Germans capture processes in documented, official form. Standard operating procedures, training manuals, technical standards, legal codes, bylaws—these aren’t just bureaucratic paperwork but how processes become real and shared. When a process is documented, it can be taught consistently, followed by different people, verified for compliance, and improved over time. Undocumented processes are informal, inconsistent, and vulnerable to loss when key people leave.
The German investment in standards organizations like DIN, certification bodies like TÜV, and detailed regulations reflects this commitment to codifying processes officially. When working in German contexts, expect processes to be written down somewhere. Look for the documentation before improvising. If documentation doesn’t exist for something important, that’s often seen as a problem to be fixed—the process should be captured properly.
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