I put a sign at our kitchen sink that says: “Put your dishes in the dishwasher.”
It’s not pretty. But it solved the problem instantly.
For years, my blood would simmer when I walked into the kitchen and saw dishes in the sink. Simple dishes that were 100% ready for the dishwasher, a mere 12 inches away.
My teenagers (13 and 16) aren’t all that messy. Jason does his very best to meet me at my level of tidiness. Everyone genuinely thought they were helping. The dishes were in the sink…not under a bed.
But my family didn’t know what “done” looked like for me. Or they forgot. Or they were tired. Or distracted.
(It happens. To all of us.)
So in what, I’ll be honest, was a kinda passive aggressive move, I scribbled a two-sided table tent and taped it to the counter: Put your dishes in the dishwasher.
It worked. Not because it was beautiful, but because it was a visible reminder right at the point of action.
One day I even woke up to a handwritten note from my youngest “The dishwasher was running so I could not put my dishes away. I will get them later I promise.”
That sign is still up and now it’s serving double duty because every time time I see it, I’m reminded of this:
We build entire teams and businesses around repeatable processes, yet often expect people to memorize those processes or go digging through handbooks to find them.
Instead of optimizing people and relying on “memory”, we need to prepare the environment.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Slack reminders that post every Monday to post your metrics to the scorecard before the management sync.
- Recurring calendar events to remind you to check a thing you always forget.
- Saved draft emails in your newsletter program of choice that are a step beyond a template and have the actual content structure you follow
- A template gallery in Google Drive, with prefilled outlines for docs your team writes often.
- GitHub PR templates with the checklist items that contributors routinely forget.
- Trello cards with built-in checklists for each type of content you create.
These aren’t signs of rigidity, micromanagement, or irritation. They’re scaffolding.
You don’t have to hope people remember the steps. You make the steps easier to see and harder to skip.
Because SOPs in a wiki don’t help anyone if they’re 10 clicks away and written like legal contracts.
Processes don’t just need to be documented. They need to be embedded in the work.
Visible. Timely. Actionable.
So close your eyes and image that sign in my kitchen. Where does your team drop the ball, not because they’re careless, but because the environment doesn’t support the outcome?
What reminder, template, or automation would solve that quietly, consistently, and without shame?
Prepare the environment. It’s one of the most respectful things you can do for a team.Activate to view larger image,
