What is benchmarking and why is it so important?
“Just the facts” as is often heard in court proceedings in movies and TV shows. Do these shows reflect reality and what has this got to do with business?
It is a fact that reports, notes, and emails (benchmarking) should be made right after events occur and made quickly because human memory fades over time. Such immediate note taking ensures accuracy and takes away any notion that notes made later have been distorted, doctored, or falsified to suit a particular narrative.
Lawyers, police officers, and most business professionals know full well that if it’s not in writing, often it is presumed that it never occurred. How many times have we all felt and heard, “I wish I had written that down or taken a video.” When called upon there is less weight applied to testimony unless it is supported in writing or by some other means. They classic line when testifying and when memories fade, “I don’t recall” never goes over well with judges and adjudicators.
Police organizations around the world go to great pains to teach recruits about accurate and timely note taking. Police call it contemporaneous reporting. Contemporaneous reporting refers to the practice of documenting or reporting events as they occur creating a record of information at the time events happen.
“How do you know what is important? Well, you don’t so benchmarking should be an important life skill for everyone in business.”
This is considered highly reliable due to the reduced chance of memory distortion or manipulation due to passage of time. Unlike wine, recollections of events never get better with time.
When lawyers make notes of meetings and telephone calls they call it, ‘Memo to File’. A “Memo to File” note refers to a brief written record or paper trail documenting important information of a conversation, decision, action, and other relevant information to maintain a complete and up-to-date record of what transpired to ensure all pertinent information is documented for future reference.
Lawyers email themselves a note thereby registering the date and time of the writing in real time that includes all the details of what occurred.
For lawyers ‘Memo to File’ is a lifestyle. It’s in their DNA. This is like minute taking without the minute taker being present and is the best way to benchmark important information.
How do you know what is important? Well, you don’t so benchmarking should be an important life skill for everyone in business.
So how do you prove contemporaneous reporting?
The easiest way is to copy what lawyers do. Simply send yourself emails immediately noting important things that have occurred and then store the emails in case the information is needed later.
Emails timestamp the relevant material for future reference.
Immediacy of note taking also highlights something called The Decision Tree. When the courts analyse why things occurred this is critical when event reverse engineering occurs. Contemporaneous notes highlight who knew what and when, and who made the decisions that led to outcomes.
By keeping contemporaneous notes as a lifestyle and benchmarking those notes by sending yourself emails, property managers and those working in any industry will be better able to protect against loss of corporate and personal memory when it matters most.
When lawyers wade through their tried and trusted list of questions, you will be better able to respond with accurate and detailed information in a very professional manner by referring to your notes and emails.