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Management Commitment: The Key to Getting Procedures Used

Bizmanualz Solutions:

Our general topic this month is how to get procedures used. Most organizations put at least some effort into creating procedures. Shouldn’t they have a functional role in the organization? Isn’t it a wasted effort if they are just going to collect dust stuck in a binder sitting on a shelf, or if they languish in a file drawer and never see the light of day?

It Takes Writing, Training, and Auditing

We have discussed several ways to make sure procedures are used. First is to make the required effort to write good procedures. Without investing in the resources to develop well organized and clearly written procedures it is unlikely they will be used. The next step is to conduct the necessary training. Training creates awareness of the procedure and generates buy-in. Proper training means the staff knows the procedures exist, they understand why, and believe having the procedure is useful.

Finally, when training is followed up and re-enforced with auditing, then you greatly increase the odds that the procedure will be regularly referenced to and followed. Auditing generates a feeling of importance and attention associated with the procedures. It eliminates the perception that procedures are worthless, bureaucratic documents that should be ignored.

It is the total or summation of these important components that gets procedures used. Just doing one or the other doesn’t guarantee success. There is one vital, over-arching component, however, that links these activities together and is the key to making them happen: management commitment. Management assigns and allocates the resources in an organization; how the organization spends its time and money.

The Focus of Management is the Focus of the Organization

Generally management in an organization makes the decisions about how people spend their time, and how many people will be spending their time on particular activities. These are both somewhat related to money,of course, but by money we are typically referring to purchasing things like equipment or to bringing in outside resources like consultants, trainers, or technical writers.

Management commitment is not only assigning resources. The priorities of an organization are really determined by how management itself spends its time. If management spends most of its time focusing on financial aspects of an organization while spending little or no time focusing on an organization’s internal processes (where procedures fit in), then where do you think the members of the organization will focus?

This returns to the idea of a balanced scorecard. According to the concept of a balanced scorecard, management should pay attention to four major things in a balanced way: customers, finances, learning and growth (of organization members), and internal processes. If an organization is going to be successful at writing and implementing procedures, then there has to be a management focus in this area. Management delegating it down and then ignoring it leads to what happens too frequently in many organizations: poorly written procedures that are neglected.

So now the ultimate answer to the great mystery of how to get procedures used is revealed. We know that it is important to write procedure so that they are clear and accessible. It is important to conduct training to create awareness and buy-in. Auditing is a key follow-up activity that re-enforces the importance of following procedures. What makes all of these things happen, however, is a commitment from management.