What does it take to be an effective business leader?  Many people have written about the qualities of great leaders.  Coming up with a top ten list is not easy because there are so many more traits than 10.  Here are my top ten.

1. Visionary.  Leaders are able to create a vision of a positive future, which begins the process of getting buy-in from the team.  A leader without a vision is not a leader all, they are called a manager.
2. Strategic.  A good leader understands how to capitalize on the assets of the organization in order to create a successful vision. (more…)

Blogs are a great interactive communication vehicle.  We first started writing to answer many questions about policies and procedures, quality, and management systems. We now have three blogs.  One focused on longer quality articles.  One focused on shorter comments (this blog).  And one focused on the OnPolicy document revision control software.

The blog content comes from our training classes, consulting practice, and the policies and procedures manuals themselves.  Over the years we have written about a wide range of topics.  People still ask questions and we are still answering them every month.

Below are some of the top questions regarding quality management systems.

1. What’s the Difference Between Policies and Procedures?
2. Are Procedures the Same as Work Instructions?
3. What’s the Difference between Corrective Action and Preventive Action?
4. What’s the Difference Between Verification and Validation?
5. What is a Lean ISO 9001 Quality Management System?
6. What Procedures Should You Write?
7. What is Continuous Improvement?
8. What is a Process Map?
9. How Are PDCA Cycles Used Inside ISO 9001?
10. Why Policies and Procedures Don’t Work.

If you have any questions about ISO 9000, quality, lean six sigma, or management systems design, ask them below and I will be happy to answer them in an upcoming blog post.

Writing policies and procedures can be a struggle sometimes.  Often times you just need an example policy or procedure to get you started.  The question is – where do you go?  Well now you can pick from hundreds of sample policies and procedures from a wide range of departments including accounting, finance, human resources, computer and network, sales and marketing, and ISO standards like ISO 9000, AS9100, or ISO 22000.

PoliciesProcedures.com, our companion website provides hundreds of example policy and procedure templates to choose from.  Launched in July, 2008, the site offers procedure templates in easily editable Microsoft Word format. You can instantly download the the right procedure(s) and immediately start editing in Microsoft Word. Each policy procedure documents is taken from the Bizmanualz Policies and Procedures Library.

Writing policy and procedure documents can be a whole lot easier with a sample in front of you.  So give it a try and make your life easier with downloadable procedure samples.

Policies and procedures are all around us all the time. Formal company policy is developed by management and documented in a company policy manual.  Informal policy evolves from an organization’s culture and is undocumented, which makes them harder to learn and change.

What’s A Policy?

A policy communicates an organization’s principles.  Companies have many different types of policies.  In marketing there is a pricing policy on how customers will be charged for their products.  Accounting will have an accounting policy on how reimbursement is issued, depreciation is booked, or purchase decisions are made.  Your policy on quality (a quality policy) is a required element of an ISO 9001 quality management system.

Company policy is used to influence decisions that employees must make.  We use company policy as a guide to company decision making.  Unfortunately, company policy is also used to make rules (think about an employee policy from your Employee Handbook) like a no smoking policy, policy against drinking, or policies for how to dress on the job. Employee policy is focused on office rules that are used to support your management principles.

Procedure Policy

But a company policy can also be seen as a mission statement, as part of a business procedure (think an accounting policy and procedure manual).  A policy in a procedure acts as a mini-mission statement containing the customer of the policy, it’s purpose, and a key performance indicator (KPI) to communicate how users know the procedure is working.

An example Accounts Receivable Procedure Policy:

Accounts Receivable personnel shall ensure that all outstanding customer invoices are paid in a timely manner.

In the Accounts Receivable policy you see the customer is the Accounts Receivable personnel. The purpose is to ensure outstanding customer invoices are paid and the KPI is a timely manner. The procedure needs to define what timely manner means.  A timely manner could be 30 days today (net 30) and 20 days next quarter (net 20), which provides a process improvement objective of 33%.

What’s A Procedure?

Company procedures assist companies in building consistency between each and every employee.  Procedures define a series of steps, actions, or methods to be followed as a consistent and repetitive approach to accomplish an end result.  Company procedure answers the “how” questions as in “how do you collect receivables.”

An example Accounts Receivable Procedure:

1. Send the first notice-invoice immediately (same day) as the sale.
2. Produce a receivables aging report.
3. Send a second notice to all invoices outstanding for 30 days.
4. Call all invoices outstanding for 45 days.
5. Send a third notice to all invoices outstanding for 60 days.
6. Call all invoices outstanding for 75 days.
7. Send all invoices outstanding for 90 days to collections.

