Doing what you say that you do

Once the person can say what they do for the business, do they in fact do that?

Until they do can repeatable do what they say that they do, the value of writing it down is significantly diminished.

But how do you know if they do what they saw they do unless you write it down or capture it in some format.

In these modern times, one could capture the interview in an audio file or even a video file.

A sign that a person has really internalized a new process is when they can articulate the new process themselves without any aids or even better teach it to someone else. You can use the later as a reason to capture the person on audio or video to help others learn the process.

See if you can get them to teach the process to another member. If they can teach the same thing repeatibly then you can capture the process. If not, hopefully this will demonstrate the person the need to write it down or otherwise capture the process.

But to verify that the person really does what they say they do, the auditor will probably need some sort of check list to check off the pieces of the process for consistency.

So if they refuse to write it down or capture it in some format, do it yourself and get their feedback. At least if it is written down, they may argue with what was written down and tell you what is wrong so you can correct it.

Note that a person may be too busy to write things down in some form because a process out of control takes much more energy to control than a process in control. So bring a person in to help write down in simple form and organize the thinking may allow the person in the process to have more time to work on the next level and contribute to this improvement process.

This is not unlike with a child where the parent helps them stand at the edge of a bed, couch, or table or puts them in a modern day walker. The extra helps the child to learn faster and gain the strength to move on to the next level -- walking.