Culture by process

Recently at work, the owner of a policy made changes to that policy without consulting other groups that would be impacted by the changes.

It’s something that happens with some frequency. Therefore, you could say that it’s part of our culture (i.e. “how things are really done around here”).

As I’ve said before, if you don’t like a part of your culture, you must change the processes that lead to it. In this case, we need to create a new collaboration process around policy revisions.

Now, we could go about it in many different ways. We could ask for collaboration via email, we could have a call, we could change the document that details how to change a policy, etc.

But I’m a big fan of task-based training. I like to put the “how” and the “why” right next to the activity itself, every time it is performed. This way, I don’t have to worry about how long it’s been since the last training session, the last email reminder, or about experienced people being replaced by newbies.

So going forward, the last section of all policies will read: “This policy is owned by [insert function here], will be reviewed no less often than [enter time period here], and cannot be revised without consultation with [insert other functions here].

Every time a policy owner engages in revisions, she will see this reminder. No need for additional communications or training. After a year or two or three, people will start to know that collaboration is just how we do things around here.

And not just for policies.