A procedure could be something as simple as a checklist.  The goal of a procedure is to provide consistency.  Using simple checklists is the easiest way to begin to get consistency in your business.

The Difference between Policy and Procedure

A policy communicates an organization’s principles.  A company procedure assists companies in building consistency.  The main difference between a policy and procedure is that the policy communicates a direction whereas a procedure communicates the steps you take in the direction.  Company policy answers the “what” and your company procedure answers the “how” question.

You can view a free sample procedure at our samples section.

To some, there’s an enormous difference between expectations and objectives. Our expectations are based on such factors as “the social contract”, our knowledge, and our personal experience. Objectives are rational, exhibiting little, if any, measurable bias, and are clearly communicated.

Our expectations reflect our personal biases. Expectations are often unstated — they are somehow expected to be understood. For example, we expect that adult pedestrians will not haphazardly dart in and out of vehicular traffic. That seems like a reasonable expectation, doesn’t it? We don’t often hear or read of pedestrians being killed as they burst or wander into traffic. The car is bigger, heavier, and faster — why would anyone risk serious injury or death?

Expectations being what they are, many are not met. They are often burdened by others’ expectations. For example, you expect the businessperson on the street corner, on their cellphone while dragging a wheeled suitcase along, is going to look before crossing the street in front of your car. They, on the other hand, expect every vehicle operator to see and yield to them. Someone’s expectations will be dashed, probably both.

One thing expectations rarely are, and that is “based on empirical evidence or sound policy“. Suspicions and hunches aren’t evidence. Too often, a manager comes up with “that’s the way it’s always been done”, or “that’s the way I’ve always done it and it’s always worked.” (Always? Really? Show me the numbers that bear that out.)

“It ain’t braggin’ if you c’n back it up.“
“Dizzy” Dean

Another thing expectations never are, and that’s “communicating well with others“. The essence of a well-run company is establishing SMART objectives that everyone in the organization understands and agrees with.

If you want your expectations met, you have to state them as clearly and precisely as you can to everyone responsible for meeting them. You have to get feedback from those people so you know everyone’s on your wavelength.

“A moving target is hard to hit.“
Lucy Ricardo (“I Love Lucy”)

Do this and your expectations are no longer mere expectations — they are the company’s business objectives. Unstated expectations will always be unmet expectations.

“Collaboration” is one of the newer buzzwords to make its way into the businesspersons’ vocabulary. Social media — a hot buzzphrase itself — like to emphasize the fact that they’re designed to enhance collaborative activity. One company (not ours) goes so far as to claim its collaborative software “can accelerate team productivity, improve interactions, and support innovation“.

“I call that bold talk…“
True Grit (1969)

What Does It Actually Mean to Collaborate?

Collaborate means “work together to accomplish a goal”; the word comes from Latin, “work with”. Collaboration implies that two or more people are working as equals (or close to it) to make something, to solve a problem, etc. John Lennon and Paul McCartney collaborated on much of the Beatles’ early work, for example.

What does it mean to collaborate within your organization? Do employees cross boundaries all the time, or do they stay in their comfortable little silos? As a leader/manager, you may think it’s not possible to collaborate with employees. You might picture yourself “up here” and your employees as “down there” — you might feel if your employees get the notion they’re your equals, you won’t have control of the organization.

I say you’ll never see true collaboration if you have that mindset. Your employees may be able to collaborate without you, but you not collaborating with them? Do you discourage independent thought, or the sharing of ideas? Do you not want your employees to grow? If so, you’re in more trouble than you know.

Why Do We Collaborate?

We’re essentially social beings. Some of us think we work well independently. While that may be true at times, over the long road of life we need others to help us accomplish tasks and achieve goals. We need input from other sources, whether it’s measuring devices or people, to assure ourselves that we’re doing the right thing in the right way, or at least headed in the right direction.

Collaboration can help ensure and improve quality. There’s this old saying that ”too many cooks spoil the broth”, but that’s only true when the cooks are working at cross-purposes, each trying to stake their claim as the best cook. That’s obviously not collaboration.

Collaboration comes about through a shared vision, shared priorities, and shared objectives. We get things done when we work together, don’t we?

“No man is an island, entire of itself.“
John Donne, poet (1572-1631)

Who Should Collaborate?

Collaboration should not be confined to your company. You can’t afford to keep it to yourself. Successful firms collaborate with everyone — their employees, their vendors, their customers. Every time you interact with someone, that’s an opportunity for collaboration, right? So, the answer is ”everyone”.

When Should You Collaborate?

