I'm not sure what industry you work in or what size company, but my old department had a similar situation.
It sounds like your processes are either immature (no one really knows what the best way to do things is) or tribal (you have to know the right guy to talk to to find the information or knowledge you need).
Premature optimization is god awful, because it locks you into a world of pain - your business is inefficient and the people actually trying to follow the procedure find it incredibly painful and limiting.
If your process is immature, you need to invest some time and money into finding out what the best way to do whatever it is you're doing. If your process is tribal, you need to find the guy or guys that understand what's happening and pick their brains about everything they know. Their implicit knowledge needs to become explicit. In my situation, I found that just agreeing on common definitions was a huge help.
If you're grossly inefficient, don't write a procedure for a bad process...you're just ingraining inefficiency. Once you've found a good process, then write the procedure so you can train your people to repeat good, efficient practice.
And maybe most importantly, train your people to the procedure but make sure they understand it on a level so they know where it doesn't apply and give them authority to deviate from the procedure when necessary.
Sorry if none of that applies to you. I'm just speaking from my few limited experiences.
It sounds like your processes are either immature (no one really knows what the best way to do things is) or tribal (you have to know the right guy to talk to to find the information or knowledge you need).
Premature optimization is god awful, because it locks you into a world of pain - your business is inefficient and the people actually trying to follow the procedure find it incredibly painful and limiting.
If your process is immature, you need to invest some time and money into finding out what the best way to do whatever it is you're doing. If your process is tribal, you need to find the guy or guys that understand what's happening and pick their brains about everything they know. Their implicit knowledge needs to become explicit. In my situation, I found that just agreeing on common definitions was a huge help.
If you're grossly inefficient, don't write a procedure for a bad process...you're just ingraining inefficiency. Once you've found a good process, then write the procedure so you can train your people to repeat good, efficient practice.
And maybe most importantly, train your people to the procedure but make sure they understand it on a level so they know where it doesn't apply and give them authority to deviate from the procedure when necessary.
Sorry if none of that applies to you. I'm just speaking from my few limited experiences.