This question has been on every business manager’s mind since the first company was started.  Large or small, it doesn’t matter.  When it comes to business valuation, people want to know how to get the most for the company.

Today I’m going to tell you.  It’s so shockingly simple, it may take a few seconds before you realize the truth of this statement:  The key to unlocking the value in your business is by documenting your business processes, in writing, for all of your employees!

Why “in writing?”  Multiplication. Once you can document your business process, you can multiply your valuation power.  You just take your written documents and multiply them for every new employee that comes on board.  There you have it – the secret of unlocking your hidden business value.  It’s as simple as that.

In business, writing that documents your business processes are called “Policies and Procedures.” And the kind of writing that is phenomenally successful in increasing the value of your business is called “Power Policies and Procedures.” Knowing how to put together Power Policies and Procedures is the key.

But there’s a problem. Teaching someone to write Power Policies and Procedures is not easy.  Even when you show someone all the “tricks of the trade”, most people just don’t seem to get it.  If they did, being successful would be quite a bit more commonplace!

However, here’s the good news – I’ve developed the one product in the world that really can teach others how to write Power Policies and Procedures.  And not just a select few people, either.  This product can teach anybody.  It can teach you.  Listen to what one of the customers has to say:

“I have reviewed the entire [Policies and Procedures] Manual and related software and find it extremely well organized, helpful, and all the things a happy customer is looking for.  As CFO of a public company, this will assist not only in organization, but our audits as well.”
- Richard Nance, CFO General Automation, Inc.

What is this amazing product?

Bizmanualz, Inc. has developed The Business Policies and Procedures System covering all the major departmental areas within your organization.

“My superiors were impressed with the immediate results.  Given the fast paced environment we live in today and the various responsibilities management is held accountable for, these manuals provide a convenient means of establishing very detailed processes within a fraction of the time it would take to perform from scratch.  Thank you for making some of my daily responsibilities less hectic.”
– Dan Gugliotta, Spring Air Partners

Yes, experts and ordinary businesspeople alike recognize Bizmanualz, Inc. as the master of Power Policies and Procedures.

But maybe you think you don’t need this skill.  Is that what you think?  Then think again.  Because 8 out of 10 new businesses fail in the first 5 years.  The biggest reason for failure: weak management.

Yet when you know how to write Power Policies and Procedures, increasing your valuation is easy.  It’s practically like taking candy from a baby.  Yes, it’s just about that easy!

Not only that – You can use Power Policies and Procedures to create an automatic “money machine” for your business.  Now you can go on vacation for weeks to places like Hawaii.  And when you get back, the business will be running just as smoothly as if you had never left.  Now that’s what I call freedom!  So why don’t you have this skill already?

Time.  Nobody has enough time.  That’s why I created a set of Power Policies and Procedures templates containing many of the most common policies and procedures every business needs.  You get best practices from Accounting & Finance, Computer & Network, Personnel & Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, ISO & Quality, and Disaster & Security.

Now I realize your next question may be, “Is this product really any good?”  And that’s a fair question.  Let me put it this way – if it wasn’t any good, do you think I’d be willing to offer you a full money-back guarantee?

I wouldn’t unless I knew that you’ll love it.  I’m totally confident this product will work for you.

“With Power Policies and Procedures, writing business process is much easier than you think…”

Why am I 100% confident this product will turn you into a power policies and procedures writer?  Because it makes learning fun and easy with its unique learning format. Anyone can do it.

This product is filled with powerful prewritten samples, reports, forms, job descriptions and a whole lot more…

“Since receiving these Policies and Procedures my business has picked up 50% to 75%, The time factor, the money saved and the decreasing of the work load is fantastic. Once again thanks to you and your staff for this insight and for the price it was excellent.”
– Donald Malone, Circle of Life Inc.

Why Should You purchase power policies and procedures?

This product is jam-packed with information you need to be more profitable in any business.

In fact, Bizmanualz, Inc. is so confidant that this product will do for you what it has done for so many others that you also receive a full money back guarantee.  If after 30 days you are not 100% confident that this product will turn your policies and procedures writing into pure gold, we will cheerfully give you a full refund.  And you may cancel at any time.

This means you have nothing to lose and a completely new world of profit potential to gain.

I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity today.  This isn’t just a product – it’s an experience.  And one that will make your business a whole lot more valuable.  Imagine what you will do with all the new money you will make after you learn the secret to power policies and procedures.

Well, if you’re like me then you’re watching your budget and you hate paying a lot of money to consultants for delivering templates.  After all, what you really need are the templates themselves.  Right?

