How to Standardize Documentation

Dear Mr. Higgonbottom: Our team’s documentation process is chaotic — everyone uses a different template and tone. What’s the best way to standardize our writing?

Inconsistent in Indy

Dear Inconsistent in Indy,

I’ve seen it before. Your HR team creates an updated benefits guide that’s colorful and uses friendly, conversational language.

Meanwhile, your IT team’s troubleshooting manual reads like it was written by a robot. Your sales team’s SOPs? They look like a high schooler’s notebook from 2014. With inconsistencies like these, new hires trying to navigate your company’s wiki feel like they’re visiting four different companies at once.

But that’s not the worst of it. The real issue shows up when your own people can’t find the documents they need. Which version is the current version? The status reports exist in all sorts of different formats. Which one should they follow? These inconsistencies create chaos across your teams.

Let’s rein it in. It all starts with a documentation style guide specifically for internal use. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or extensive. No one wants to sift through an 80-page tome just to find instructions for expense reports. Define how your company communicates internally. Are your SOPs concise and formal? Are training manuals friendly and encouraging? It’s okay for Slack guidelines to be a bit casual while other documents are more formal—as long as it’s all defined and clear examples are provided.

Create standardized templates for your most widely used internal documents, such as onboarding checklists, meeting agendas, project briefs, troubleshooting guides, and process documentation. Include guidance in these templates for things like structure, headings, and even sample language. Make them easy to find and easy to use for everyone. If people have to dig through multiple folders just to locate them, they’ll give up and wing it. You don’t want that.

Appoint someone to be the documentation guardian. This person can take ownership of materials and help keep language and style consistent. They should review all new documentation, as well as older files, to bring them up to the new standard. Think of it as quality control for your internal knowledge.

The truth is, it won’t happen overnight. Some departments will jump on board right away, while others may take a little longer and need hands-on help. Don’t be afraid to remind them why it matters. When your documentation is consistent, it helps everyone—from new hires to C-suite executives—find what they need quickly.

Consistency in documentation isn’t about being drab; it’s about being clear, easy to find, and actually useful to the people who need it.

Uniformly yours,

Mr. Higgonbottom