I have had some very insightful conversations the last week about procedures as contracts. I define procedures as anything your organization uses to guide the organizational processes. Some organizations define them as policies, SOP’s, procedures, etc. Some talked about making these contracts understandable, stop with all the “seventy-five dollar” words. Some talked about how procedures are boring. This was one was my favorite because they weren’t wrong, sometimes procedures are boring, but oh so necessary. There was good support for organizations treating our procedural contracts with a little more TLC. That made me smile. All of the comments made sense: have procedures that are clear, understandable, shared, agreed upon, and involve TLC and the human touch. Just like psychological contracts…just like employment contracts.
In our research on organizational exit, one of the main reasons people left their organizations was a betrayal of trust. The betrayals took place in many forms: bullying, bait and switch, harassment (verbal/physical/sexual), lying, and more. One of the other betrayals was in the form of breaching the procedural contracts. Leaders and team members were not following processes, creating their own because they didn’t like how the process worked, or misusing procedures to push people out of an organization (typically due to personal conflicts). The other betrayal of procedural contracts involved creating procedures to manage low performers or performance problems.
Recently I was talking with a colleague on the west coast (I so need some beach time soon!). He was telling me about a situation on his campus involving three individuals not following the financial guidelines for grants they were receiving. No legal law was broken, but procedures were (and are not) being followed as required. The leadership team of this campus convened and created a new procedure (beyond the 48295 they already have that tells recipients how to appropriately manage their grants) to ensure this doesn’t happen again. My question to him, “Why in the hell are these three not being held accountable to the current procedures already in place that handle not meeting expectations and following procedures?” The response, “Several of the leaders really like these three, and they bring in a lot of money so no one wants to ruffle their feathers.” Oh, I see. So, a new procedure was written to deal with three people (out of over 400) who aren’t following the current procedures and now the 387+ people have to maneuver another roadblock to their own work. Makes sense to me, ARG! This kind of stuff drives me crazy. It’s inefficient, a waste of time, more work to manage, and does NOTHING to address the problem: three individuals who are not following procedure, not meeting expectations, and not doing their job correctly.
Organizations do a great disservice to the whole by not holding people accountable and encouraging low and poor performers. Addressing low and poor performers is never fun. It’s hard, difficult, and requires confrontation. You know, leadership? When you don’t address low and poor performance, others in the organization see this. Others wonder why those three are getting preferential treatment. Others start to wonder, “Why am I working my ass while those three get away with not meeting expectations?” The end result is a betrayal of the procedural and psychological contracts. This is one of the beginning steps toward a toxic culture…stop it before it starts.
Procedures aren’t just the who, what, when, where, and how. The WHO is one of the most key components of success, the person. The who involves an agreement that says, “I am going to do this, do it well, and ensure the product/service I hand off to you is of the best quality I can give.” The who says, “I’m going to do what I said I agreed to do.” When we don’t, we betray the trust of others. How are colleagues supposed to believe and act upon our breach of the contract? They can’t.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep repeating it until it becomes the fabric of organizations. Kindness and compassion have a place in our organizations and are verbs. Kindness and compassion will create success. Kindness and compassion say, “I’m going to honor you, respect you, and earn your trust.” Kindness and compassion say, “I value you.” How freakin’ cool is that?!
What are your thoughts? Do share with me!