since the engineers had found the document describing the problem and its solution in Rehovot. Still, because they were pressed for time, they didn't read the document thoroughly, didn't get to the relevant page, and therefore didn't understand it was the same failure, so they moved on. We want to understand what the document is about quickly.
We've found the correct document. It's not easy to read lengthy documents, certainly not in repeated readings. Some documents only need to be read once, but there are also documentary materials that we would want employees to review again in the relevant section when required. This applies to procedures, circulars, work specifications, and more. Think about how often an employee improvised or worked from memory instead of reading the instructions because the document was long. Who has the time or patience to read everything? We want the employee to complete continuous, focused reading in the same document.
The bottom line is that there is a genuine business need for a method for improving the writing and reading of our documents.
What Can We Learn from Other Digital Channels?
In many areas, we look to the internet, and not without reason. The internet has advanced our computer usage, shopping, and discourse habits. We're even changing our mate-seeking habits thanks to the internet; indeed, more and more young people are turning to social networks in search of life partners. The internet changes life perspectives. When designing an advanced solution for document writing, there is something to learn from the internet. Internet content is usually written in a shorter sequence. Think about any news website as an example. On the front page, we see a main story, two economic headlines, two current affairs headlines, one culture headline, etc. Clicking on the headline directs us to read the full article, and even there, often, there is a link to expanded coverage in additional articles. In other words, the information is presented to us gradually; we can dive in, surface, and not necessarily read continuously.
Print journalism is an entirely different content channel from which we can also learn. Browse through any weekend newspaper and see how articles are written to reflect this principle of graduated reading. Once, we had a main headline and an article. Today, alongside the main headline, there are also subheadings, and on the sides of the page, there are segments containing representative information from the article. How do we read? We see the main headline and ask ourselves if there is potential for an interesting article here. If so, we glance at the subheadings (usually prominent in their color and size). Suppose we've concluded that it's worth our while, among the mountain of weekend newspapers, to continue reading. In that case, the next stage is to look at the segments on the side to get another impression of the content and writing style, and only then will most of us turn to the whole reading.
In other words, even without computerized means, even without hyperlinks, it's possible to create graduated documents.
The Concept Map
The central principle we wish to instill in new documents is the principle of internal document organization. Paying attention to the first page of the document, which we'll call the 'concept map,' where we'll include information that will help the reader understand where they've arrived, what they should find in the document, and, subsequently, a visual map. Let's examine the components individually: A short introduction or preface helps the reader decide whether the document is relevant and exciting. If it's an engineering specification, the component will be described initially instead of an introduction, including its relationship to a larger group of assemblies or devices. And so on, according to the characteristics of each type of document. It seems simple and not unique. However, this is more complex. The challenge of the concept map is that it includes both the opening, aimed at helping the reader decide if they've reached the right place, and the visual map describing the document's contents in a pictorial and illustrative way. Sometimes, we'll add links to appendices or external information sources to the map. And where's the difficulty? The difficulty lies in the fact that we're forcing the writer to formulate the concept map containing all these components together on one page! Why? Because we want the reader to understand very quickly where they've arrived. Winston Churchill once opened one of his letters by saying he was in such a hurry today that he didn't have time to be brief, so he was being lengthy. Indeed, it's easier for us to write long than short. The reader will rightfully ask, where's the fulfillment of the promise? Wasn't there a promise in developing the article that we're making it easier for both the reader and writer? It needs to be revised. Nevertheless, I insist that we are also making it easier for the writer: a. It's an acquired skill. Even if it's difficult for people to express themselves briefly at first, they quickly get used to it, and the very act of concise writing sharpens the thinking process and helps them in the writing process, so they end up benefiting. b. In organizations that decide to initiate such a process, they identify groups of documents with two main characteristics: long documents and documents with a fixed structure. Let me explain. There's no point in creating a concept map of one page for a document that's only two pages long. These documents will also improve if writers have concise writing skills, but we won't build a concept map and segments there, as will be described later. By documents with a fixed structure, we mean those with shared logic: procedures, guidelines, product specifications, user manuals, concept papers, and more. Each such family has characteristics of shared components. Therefore, the visual maps will contain similar components (perhaps with different flows between them or, each time, a distinct subgroup of components). Thus, the writer isn't starting from scratch; therefore, it's not as difficult as it might seem to someone reading about the method for the first time in this article. Moreover, they get used to seeing such documents in the organization, just as they got used to links on the internet, and they become more natural to them. The concept map, including the visual map, serves the reader as a tool for graduated reading. They allow the reader to see everything at a high level (like in journalistic writing or on the internet); from there, they can jump to a specific, focused place. When the employee reads the document on the computer, the visual map can also include particular links that will jump them to the focused place they wish to read. However, this isn't necessary. The map creates focus, and the visualization helps understand the overall view of the entire document.
