‘How to’ documents

Frequently, particularly in consulting, you write because someone has a problem and you are telling him how to solve it. The structure of any 'how to' document is 'steps,' as shown below:

• Must do X

• Step 1

• Step 2

• Step 3

• Q = How?

However, the introductory structure varies slightly depending on whether you are telling the reader how to do something he has not done before or whether you are telling him how to do properly what he is already doing. The memorandum on The Role of the Board shown on page 19 in Chapter 2 is an example of the first type:

• S = Must do X activity

• C = Not set up to do so

• Q = How do we get set up?

By contrast, suppose you have a company whose market forecasting system gives inaccurate forecasts, and they want you to tell them how to make it give accurate ones. The structure is always:

• S = Your present system is X

• C = It doesn’t work properly

• Q = How change to make it work properly?

The trick here is to begin your thinking by literally laying out the present process as they do it now. (See Exhibit 15.) Then lay out the process as you think it should be done. The differences between the first structure and the second tell you what the steps on your Key Line must be.

Exhibit 15: Comparison of Processes
Present process:

• July

1. Make market forecast

2. Make 6-month Master Schedule

3. Adjust in monthly meeting

Recommended process:

• July

1. Make firm market forecast

2. Set policies for inventory levels

3. Delay making Master Schedule until September

4. Make 6-month Master Schedule

5. Have expert adjust before monthly meeting

6. Fine-tune in monthly meeting

• Recommended process summary:

• Do forecasting later in year

• Establish inventory target levels to guide scheduling

• Use formal process to decide monthly revisions

Let me emphasize the importance of making the two processes visible to yourself before you begin to write. You may assume that you know precisely what they are, having been working on them for so long. But unless you lay them out and compare them, the chances of leaving something important out are very great. You cannot be sure your thinking is complete and that you have not left anything out unless you make the actual step-by-step comparison. I have seen many examples of incomplete thinking in this area that I make a special point of mentioning it. Indeed, we had an example in the Big Chief memo in Chapter 3.

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中文翻译：

“如何做”文件

通常，尤其在咨询领域，你写作是因为有人遇到了问题，而你需要告诉他们如何解决问题。任何“如何做”文件的结构都是“步骤”，如下所示：

• 必须做 X

• 第一步

• 第二步

• 第三步

• Q = 如何做？

然而，开头结构会根据你是告诉读者如何做他以前没有做过的事情，还是告诉他如何正确地做他正在做的事情而略有不同。第二章第19页的备忘录《董事会的角色》是第一种类型的例子：

• S = 必须完成 X 活动

• C = 当前无法进行

• Q = 我们如何设置以便开始？

相比之下，假设你所在的公司有一个市场预测系统，其预测不准确，他们希望你告诉他们如何让它变得准确。这种情况下的结构始终是：

• S = 当前系统是 X

• C = 系统运转不正常

• Q = 如何更改以使其正常工作？

诀窍在于先将当前流程逐步列出（如图表15所示），然后再列出你认为应当执行的流程。这两种结构之间的差异就是你的关键线路（Key Line）中必须包含的步骤。

图表15：流程比较
当前流程：

• 7月

1. 制定市场预测

2. 制定6个月的主计划表

3. 在月度会议中调整

推荐流程：

• 7月

1. 制定准确的市场预测

2. 制定库存水平政策

3. 推迟到9月再制定主计划表

4. 制定6个月的主计划表

5. 在月度会议前让专家进行调整

6. 在月度会议中进行微调

• 推荐流程总结：

• 在年中推迟预测

• 确立库存目标水平以指导计划安排

• 使用正式流程决定月度修订

让我强调一下，在你开始写作之前，将这两个流程可视化是多么重要。你可能认为自己已经非常清楚这些流程，因为你已经研究它们很长时间了。但如果你不将它们列出来并进行比较，就很可能遗漏重要内容。只有通过逐步比较，才能确保你的思维是完整的，没有遗漏任何重要内容。我在这一领域看到过许多不完整思维的例子，因此特别强调这一点。事实上，我们在第三章的《大酋长备忘录》中有一个相关例子。