Well, after the last few weeks of maneuvering poor processes, I am going to update my quality management course for the fall semester. Whew! I appreciate the frustration level though because it has helped me think deeper about one of the themes my partner and I keep coming across in our research on organizational exit, betrayal of trust. I’ve been writing a lot about psychological contracts (and will continue to do so). The way a person is treated is essential to the building of trust within the organization, and our research shows breaking of the psychological contract is a key factor in deciding to leave. Very interestingly, so was the breaking of procedural contracts.
All of us work daily with processes, procedures, SOP’s, policies, and the list goes on. Each organization defines these a little differently but in essence, the procedures in an organization are what define the who, what, when, and how “something” is going to get done. Procedures assist in creating consistency in our products and services. They help ensure quality to meet and exceed customer expectations. Where I think we need to focus our attention more is that procedures are also a contract internally. The who isn’t just “Who’s going to do this?” The who is also an agreement between individuals about the what, when, and how…a contract. Contracts are agreements that assist in trust-building, when they are followed.
How many times have you skipped steps in a process? How many times have you completely blown off a procedure? A policy? I see people skip steps because they are in a hurry. I see people blow off complete procedures because they don’t agree with them. I see people misuse policies because they don’t like someone (this came out in our research multiple times). Procedures aren’t just about how to do what we say we are going to do. Procedures also guide how we will behave in our organizations and with each other, organizational culture. Procedures help me trust that Anna is going to hand off her work to me on time and in the best quality possible, so I can do my job. Procedures guide our actions so that people can trust us to do what we all agreed to. See where I’m going here?
When we do not follow procedures (or policies or SOP’s or whatever your organization calls them), we are violating the contract we agreed to; we are betraying the trust of those around us. Trust is essential to the success of our organizations. Poor processes by themselves are crazy-making, but when they aren’t followed at all or changed without communication, it makes it difficult trust the people or organization to do what they agreed to. This spirals into people doing their own thing, making their own procedures up, bad behavior, poor treatment of each other, toxic cultures…chaos.
As leaders and team members, I’d like to see us be more respectful of procedures. They don’t just guide us to creating great products and services, they help us create trust and great organizations. I can’t wait to update the quality management class. We’re going to have some fun with this topic.
I am very curious about your thoughts. Do share!