What is the standard procedure for diluting chemicals. For example I want to dilute bleach. Do I pour the bleach into the water or the water into the bleach? Would this be a standard procedure or does the actual chemical regulate the procedure?

In fact, it is important whether to add water to bleach of vice versa. In the school laboratory, this procedure is crucial for the safety of the laboratory attendants who prepare the solutions for the students to work with.

ALWAYS ADD TO WATER.

This way, the little bleach that you add will get diluted a lot by the vast amount of water.

If you do the opposite, this may and will happen:
The substance gets a little water.
The little water becomes extremely concentrated.
So much so that the substance becomes hot very quickly (as opposed to the large amount of water if the opposite was made).
Fumes will rise as a result.
Those fumes may be toxic/harmful.

If you want to add much water at a time, you'll create even more fumes as the water splashes. So, there is no other way but to add the substance a little at a time to a large bucket of water.