EOD's and IED’s—Similarly Destructive

An IED (improvised explosive device) is a bomb capable of great damage.

An EOD (email operational directive) can be similarly destructive. And I bet we have all thrown a lot of those.

An EOD is an email with really important operational information in it. It might be something like, “From NOW ON, we will ALWAYS send a thank you letter instead of an email.” That is one important email.

Unfortunately, if you get hired the next day, you will be sending emails instead of thank you letters, because your direction is in an email you didn’t even get.

Organizations are like cars. They need a manual. We give employees an employee manual—a guide to how the human should behave. But, we rarely create and maintain an operational manual—a guide to how the business works.

Often, operations manuals are constructed just before a company is sold, so the new owners know how to do things like create an invoice, or send a thank you letter, or set up a new field in the database. But everyday employees, even in small organizations, need a reference guide for how to do things. And when things change, they need a way to follow the latest instruction that does not include looking for that email. “Gosh, I kind of remember that email, but you know our system purges after 30 days so I’m not sure. Maybe I put it in a folder ... let me check.” That place they should look is your operations manual. The EOD is just a bomb.