7 Keys to Developing Great Policies

Policies are most often rooted in undesired consequences.  Something happens that shouldn’t — a door isn’t secure from the outside and someone gets in your building who doesn’t belong — and a policy (i.e., “That door is for exiting the building ONLY in case of emergencies.  It is NEVER to be used as an entry.”) is enacted.

A few — such as high-level, or corporation-wide — policies are designed to promote desirable consequences for an organization, as well as prevent undesired ones.  In this article, we’re going to stick with the first kind.  In any case, the best policies give everyone in the organization a sense of purpose and direction.  So…how do you write a good policy?

Undesirable outcomes are best solved by taking corrective action.  And how do we take corrective action?  Or, to put it another way, how do we develop good policies?

ONE – Describe the problem in clear, concise language.  Get several views of the problem — no one sees everything and everyone sees the same thing differently.

“Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report.
Run out and find me a four-year-old…I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
(Rufus T. Firefly, “Duck Soup”)

TWO – Once you’ve begun to understand the problem, delve into it further by looking for its root cause.  A commonly used tool for discovering root cause (because it’s simple, effective, and time-tested) is “5Y”, or “the five whys’”.  You know how children wear you down by continually asking you “Why?” (“Why?…Why?…Why?…Why?…”)  That’s sort of how you use “5Y” — you keep asking “Why?” until you’ve found the root cause of the problem.  It’s called “the five whys” because nearly all root causes are identified by the fifth “why”.

“You can look it up.” (Casey Stengel)

By then, it should be obvious that a one-time “quick fix” won’t  solve the problem.  The bigger challenge is how to keep the problem from recurring.  Well, that’s where policy comes in.  It’s a high-level look at the situation.  What are we going to do (or not do), what do we want to achieve (or avoid), and, most of all, why?

What happens when you tell your child, your spouse, or your coworker, “Just do it!”  First thing out of their mouths, of course, is “Why?”, as in, “Why should I do it?”  It’s a reasonable question, so why not answer the question before they ask? Doing so at the outset will save you countless (and sometimes massive) headaches.  When you get buy-in from stakeholders, your compliance rate goes way up.

THREE – A policy merely summarizes the corrective action system.  You might call it the “cornerstone” of a corrective action system.  The corrective action itself is the heart of the system, a system that follows the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” model:

• PLAN the corrective action;
• DO, or implement the action and collect data;
• CHECK the corrective action – see if the data prove that the corrective action is effective or not and if not, change what doesn’t work…or make changes because “good” isn’t “good enough”; and
• ACT – continue with the system unchanged, because it’s yielding the desired results, or implement the revised system.

In case you didn’t notice…document that corrective action process and – voila – there’s your procedure!

FOUR - Identify roles and responsibilities with respect to the policy.  Don’t just say “the company” or “we” (unless, of course, you’re dealing with a high-level policy, which we’ll get into at another time).  The last thing you want to hear is, “I thought you were going to do it!”

FIVE - Once you’ve developed a policy draft, have a reasonable number of stakeholders review it.  You might think those who are responsible for carrying out the policy and enforcing it have the greatest stake…and you’d be right, but you can’t overlook the other employees, including management.  No one’s working in a vacuum.  For instance, let’s say you’re working on a purchasing policy.  Give them time to make comments but make the end of the comment period absolute.  You can always change it – nothing, not even policy, is set in stone. Focus on continuous improvement, not delayed perfection, especially if it takes forever getting a policy “perfect”.

“Don’t worry about perfection — you’ll never achieve it.“ (Salvador Dali)

SIX – Revise the policy as needed and get Management’s approval – which should be easy, since you’ve had them involved in the policy-making process.  (You did get them involved, didn’t you?)

SEVEN – Not part of the development process, per se, but its logical conclusion: Distribute the policy, instruct your employees on it, and put it into practice. Do, check, and act.

You may have noticed that each of our Bizmanualz procedures has a policy statement.  Those are purposely vague because we don’t know our customers’ exact situations, requirements, or objectives. As we often say, “We’ve laid the foundation — you build on that.” Obviously, your policy statements can’t be vague.  Your employees need to know exactly what to do and why.

To quickly sum, you need to identify the problem, figure out what caused it, develop a system to prevent the problem from recurring (or lessen its likelihood) and enact it, and summarize that system in a policy statement.  And don’t forget — you need to review your policies regularly to ensure that they reflect the current and future state of your business, not what used to be.

One more thing…

“Have fun storming the castle!” (Miracle Max, “The Princess Bride”)

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Posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 under Business Process Improvement, Writing Policies and Procedures

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Originally published by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title 7 Keys to Developing Great Policies.

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