Fortunately, there’s a better way…

Now you can own the same policy and procedure templates that consultants use for their clients and better yet you can try it risk-free using our Money Back Guarantee.  Bizmanualz, Inc. has developed the CEO Policies and Procedures Manuals designed to increase the productivity of your organization.  It contains over 300 prewritten policies and procedures along with 200 sample reports, forms, checklists, exhibits, and job descriptions covering all major departments:

Accounting, Finance, Computer & IT, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources, Security Planning, Disaster Recovery, Quality Management.

Consultants large and small use these same Policies and Procedures to increase the productivity of their clients and we all know how “time is money“.  Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marwick, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Arthur Andersen have purchased and referred these systems.

Use the CEO Policies and Procedures Manuals to clearly and effectively communicate management’s expectations for specific job tasks thereby eliminating some of your workers major complaints.  With Policies and Procedures in place, our company just hums along and yours will too.  Imagine reducing employee confusion, increasing accountability, simplifying training, standardizing quality and even satisfying auditors!  And the best part is you won’t have to write everything yourself.  Hundreds of editable MS-WORD documents are included eliminating the need to re-invent common business processes and saving your organization a lot of money in the process.

“…a procedures manual pays for itself.  Without it, there would be capricious application of the law, and that’s the basis for most (if not all) injustices.”

Marsha Finley, President, Empyrean Services

Four ways Policies and Procedures  produce immediate results.

1. Something in writing to refer to when someone is ill, you need to train a new employee or temporarily fill his or her position.
2. A tool that can enable your employees to do more than just the job they’re in now.
3. A tool that will free employees up to take vacation (and not be stressed when others in their department do the same).
4. The assurance that every task at every position is being covered (or can be covered) consistently with clear quality standards.

Sometimes you have to look at the cost of NOT doing something to justify the cost of doing it.

• How much would your company have to pay its lawyers to defend itself when policies and procedures are unclear, someone is hurt or injured, and people sue?
• How much does it cost in lost customers or sales because of policy-procedure issues?
• How much time is spent explaining unclear policies and procedures instead of doing other work?

The CEO Policies and Procedures System saves thousands of hours of research, writing, design and development.  In fact, for the same cost of publishing 1 or 2 procedures you will now have an entire manual of over 360 procedures and 200 supporting documents saving your company $200,000 or more in writing them yourself, from scratch.  Use just one or two procedures and you’ve paid for the product.  And I know you will find more than one that you can use.  Now you can stop worrying over:

• How to write your policy manual, on time and under budget.
• Where to find accurate wording to ensure that your procedures are written well.
• How to increase company efficiency while reducing common worker complaints.
• How to please your auditors or regulators with proper documentation.
• How to create an Employee Handbook covering all of your health insurance, benefit programs, disciplinary actions, interview questions, hiring and firing policies and more.
• How to protect your assets, information, and employees from disasters or physical harm.

Order The CEO Policies and Procedures System today and start increasing the productivity of your organization!  Act now you will also receive the Employee Handbook FREE, a $59 value.  The Employee Handbook includes required federal policies for sexual harassment, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other bonuses such as an HR legal Guide with proper interview questions.  There is simply no better way to increase the productivity of your business than by ordering this complete set of Policies and Procedures.

For Your Consideration

That said, there are some things you must consider before you write your first policy and procedure manual:

• The documented policy/procedure is reviewed, typically by someone in middle or upper management;
• The document is revised, if necessary;
• After the document is adequately reviewed, it is given final approval; and
• It is released (internally and/or externally) as a corporate policy statement or procedure.

The approval process generally consists of a review for (a) consistency and accuracy, (b) agreement/conflict with existing corporate policy or other statements, and (c) general readability, or usability.

The policy and procedure review-and-approval process may vary from company to company but it is recommended you keep procedure approvals to a minimum. That is, you need to avoid “paralysis by analysis“, or the “perfection trap“. If too many people are required to authorize a document, policy/procedure development becomes a bureaucratic nightmare, considerably slowing — if not preventing — the release of policies and procedures and adding little to no value to the final version.

“Too many cooks in the kitchen.“
(Anonymous)

One way to gain others’ input while streamlining the process — keeping authority at the functional or departmental level — is to release draft copies of proposed procedures to a select number of individuals for comment. Make clear to these individuals that it’s important for them to confine their suggestions to what’s essential to the document’s accuracy, readability, and usefulness.

Who these “select individuals” are depends primarily on the nature, or content, of the document. Sensitive issues — for example, corporate exposure issues having to do with personnel, intellectual property, or trade secrets — should be reviewed by top management, including the company’s president or chief executive. They may also require the advice of legal counsel.

