A few minutes ago I got a call from our new apartment manager asking if we wanted to schedule a move-in time for this weekend.  This is especially vexing because we did that last week, arranged the truck and friends to help, and set our schedule around it.  But it never got written down.

I’ve been on both ends of this situation.  Nobody likes getting caught with their pants down because they forgot to write something on a calendar or put the task on their todo list.  At the very least, it ends up breaking somebodies expectations, and the first rule of business communication is to be clear about expectations.

Process is about minimizing human error.  With some companies, no meeting can be scheduled without going through the scheduling software.  I’m not a huge fan of that approach – every layer of process you add removes a bit of versatility.

As a rule, I avoid process unless we’re being consistently hurt by the same stupid mistake.  Something should have to impact you multiple times before you put a process in place.  Otherwise it’s just following a fallacy where you assume the exceptional case always has to be accounted for.  And that’s just human error.