7 September 2011
The more I think about it, the more questions come out… whose standards is the right one? How often do you need to update those standards? What are the minimum requirements and the maximum expectations for those standards? etc. etc. But the common answer for all these, I guess, will be “it depends.”
I had created a checklist (kind of an SOP) for organizing a meeting/workshop and updated it over the years, but I have yet to follow it back for a long time because there are no real standards across the organization… On many occasions, it all depended on different circumstances. Of course, certain minimal items are under the procedures: setting the meeting’s objective(s), preparing/updating the agenda/programme, list of participants, etc.
Over many years in an organization, I have been in different offices under different supervisors/management styles. I’ve been trying to figure out at least some minimal common standards… I’m not very successful in getting them right. Some standards are so vague that anyone can interpret them differently depending on their expectations. That’s fine!
But, the consequences can be quite severe to the point that it creates a working environment with confusion, frustrations, lack of trust, lack of confidence, the tendency to manipulate procedures, etc. etc. OK, those are for individual(s) or team(s). What about the organization that we are all proud to work for? One thing that came to my mind was: inefficiency and ineffectiveness…. because of wasted time, duplicated work, and less motivated staff at the individual/team level.
The main point is that everyone (with relevant background) should collectively set the standards and MUST AGREE on those and set the timeline for the next review/update. Otherwise, those SOPs can easily cause …… well, I’d better stop here.