“He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help.“
Abraham Lincoln

Rudimentary procedures affecting only a small unit within the company (and likely to have little, if any, impact on other areas) should be subjected to a minimal review process. It is advisable in this case to have someone familiar with the area — but separate or outside of it — review the proposed statement (e.g., the company Finance officer may review a proposed accounting SOP). This type of review serves three purposes:

1. What makes sense to the preparer directly involved in enforcing the policy or conformance to a procedure may not be understood when read for the first time by someone not as closely involved;
2. A review by managers of other areas may prevent a conflict with a policy and procedure statement still in the formative or discussion stages elsewhere in the company (of which the original preparer may have little or no knowledge); and
3. Third, it allows for input from multiple individuals while allowing the department manager to maintain control of the integrity of the policy/procedure and to drive its completion and release in a timely manner.

Writing policies and procedures usually begins at the unit level, while review and approval is handled by management, legal counsel, or compliance management.  For a faster, easier process, use  OnPolicy Procedure Management Software — it automates document workflow and greatly simplifies the review, approval, and release of policy and procedure documents to your employees.

One reason for this might be that your procedures are too long. If you have 35-page-long procedures — especially if that’s all text — it’s probably not fair to expect your employees to understand, let alone use, them. At that length, there’s the very real risk that your procedures are unclear, overly complicated, and just plain boring.

Another reason procedures may not be up to date is that they’re not followed.  If your people were using the procedures as written and taught, they’d be more likely to notice when things are out of date or out of sync with other company practices. Revisions are a healthy indicator of ongoing use and revisions help to create effective procedures.

Why Don’t My Employees Follow Procedures?

Perhaps your people can’t find your procedures, or possibly they’re unaware that you have a procedure for this or that activity. Maybe because it’s not right in front of them¹, they’re assuming you don’t have a formal procedure. Nonexistent or uncontrolled procedures imply that your quality management system is out of control.

There’s also the possibility that your procedures are too simple; that is, they’re too broad and general to suit a specific situation. If your procedures aren’t directly to the point and don’t offer information specific to the process your employees are working on, they won’t be used.

Poorly written procedures are as bad as generic procedures.  If your procedures are incorrect or confusing, your employees will not use them, either.

Sometimes, procedures are not designed for ease of use. Either they’re hard to navigate in themselves, or their formats are inconsistent. Formats that are inconsistent across departments and work areas are a frequent source of confusion.

It helps to think about who procedures are written for when designing your procedures. Procedures are primarily designed to be training aids: Frequent, experienced users don’t need procedures often, if at all. They should periodically review procedures to be sure they’re current but on a day-by-day basis, they’re not your target.

Occasional users need reminding, but it’s novice users who need procedures the most. They’ll need the guidance of a procedure until the process has become ingrained.

How to Make Your Procedures Work for You

To understand how to make your procedures work for your employees, you need to pay careful attention to the following:

1. Develop a system that keeps your procedures current using intranets, social media constructs (blogs, wikis, etc.), document management systems, software, or new knowledge management systems.
2. Keep your procedures concise, clear, and to the point — no tangents or extraneous material.
3. Use pictures, graphics, and examples to illustrate objectives.
4. Make your procedures available where they’re needed most.
5. Develop a system with easy access (see point #1, above), make them searchable online, or make them part of the job (see #4).
6. Revision control is required for ISO and must be part of the job (see #1 & 4).
7. Eliminate generic procedures entirely.
8. Keep procedures updated and useful (also see #1 & 4).
9. Create and maintain a common, easy-to-navigate format for your documents.
10. Instill the discipline to follow procedures in your organization by making the process “owners” part of the procedure development.

Now that you know the secret to writing effective (i.e., useful) policies and procedures, what are you waiting for?

NOTES

¹ISO 9001, for one, requires that you have documents available at the point of use.

Your processes aren’t “one and done”, are they? Of course not. Those are events, not processes. We need to document events, but not for the sake of repeatability.

Processes are events or tasks we want to repeat an unknown number of times; we’d like some processes repeated indefinitely. If we want our business processes to be consistent — to yield predictable, consistently good results — we need to document them.

We document processes (i.e., write procedures) to ensure consistency and quality of the results. We also document processes so we can train (and retrain) employees. No matter who is performing or supervising the process, no matter when or where they’re taking part, we want quality and consistency.

To develop what we call a “well-defined process”, we use a couple of simple, effective process modeling tools: the SIPOC Diagram (or process map) and the Process Model.

The SIPOC Diagram

This tool gets its name from its five components:

• Supplier;
• Input;
• Process;
• Output; and
• Customer.

