Five Steps to Successfully Implementing New Policies

Whether management wants to improve communication, increase teamwork, move to a culture of empowerment, or in some other case positively change the way they do business, there are some simple secrets that will lead to success.

1. Do what you say.

There is no place in the business world for the old saying, “do what I say, not what I do.” If you want your employees to do something in today’s world, you need to show your support by doing it, too.

2. Get information.

Before making a major policy change, it’s wise to do your research before embarrassing yourself. On one occasion, management had noticed that employees were scheduled for 6:00 am or 8:00 pm. To have the best coverage during normal business hours, they set 8:00 to 5:00 as a mandatory schedule for everyone.

Although it sounded good, the idea did not take into account people with daycare or babysitting commitments. This policy was reversed on the day it was created as there were no alternatives available to support the new hours.

3. Provide support.

Make the necessary resources available for the new policy or procedure.

In the case of the open door policy, companies find that these policies work best if the door is opened once a day or a week at the same time. To make it work, you will need to book corporate hours, say anything before 10:00 AM. Once you have established your time frame, allow each supervisor to select their own hours to be in their office. Some will select from 8:00 to 9:00 on Tuesdays. Others will select from 9:00 to 10:00 on Thursday.

To support the effort, senior management must also decree that no company meetings will be scheduled before 10:00.

4. Get feedback.

Make sure the new policy is producing the expected results. When receiving feedback from employees, you can make minor adjustments to the policy or procedure.

5. Stay with him.

When you write a new policy, commit to at least one year, unless some major detrimental impact arises. Too many times a company has decided to adopt a new policy or procedure only to abandon it after a very short period of time.

One of the most common “ephemeral” policies is the move to teamwork. A company will herald a new culture of teamwork, swapping “supervisors” for “team leaders.” They “empower” their employees to make some or most business decisions without management approval. However, they fail to realize that “empowerment” has more to do with education than authority. By not educating its new “team”, the team lacks the knowledge to make good decisions. Soon a big mistake will occur and managers who had lost power when empowerment began will point to the mistake as a reason to return power to them.