Get people talking about challenges in their organizations and within minutes, the word “policy” will come up. We all have stories of a policy that seemed counter-intuitive or blocked us from doing what seemed to be the best course of action. And we have all been on the receiving end of “That’s against the policy” as a customer. For all the problems with them, we know people don’t write them with ill intent. Yet they often have unintended consequences. Given all this experience, the logical question is this: Is there an alternative to a policy?
Before I give you an alternative, let’s look a bit more at the problem.
Why Policies Exist
Policies have been a part of organizational life since the start of organizations. And if you go back 50 or 100 years, they made sense. Companies were growing, and they knew that success came from standardization. US Steel, Ford, and IBM (as examples) had technologies and processes that were winners. Their (logical) goal was to maximize those advantages. And when it came to people, they wanted everyone on the same page. From these needs came … policies.
Why Policies Can Be a Problem
The problem wasn’t the policies as much as the speed with which the world started changing. Faster and faster. And with that, the world and workplace became more and more complex. At the same time, the workforce became better educated and better informed, with better tools/technologies and new expectations. So a problem was studied and a policy issued. But by the time that happened, the problem and situation had changed, rendering the policy obsolete before it was enacted.
From this perspective and your own experience, you can clearly see policies:
- Become outdated quickly.
- Are bloated (trying to account for everything).
- Are confusing.
- Don’t account for all the complexities of the work and situation.
- Can’t identify all of the possible unintended consequences.
- Reduce the reliance on the skills and experience of the team.
- Stifle accountability.
- Lower trust across the team.
- Often negatively impact culture.
When you look at that list you might be tempted to say, “Ban all the policies!” While I wouldn’t go quite that far, I would say most organizations could prune and weed their policies significantly. Some could even benefit from an expiration date. <- https://kevineikenberry.com/new-frontline-leadership/should-policies-have-expiration-dates/
The Policy Alternative
The next time you are thinking about creating a policy, stop and ask yourself:
- How complex is the situation?
- How fast is it changing?
- Do we know enough to set a policy?
- Are we getting enough input from the right people?
- Do we even need it?
Or should we start trying stuff first?
I will most always suggest the latter. Let’s try. Let’s learn. Let’s pilot stuff. Rather than trying to codify everything, why not rely on your principles and pilot ideas and approaches? Then share those pilot results with others. From that, new pilots may occur. Better practices may emerge. You may find yourself better policies than initially thought, if you even need to create them at all.
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