Figure 1 - SIPOC Diagram

This tool needs little explanation: because it’s visually oriented, the SIPOC diagram is very effective at breaking down language and other barriers. It helps people understand the purpose for the process and, when linked with similar diagrams of other processes, explains its relationship to other business activities.

The Process Model

Like we said, a one-time event is not a process, just like a one-time repair is not a corrective action. A true process is a cycle — the Deming Cycle, or PDCA, to be exact.

Figure 2 - the Process Model

This ISO process model does an excellent job of illustrating a typical process:

• You PLAN the process, establish process objectives (what the result should be), state the various requirements (customer, regulatory, standards-based, internal, etc.), and describe how you will get from point A to point B and back again;
• You DO, performing the process and collecting process data;
• You CHECK on the process, reviewing the data you’ve collected and analyzing process performance (not just according to stated objectives, but also for variability, consistency, and trends); and
• You ACT on your review findings, either continuing with the process unchanged or modifying the process to make it work better and implementing the process with those revisions.

The PDCA Cycle is the ideal framework for developing business procedures. That’s why at Bizmanualz, we use the process model as the basis for our procedure templates. The process model works for any procedure, whether it’s in Accounting, Human Resources, Sales/Marketing, or any of your other departments.

You’ll find that when you use these simple and effective tools to guide your procedure development, your processes will be well-defined processes and you’ll reach more of your objectives.

Thanks once again for your time and your comments.

* * * * * * *

What about you? Have you used these tools recently? Did you find that they were extremely helpful, or not at all? What tools do you use to develop your procedures?

Have you used Bizmanualz policy and procedure templates? What did you think of them?

• Your customers’ requirements (quality, safety, performance specs, quantity, price, prompt delivery, etc.);
• Industry or other standards and guidelines (ISO 9001, IFRS, etc.); and/or
• Regulations (e.g., 8th EU Directive, Food Safety Modernization Act)

in order to get or to keep business.

(Thanks to chicohomesearch.net)

And therein lies the problem: compliance is like healthy eating or exercise. We know we have to, but…gosh, it’s so darned hard!

Why is it that “have to” and “want to” always seem to be inversely proportional to one another?

How do you sell yourself and your employees on the notion that compliance is something you want — not something you merely put up with?

How do you turn “got to” into “want to”?

First, you have to…

1. Sell yourself on the idea. You’ll find in life — that is, if you haven’t already — that if you don’t have a deep and firmly held belief in your company, your product, or your people, you won’t sell your product or your service. If you lack enthusiasm, conviction, self-discipline, vision, perspective, and some of the other characteristics that define leadership, you won’t have many followers.
2. Your customers are your ultimate critics. If you don’t meet their requirements, you’re out of business. It won’t matter what other requirements you fail to meet if you fail to meet your customer’s. Have your priorities in order — listen to your customers first.
3. Include your staff in the development of policies and procedures that will ensure your company’s compliance, because: (a) you can’t do it all by yourself; (b) they know more of the day-to-day tasks, operations, and processes than you; and (c) you need to show that you value and trust their judgment if they’re to grow (i.e., micromanagers never win).
4. Give everyone in your firm the resources they need to do their jobs effectively.
5. Ensure that your employees are more than adequately trained and experienced. Make sure they know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
6. Keep the lines of communication open all the time. Communicate effectively and continually with all levels of your organization. Get out of your office! Regularly address your employees firsthand, directly and openly.
7. Listen, then turn what you’re hearing into something your employees — and your customers — want to act on.
8. Make a habit of meeting with suppliers, subcontractors, and everyone who has a hand in getting your product or service into the hands of your customers. You might not be able to do this often but you shouldn’t let a year go by without visiting with your valuable partners. Communication is key!
9. Look at failures as opportunities for improvement. Don’t go looking for the guilty party every time something doesn’t go according to plan! You want to keep failure to a minimum, yes, but keep things in perspective. Not every mistake requires Draconian countermeasures!
10. Share success. Compliance goes beyond merely observing standards or laws — compliance can help you win business! When it does, spread the wealth. Acknowledge the part everyone played in making your company a success, especially those who had a direct hand in your victory.

Sell yourself, then sell everyone else on the importance and value of compliance. Make them want it! Your customers do.

* * * * * *

Now I’d like your opinion. How do you make compliance desirable in your organization?

We regularly send out e-mails, to continually keep our name in front of potential (and existing) customers. Some of us even have LinkedIn^TM and Facebook^TM pages (Figures 2, 3) where we invite not just commentary, but participation and engagement.