Knowledge Segments
If the concept map seemed somewhat complex to plan, or at least initially, few would think so about the rest of the following. These are composed section by section. We call each such section a knowledge segment. The knowledge segment is that component that forms part of the visual map, which we mentioned in the map description above. The knowledge segment is, unsurprisingly, up to one page; no more. This is how we ensure that the writing will indeed be concise. This is also how we ensure that the returning reader will find it easy to focus on their relevant question, and they won't need to read beyond the scope of the question.
The segments can be marked with a color or symbol that reminds the reader of the visual map, but this is just a recommendation.
Concise Writing
Early expectations alignment. We don't think every document writer in the organization will become an eloquent journalist. Nevertheless, several simple rules can help in acquiring improved writing habits:
The one-page limitation. When there's no choice - one learns to write concisely.
Writing in positive language, in simple terms. Sophisticated language might be suitable for prestigious magazines. Still, in organizational life, simple writing has an advantage, where each word has only one interpretation, and it's clear to every reader what we meant to say.
Experienced content editors are familiar with a vast collection of rules, but we suggest an approach that should suit every employee in the organization. Therefore, we focus only on the most significant rules for concise writing. If these become habitual, that's enough.
Supporting Infrastructure - Document Organization
A document's internal organization is a significant step towards moving documents into the 21st century. But along with implementing this step, we should note that it's a complementary step and doesn't replace what we've been doing until now:
Give the document a meaningful (external) name so people can open it in the proper context.
Accompany the document with external characteristics that will make searching more accessible, or store it in a library that enables quick and easy retrieval.
Organize all documents related to the same topic in one shared environment to ensure a single copy and version for each document.
We won't provide details on how to perform such processes here. Most organizations are already familiar with them and try to implement them, some with more success and some with less. We need to understand that the document's internal organization helps those who have already reached it; the external organization helps at an earlier stage—understanding which document is worthy of our reach in the first place.
Illustrative Example - Organizational Procedures
There's no obligation to make revolutions in organizations. Often, gradual change might take longer but is more likely to be absorbed and implemented. The same applies to intelligent document writing. Several organizations have begun implementing the method for their organizational procedures. One of the problems we encounter in many organizations is that there are written and detailed procedures. Still, time after time, we discover that despite the considerable investment in them, they're barely used. This can be found by reviewing quality audit results or reading incident investigations. The shock hits us each time anew. There was a procedure published, but that's where it ends: there's hardly any implementation. The persistent ones try to train and implement again and again. Others try to enforce and punish severely. But the root of the problem lies elsewhere: in how we write procedures. We're used to writing lengthy procedures with many introductions, terms, methods, and version records, and by the time the employee reaches the main point, they're tired. Some diligent employees will still read the procedure in full despite how we wrote it the first time. But there's very little chance that when an employee encounters an actual issue, they'll turn to the procedure and examine a specific, focused aspect recorded within it. According to the method proposed below, the proper internal organization of the procedure document can and does improve (in organizations where implementation has begun) the readability of the procedure by orders of magnitude. It reduces procedure writing time since the employee writes the procedure map according to unified defined rules and must fill something more similar to a form (defined fields) rather than an accessible document.
The segments are bounded, and there, too, the writing is more accessible. For the reader, life is undoubtedly much more straightforward. They get an overview of the procedure from the map, mainly thanks to the visual map. They can read the entire procedure, with breaks between knowledge segments, which also serve as pauses for digestion and understanding. They can read internet-style - diving in and surfacing. When in doubt, they can read only the relevant section, which they quickly reach with the help of the visual map. It's too early to testify, on a statistical level, how much incidents have decreased due to changing the procedures system since the first organizational projects are ongoing, but it's a positive revolution. People see a successful procedure written and stand in line to add their unit and advance the improved writing for themselves. We won't discuss the order by which procedures are chosen (hint: the gap between existing procedures and field implementation) nor the preparatory infrastructure work for such a comprehensive organizational process. We'll just say that people love success and want to join. It seems we're overcoming, through implementing the method, a significant obstacle that, until now, we've only treated the symptoms of (training and implementation) instead of treating the problem itself.
And as is known - you don't argue with success.
Benefits
In implementing the method described in this article, everyone wins: the writing employees win, the reading users win, and most importantly, the organization wins.
The writers gain:
Clear, concise writing according to defined rules that ensure systematization and accuracy
Creation of a unified language in document writing
A detailed, defined writing process
Improved flow of the correct information to the right employee
The readers gain:
Navigation within the document using a map
Quick location of relevant knowledge
Accessibility to the required knowledge
Ability to get an overview of the written document
Interactive reading, according to the reader's preferred style
And the organization gains:
Improved use of information and knowledge that exists in the organization, thus creating a springboard for enhancing business competitive advantage
And if we've achieved this, we don't need much more.
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