Corporate Spring Cleaning Time!!
Toss those Worthless
Policies & Procedures
Time for an old-fashioned Debunker, especially for those
of you who have been reading my newsletters for nearly 5 years. So let's rev it up again.
In 2004 I did a Debunker talking about Office Space, one of my favorite comedies of all time, and this Debunker is an expansion on that corporate roasting. Some of my friends are really
"corporate," and that's OK. But others pine for a work world without the ridiculous Policies and Procedures (P & P's) and political correctness-and
just want a place where they can feel good about doing their work and make a decent living.
My NoSpin Marketing business (which, trust me, has its
own challenges) has zero P & P's and somehow seems to get along fine--and has for almost 5 years now. You're maybe saying that I'm not a big
business. I'm saying tens of thousands of businesses--regardless of size or type--could axe their P & P manuals, never miss them, and do a lot better
as a result.
I'm "Out of Here"
Once, I had a quite colorful boss (at a very successful start-up company) who said he be "out of
here" when the company had its own Policies & Procedures manual. Our company went public and then was sold to a bureaucratic nightmare that reeked of
unnecessary P & P's, and my boss did, indeed, exit. He knew that the huge majority of P &P's were insidious wastes of time and energy,
interfered with productivity, stunted creativity, delayed decisions, and were just plain aggravating for everyone. Entrepreneurs and other business
folks, take note.
Certainly, you cannot legislate your way into greater profitability with more P & P's--the
same as it's fruitless for anyone to attempt to legislate morality or "good behavior" (especially as defined, now, by the politically correct crowd).
Most P & P's are nuts and lose companies billions of dollars per year: creating, revising, monitoring and enforcing gobs of inane, worthless rules.
The answer, of course, for entrepreneurs is never to write any but the few most critical policies and procedures in the first place.
No, I'm not that naïve. Size necessitates some basic rules. And you can't
do much about local, state, federal laws and industry-specific regulations that impact your business. It's too tough to fight
City Hall on the many things you simply can't control. And, of course, there is one definite similarity between corporate P &
P's and the laws/regulations created by "legislatures" (or dictators) at all levels. Once they are in the book, they are difficult to
abolish--unless you're willing to do that periodic spring cleaning:
The Policy & Procedure Litmus Test
As a decision-maker, ask yourself (about any existing or proposed) policy
or procedure:
- Does it make any common sense (and even if so, isn't common sense enough)?
- Is it mainly something that other organizations have-so we're supposed to have it too?
- Or is it there solely because a phantom lawyer is lurking?
- Is it something that helps my company and helps our people do their jobs better (deep down...really,
truly)?
- Or is it something that is primarily punitive versus work-rewarding and work-enhancing?
- Do the benefits of having it outweigh the time, effort, and cost to create, monitor and ensure its
compliance--and factor in the possible negative impacts?
- At the end of the day, if EVERYONE in the company did not comply, would it make a hill of beans?
Well, I think you get the idea. I dare that you--especially if you're a top
decision-maker--to ask those questions of each policy & procedure in your flabby manual. If you do have the guts, it will pay off in spades.
The P & P Alternative: Just Toss Them
But that's tantamount to corporate anarchy!
No, really, just destroy the big fat binders and replace everything in them with a few things like:
- Do the work you were hired to do to the best of YOUR ability-realizing that no one is perfect even
close to 100% of the time.
- Help your co-workers get real work done everyday.
- Love your work--or leave.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you--and that includes fellow employees, customers,
prospects, partners and vendors.
What's Your "Favorite"
Corporate Policy & Procedure?
Of course, I'm not immune to the P & P's of others. Here's just
one incredibly shortsighted P & P of a company that I know all too well and one that's not too uncommon (and I'm paraphrasing):
"We only cut checks for (lowly) ‘vendors' on X date per month and never pay for
services/products in advance. And even if we've screwed up, or were lazy, or misplaced your invoice...or whatever, you'll get paid when we
decide you'll get paid."
So who do you think gets better service: the client that pays on time and according to agreement or
the one that doesn't? Yes, it's tough to measure the impact, unless a company has a ounce of common sense.
Email
me your favorite, dopey (or is that redundant?) policy or procedure, and I'll post them on http://www.nospinmarketing.com/. I promise anonymity for you and your
company--unless you request otherwise.
Have a great month!
1-615-661-6042
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"All employees and vendors will have these memorized and follow
each and every one."
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