🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

When was the last time poor documentation slowed down your work or caused confusion within your team?

💡 Concept

Modeling and holding others accountable for effective documentation practices are crucial for sharing information and collaborating smoothly. Having clear, consistent documentation ensures that work can progress without bottlenecks and prevents knowledge loss when teammates are unavailable or leave the organization. Here are a few key strategies to promote and maintain good documentation habits:

🧭 Lead by example.
Model best practices by documenting your own work thoroughly. When others see you doing it, they’re more likely to follow suit.

Example: Write and share detailed meeting notes and next steps after every project sync.

📖 Define clear documentation standards.
Set guidelines for what needs to be documented, where this information should live, and how it should be formatted for easy reference.

Example: Use shared templates and folders for meeting minutes, project plans, and other materials.

🏷️ Assign documentation ownership.
Ensure that each project or task has a person responsible for maintaining all the relevant documentation.

Example: Designate someone to update the team wiki with project milestones and key decisions.

⚙️ Incorporate documentation into team workflows.
Make documentation a nonnegotiable part of your team’s processes, such as requiring meeting notes or post-project reviews.

Example: Require documentation as part of the “Definition of Done” for tasks in project management tools.

⭐️ Provide feedback and follow up.
Check that documentation is being completed according to the agreed standards and offer constructive feedback when necessary.

Example: If meeting notes are missing, follow up and gently remind the owner to fill in the gaps.

By modeling good practices and holding others accountable, you’ll foster a culture of transparency, reduce knowledge gaps, and keep projects running smoothly.

🎬 Take Action

Here’s how you can model and reinforce good documentation habits with your team:

• Review your recent work—have you recorded key decisions, processes, and insights? If not, catch up now.

• Establish a template or guide for your team’s documentation needs (e.g., meeting minutes, task checklists).

• Assign a documentation owner for your current projects and hold them accountable for updates.

• Follow up on missing documentation, and offer help if someone struggles to keep up.

• Recognize and reward good documentation practices—publicly acknowledge teammates who follow through with your team’s guidelines.

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn more about effective documentation practices for distributed teams in Leadplaceless.

✅ Check In

🎁Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.