We have a plan for strategically managing our web presence. In that plan, we:

1. Establish SMART objectives;
2. Develop and implement the various aspects of our web presence (web pages, newsletters, social media, etc.);
3. Monitor, measure, and analyze to see if we’re meeting planned objectives;
4. Make changes to the plan, as needed, and implement them; and
5. Continue to monitor, analyze, change, ad infinitum.

Why does that 5-step plan look familiar? It’s the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) cycle! It’s how companies ensure product quality, continual improvement, and customers who are more than satisfied — they’re actually advocates!

Figure 1

Ask yourself, “Are we doing that?” Do we have a plan, or did we just throw something out there so we could say, “We have a web presence”?

Figure 2

Without a clear, comprehensive plan, your web presence can do you more harm than good. If you’re lucky, prospects and customers contact you about broken links, inconsistencies, and the occasional link to a product you discontinued months or years ago. In reality, most of your target market just “walks away” and never comes back.

Figure 3

The best advice I can give you is to establish a process of developing, implementing, and maintaining your company’s web presence before you build a single page online or send out a single e-mail. To do that, you need to understand:

• What your company stands for (its vision and mission);
• What you want to accomplish in the short and long term (i.e., what objectives you have for your web presence, specifically, and how – and if – those objectives tie into your company’s overall objectives);
• How extensive your web presence could (or should) be; and
• Why it’s important to establish a system of internal controls early and not let your efforts, accidentally or otherwise, go off target.

If you haven’t had a program for managing your web presence up to now — not a problem! There’s no reason to believe that because you’ve been working without one, you can’t implement one at any time. It may seem difficult at first, but the reward is unquestionably well worth the effort.

Take a few steps back and reevaluate your situation from a user’s perspective. If you have a particularly trustworthy customer, one you can count on to give you an unvarnished (but not a brutal) opinion, ask for their input. Find out whether they’re getting what they want from your web page and your social media. Find out if their objectives align with yours, and vice versa.

Refresh – reinvigorate – your web presence a little bit at a time. You don’t need to get everything done in a day or even a month or two. Work on the “low-hanging fruit” first, then move on to areas where your weaknesses aren’t so problematic.

And remember — stick with the plan! Keep reminding yourself — you only get one chance to make a first impression!

* * * * * * *

If you see an inconsistency or error on another company’s web site, do you say anything or do you let it go? Does it make a difference if they’re a vendor/customer of yours or not?

In business, employees are expected to perform their job all day long.  But how much time is allocated to practicing their job?

In football, teams have a playbook defining, step-by-step, every player’s job on every play.  The team practices every play until it is executed correctly.  Now they are ready for the game on Sunday.

Does your company have a playbook or business manual?  With step-by-step procedures, job descriptions, reports and forms for every job?  Does every employee know exactly what is expected from them for the company to succeed and keep its customers happy?

Your Playbook is a Valuable Asset Leading You to Success

All large organizations have a playbook or business manual.  Is that how they got large?  They standardize business processes to eliminate inefficiencies.  They find the plays that work and use them over and over to succeed.

Let’s take sales – do your salespeople have a quota to fill?  Do they have call sheets to complete, month-end status reports, 30-60-90 day forecasts?  What about the rest of your company?  Every employee needs the same process detail to be successful.  Yet having clearly defined policies and procedures is often an afterthought to starting a business.

But, policies and procedures are your business.  Return policies, credit procedures, sales and service policies, policies on vacation, healthcare, and sick leave.  Policies, documented or not, communicate your strategy, vision, and understanding of the market to your employees and customers.  It’s not what you say. It’s what you do that is the essence of your company.

How many points could your team score if there was no playbook and positions were not clearly defined?  How would you communicate in the huddle what you wanted to get done?  Chaos would develop and the team that was better organized would win.

What are the Costs of NOT Having Policies and Procedures ?

• Opportunity costs – Lost sales or goodwill from the uneven treatment of customers.  McDonalds requires that all food served at its thousands of franchises taste and is served exactly the same.  Would you continue to eat at McDonalds if it wasn’t?
• Inefficiency costs – Time spent correcting tasks improperly performed or documented.  “If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to fix it.”?
• Legal Liability – How much does the company pay its lawyers to defend itself when policies and procedures are unclear, someone gets damaged, and people sue?  In the movie “Erin Brockovich” Management gambled with safety procedures and lost.  The losing company had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for damages, plus legal fees and they still had to fix the problem.

Companies operating without clearly articulated policies and procedures are gambling – they don’t know if they’ll succeed.  Successful companies don’t take chances with success.  They practice, honing their skills, focused on winning through a process of well thought out policies and procedures.  Not only do policies and procedures solve business problems, but they can be the deciding factor between your business success and failure.

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”)