As important as it is to collaborate — as much as it helps you and others accomplish — it can’t possibly be a “24/7″ activity. We all need time alone to think, review, contemplate, and decide. And there are, of course, those personal needs and interests that make us complete and help us collaborate much better.

For instance, if my Bizmanualz colleagues and I are together the entire workday, reading the same material, eating our lunches together every day, even spending every break period together, we wouldn’t get the cross-fertilization of ideas that we would if we occasionally spent time tending to our own interests. Another way to put it: When you spend a week or two on holiday with your family, aren’t you just a little sick of one another toward the end? Don’t you need a little time apart?

How Do You Ensure That Your Employees Continue Collaborating?

Collaboration cannot be a one-time event. Treat collaboration like any business process. You can model it on the Deming (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, for example. Of course, I’m not suggesting you write a collaboration procedure — you really can’t. Some of the best collaboration comes about spontaneously, after all. You wouldn’t want to restrict the collaborative process by saying, “It has to be done this way“.

Instead, you should write up guidelines for sparking or encouraging collaboration so your employees will recognize — and be prepared to take advantage of — problems or opportunities that are solved best through collaboration. You need to make it part of your company culture. While they’re working together, people should be inclined to take note of what works and what doesn’t, so they can add to the collective knowledge and continually improve the process of collaboration.

To get your employees to collaborate…

• Provide the right atmosphere;
• Provide a common vision and sense of purpose;
• Provide your employees with the means and the time to collaborate freely;
• Don’t do anything that would restrict collaboration or encourage “siloing”;
• Open up as many avenues for collaboration as possible, including software; and
• Lead by example.

Other Resources

• Sampson, Michael, “The Right Way to Get Employees to Collaborate”, Information Week, 9 May 2011
• Anderson, Chris, “Why Should You Publish Your Policies and Procedures Online?”, 3 Jan 2011
• Burrier, Dan, “Create Better, Collaborate Better“, Harvard Business Review (online), 25 May 2011

Last April 17, I read the news on the Internet, as I do every day, and saw a report that an Indian firm, Godrej & Boyce, produced the last typewriter and was shutting down its Mumbai factory. The story seemed plausible to me — I haven’t used my Brother daisy-wheel electric in eons and I can’t tell you the last time I’ve seen anyone use a typewriter to dash off an angry letter to the editor, let alone get their daily work done.

A little more than a week later, it was announced that these “RIP, typewriter” stories were all wrong. There are still companies manufacturing those old-fashioned mechanical marvels and if you want one — seriously! — new and used typewriters are fairly easy to come by.

Many people who grew up entirely in the Internet era are waxing rhapsodic about “the satisfying ‘clickety-clack’ sound of the keys” and ”getting in touch with the basic creative process, like it was back in the days of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Kerouac”.

“It all comes back to the basics.“
Dave Thomas, “Wendy’s” founder (1932-2002)

Well, before I dismissed these people as daydreamers, I had to think about how we communicated in the pre-word-processor, pre-smartphone era. True, the typewriter was not encouraging or forgiving but it made you plan…carefully. It made you pay attention to details.

Documents in those times (portrayed so effectively in movies like “The Front Page” and TV shows like “Mad Men”) were thoroughly edited and revised before being released. Calling back hundreds of design documents or proposals — or hundreds of thousands of newspapers — simply wasn’t practical. And once word got around that you were careless or sloppy or didn’t get the facts straight, your reputation was ruined.

“This is Bensinger. Give me a ‘rewrite man’.“
The Front Page (1974)

In the 21st century, business documents, news stories, blog posts, tweets, etc., are generated at alarming speeds. In fact, the speed of communication has become the main driver of communication; the message itself is often an afterthought. Thoroughness, accuracy, and attention to detail — in short, the quality of communication — have suffered significantly.

This may not mean much to the casual tweeter or blogger but to business, reduced quality of communication can be toxic. Deadlines are important – second-place finishers don’t usually get championship rings — but so is quality. First-place finishers can have their trophies taken away.

So, as a business leader — think about your policy, procedure, email, or other document you’re about to issue. Isn’t it worth the extra few minutes to get it done right?

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OnPolicy is a new document management system from Bizmanualz, designed to help ensure high-quality communication by automating the document review-and-approval process, organizing your policies and procedures, making them readily available when and where they’re needed, and ensuring periodic reviews of all your documents. See the OnPolicy website or email us (info@onpolicy.com) for more information.

