Write the rule for the question you hear most, and hand it over

The idea

You already have a rule for your most-asked question. You apply it every time; you never wrote it down, so it only works when you are in the room. Written, named and given its limits, it becomes something anyone can use and improve. A rule is a decision made once in advance, so you stop making it again every time it is asked.

Write the result you want, not the steps. "Every client gets a status email by Friday covering what was done, what is next, and what we need from them" survives a new tool and a new person. But say what done looks like, what they must not do, and when it still comes to you — "handle the updates" gets you someone else's idea of handled.

An example

The owner of a small kitchen-remodel company is asked several times a week whether a crew can take on a small extra a client requests on site. Her card, written for the first time — "Yes, if it is under two hours and under three hundred dollars in materials; it goes on the change log and the client signs it before you start. Not anything electrical or structural, not on a fixed-price job. Bring it to me when it is over that, or the client wants a discount on it."

She reads it as someone capable who has never worked there would. "Change log" — where is it? She adds the link. The crew leads stop calling her from driveways.

Not every kind is a rule

Pick the card for the kind. A decision gets a rule — the outcome, the limits, when it comes back. A procedure gets numbered steps ("Your first how-to, from one task you record yourself doing" records one in ten minutes), each judgment call marked "decide: X or Y, based on Z". A "where is it" gets a link, and who keeps it current. An explanation gets the answer, the one thing people get wrong, and the source. People problems and complaints get three bands — what the manager handles alone, what they handle and tell you after, and what comes to you before anything is said. On the card, the rule is the first band, the limits the second, and bring it to me when the third. Say two staff are not getting along — the rule: the manager talks to both and sorts it alone; limits: a written complaint, the manager handles it and tells you after; bring it to me when: anything about pay, harassment or a manager, before anything is said. An idea gets a page, not a rule — the idea, the business it belongs to, the next step, and the date you will reread it. Your AI reads the pages, and you ask it what you decided.

Test it

Run the AI test with a question from that kind — the test now includes your card. Then try to break it with a question right on a limit. If the AI says "bring this to me" in the right place, the card is ready.

Hand it over

Copy the card and send it to the person who asks — "This is how I decide these. If it fits, it is your call. Log it and tell me at the end of the week."

If the job passes between people, add what each one hands the next — work breaks where it changes hands.

Where it goes wrong

Writing the card and never looking at it again. A rule right in March can be wrong by June. Put a date on it and read it once a month.