Improving Internal Communication Benefits the Whole Company

Like we’ve been shouting from the rooftops since last Thursday, Bizmanualz passed our ISO 9001:2008 certification audit, both for our products and our consulting services.

I don’t like this blog to be about tooting our own horn, but I did think it would be beneficial to pass along some of the positive comments our auditor made that perhaps your organization could use. Each company is different, and what works for us might not for you. Take the general idea and see how you can implement a style or form of it customized to your company.

ISO is a lot about communication. Management is supposed to communicate to employees the goals and vision of the company, specifics on the quality management system, and host of other subjects. As Shailesh pointed out, our auditor praised our method-holding daily meetings circled around our scoreboard.

Bizmanualz Morning Meetings

Each day we talk about different internal processes, i.e., Fulfillment, Projects, Internet Marketing, Quality, Human Resources, Strategy, etc., and discuss the latest developments or current work happening on each. We also are able to celebrate each other’s successes and talk about corrections or corrective actions that may result from defects or problems that arise.

It’s a way to keep everyone in our company in the loop, see where we are, and compare that to where we would like to be.  If your company is larger, perhaps you could do this departmentally or weekly instead of daily. The important part is that the communication is happening.

Below is our actual scoreboard. On it, we are able to see the person(s) responsible for each internal company process, the open action items in each of the processes, the current metrics (gauging successes or shortcomings of the process), and the overall status of each. These are updated daily, marked with positive or negative colors, and discussed.

It may seem like a lot to do daily, but we have a solution for that. As you can see in the photo above, we stand during the meeting, which tends to shorten the amount of time people ramble.

We also close the meeting with a quote–typically one that either inspires the staff or makes them think. It’s a great way to start off the workday, and I highly recommend it to any company looking for ways to improve the way it communicates to its staff.

By the way, I had today’s quote: “It is amazing how much people can get done if they do not worry about who gets the credit.” -Sandra Swinney

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Posted by Sandi Villarreal on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 under ISO Quality Standards, Strategy