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RECOMMENDED READING

1. Jacob, Shine, “Typewriters About to Become a Page in History”, Business Standard, 17 April 2011 – http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/typewriters-about-to-becomepage-in-history/432497/.
2. McCracken, Harry, “Rumors of the Typewriter’s Death: Greatly Exaggerated”, Technologizer.com, 26 April 2011 - http://technologizer.com/2011/04/26/typewriters-not-dead/.

Company policy is used to establish employee expectations so everyone knows what is and isn’t acceptable.  Company policies are the vehicle by which your company defines risks and rewards, but can they also constrain your organization?

Your company policy can be a written document, part of your procedure documentation, or it can be your company culture. We’re all familiar with written policies but…what about cultural policies?

Have you ever said to yourself or to someone else…

“We’ve always done it that way” or “That’s not the way we do things around here”?

If you have, you’re up against a cultural policy. Cultural policies are not written down; instead, they’re passed on by word and behavior. Everyone knows your company’s cultural policy — it’s the set of unofficial rules that all of your employees live by every day. Organizational culture involves more than just socially acceptable dress codes, or the atmosphere in your office — it influences your company’s important decisions, too.

For example, what time is it safe to arrive and leave work? What socializing is acceptable before, during, and after work? People new to your company that do not conform to your cultural expectations might be shunned, embarrassed, or ostracized for not conforming.

Written company policies come from management and can be changed, so while a written company policy may constrain your organization, you can at least change it.

Unlike written company policies, your company culture evolves over time and is not tied to a particular CEO or manager. Try to actively change your company culture and you’ll see a lot of resistance, yet violating company culture and changing the paradigm is critical to any process improvement program.

So we have two different policies.  The first, a changeable written company policy handed down from management.  The second, an unwritten, hard to change, cultural policy that evolves from group norms over time – a paradigm.

Which do you think constrains your organization more?

It was recently announced by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) that the Baldrige National Quality Program shall henceforth be known as the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. NIST, which administers the Baldrige Program, has decided not to rename the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, or MBNQA, for now.)

What’s the significance of the name change? What’s the difference, if any, between “quality” and “performance excellence”?

There are several interpretations of the term “performance excellence” posted on LinkedIn. Compare these with what Winder and Judd said about “quality” a few years back in the Quality Digest magazine. There’s an entertaining article on defining performance excellence that ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) published a little over a year ago.

Perhaps more importantly, there’s NIST’s explanation for the name change. They express the belief that the definition of “quality” has changed over the last couple of decades. It appears the term “performance excellence” suggests a more holistic approach than does “quality”. (And maybe NIST just thought it was time to freshen up the award, to bring it back into the business world’s consciousness.)

What do you think? Is there any substance to NIST’s argument? Which term — quality or performance excellence — means more to your organization? And is the Baldrige program more useful than, say, ISO 9001?

Should your company decide to undertake a large project without assembling cross-functional teams — for example, a development and implementation project that requires a sizeable number of your staff at all levels and could take six months or more – it will greatly reduce the project’s chance of success. In other words, cross-functional teams produce results!

“Break down barriers between departments.”
from Deming’s 14 Points

We are not advocating that you “put a committee at the top of every task”, or “there has to be unanimous agreement on every detail of the project plan“.  We are saying that capable project leaders assemble capable and diverse groups of assistants and empower them.

Why? By assembling a cross-functional team, you ensure “out-of-the-box thinking.” Conventional thinking doesn’t breed the kind of change you need. In fact, conventional thinking can be dangerous to your company. Think about it:

• Does conventional wisdom ”always” work?
• Can you think of companies that no longer exist because they stayed with the status quo?

When you gather people from diverse backgrounds, departments, and levels, everyone’s thinking outside other’s boxes. Let’s say I’m in the “development box”. The people in the “accounting box” and the “marketing box” are outside my box, and vice versa. We’re bringing a fresh perspective to each other, thereby strengthening the project and assuring better results. It’s similar to what Mendel discovered over a hundred years ago about cross-pollination — the result is a hybrid more robust than its parents.

Everyone’s opinions have some merit. Anyone who’s been with your company for a couple of years or more probably knows your business well enough that their observations and opinions have validity.

Those who stay in their boxes — companies that get the same teams together every time to think over important stuff and don’t reach into the employee pool for new, fresh ideas and thinking — are handicapping their efforts. They can barely see to the top of their boxes, let alone see what’s outside.

Leaders have the necessary forward vision to see the immense benefits their organization gains by using cross-functional teams. How often do you use cross-functional teams?

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Recommended Reading:

• McCafferty, Dennis, “What Your CFO Is Not Telling You”, CIO Insight (Sept. 20, 2010),  http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Business-Intelligence/What-Your-CFO-Is-Not-Telling-You-802981/