Instead of viewing policies and procedures (P&Ps) as a vital tool and “game plan” to run their business better, many managers perceive the task of writing policies and procedures as a necessary evil.
“Old-fashioned” thinking and misconceptions take people down the wrong path immediately and cost organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted time and missed opportunities. Many people think that developing policies and procedures is solely a writing or clerical function, when in fact, the very exercise of examining how your business works — or how it should work — allows you to gain greater understanding of your business and how to address the problems facing it.
By just shifting your thinking about writing policies and procedures can mean the difference between having an effective “system” for continuous improvement and hundreds of pages of documents and files that no one wants to read.
In the next post, we’ll give you a short list of questions you can ask to see if your company’s policies and procedures are driving business outcomes and delivering ROI.