stop making it hard to follow the rules
No one wakes up wanting to fail.
Keep that in mind the next time someone skips a step, bypasses an approval, or uses their own spreadsheet instead of the system you bought.
It can be frustrating. You’ve explained the process, written it down, and told everyone where to find it. Still, you end up chasing updates and wondering why people aren’t following the rules.
Before sending another reminder, try asking a different question: How difficult have we made it for people to do this the right way?
If your process requires people to enter the same information three times, wait for an unavailable manager, or search through folders for the latest instructions, you’ve created an extra problem before they can do their real work.
It’s worth taking a closer look at the workaround they’ve developed.
What the workaround is telling you
Imagine a customer service team that needs a manager’s approval to resolve a routine billing issue. The manager is in meetings all afternoon. The customer has already called twice, and the employee knows exactly how to fix it.
The official procedure says to wait, but the expectation to take care of the customer suggests you should act instead.
The employee then texts, asks a colleague, or handles it themselves and updates the manager later.
From the manager’s perspective, someone skipped the approval process. From the employee’s perspective, they just found a way to get the job done.
Just because a decision was made doesn’t mean it was the right one, but it does give you something to look into. Which decisions really need approval? What authority does the employee have? What should happen if the person who approves isn’t available?
Until you have clear answers to these questions, reminding people to follow the process won’t remove the obstacle.
Look at the work before you label the person
Calling someone resistant, careless, or unwilling to follow directions can end a helpful conversation before it starts.
Instead, ask someone to show you the last time they used the process. Notice where they pause, switch tools, search for information, or ask for help. Ask what they do when the instructions don’t fit the situation they’re facing.
You might find that the form asks for information they don’t have yet. The instructions may refer to a tool the company no longer uses. Two departments might define ‘complete’ differently. Or a task that should take five minutes ends up taking twenty because of extra paperwork.
People can understand a rule perfectly and still struggle to follow it under real working conditions.
Before you decide a repeated problem is just part of your team, see if changing the workflow can fix it.
Define what good looks like
Every process needs a clear goal. Without one, it’s easy to add steps without knowing if they actually help.
What does good look like when this work is done? What should the customer receive? What information does the next person need? Which decisions need oversight, and which can someone make independently?
For a customer handoff, good might mean the receiving person has the customer’s request, the agreed deadline, the relevant history, and clear responsibility for the next action.
Once you know the standard, check the workflow against it. Does each step help reach that goal? Does it prevent a real problem? Is anyone actually using the information you collect?
Know what each step protects before you decide to keep it, simplify it, or remove it.
Five ways to make the process easier to follow
1. Find the point where people leave the process.
Choose one recurring workaround and ask: “Show me where this gets difficult.”
Keep the conversation focused and avoid blame. Try to understand what happened, what the person needed, and why they chose a different way. If several people skip the same step, that’s a good place to begin.
2. Remove work that serves no clear purpose.
Look for duplicate entries, unused reports, unnecessary handoffs, and approvals that no longer reflect how the business operates.
Ask who uses each piece of information and what decisions it supports. If no one can answer, decide whether that requirement still belongs in the workflow.
3. Put instructions where people need them.
An individual handling a customer call shouldn’t have to search a shared drive to find the answer.
Make sure people can easily find the current instructions while they’re working. Use language the team understands, give examples, and make the next step clear. An SOP is most helpful when people can quickly find what matters to them.
4. Clarify decision authority and exceptions.
“Ask your manager” needs more detail to work consistently.
Explain what employees are allowed to decide, what limits they need to follow, and when they should ask for help. Say who handles exceptions and what to do if that person isn’t available.
Give people enough information to use their judgment well.
5. Test the change with the people doing the work.
Ask someone to try the new process on a real task. See if they can finish it without extra help or taking a shortcut.
Then check the result. Did you reduce waiting, rework, missing information, or repeated questions? Did the work still meet the standard?
Making the document shorter won’t show whether the process actually improved.
Keep accountability clear
Even if you make a process easier to follow, people are still expected to use it.
People still need clear responsibilities, the right support, and feedback if their work isn’t up to standard. If someone keeps skipping a workable process after you’ve defined expectations and offered support, address it directly.
But if several capable people keep finding ways around the same rule, take a closer look at the rule, too.
You might spend a lot of time as a leader fixing individual workarounds, but never address the real reason behind them.
Start with the process you keep reminding people about
Think about the rule you’ve had to repeat the most this month. Before you say it again, sit with someone who follows it and watch how the work gets done.
Ask what makes it hard, what they need, and what would make the right way easier. Stay focused on the outcome and try one improvement.
This is one way to stop managing constant chaos: fix the recurring problems that keep dragging you back into the details.
YellowLine helps leaders define what good looks like, clarify ownership and decisions, and build repeatable ways of working that require less constant leadership intervention.