Standards and processes are like personal hygiene for an organization.
Do not try to circumvent it. Even if we don’t follow we can still ask
others to follow or we can start at any time. It is going to make our
life better.
If you have the habit of chewing your nails or picking your nose,
would you encourage your kids to do so. If you smoke would you encourage
your kids to smoke. I hope the answer is a unanimous "no". When the kid
grows into an adult they make their own choices what they want to do.
The very same analogy applies to following standards, policies and
procedures in an organization. Just because, a legacy organization does
not follow policies and procedures, one should not encourage
circumventing standards, policies and procedures to a new organization,
just for the sake of achieving a simple goal.
The new organization can
follow well defined standards and would finally grow to be a mature
organization, which would follow standards and have organized and
efficient workflows and in some instances they may create their own bad
habits.
A question I usually get: "Policies and procedures introduces too much bureaucracy and hampers productivity".
This scenario arises if the purpose of the standards, or procedures
that was put in place, are just for the sake of standardization and not
for the sake of streamlining and improving the flow of activities. It is
like using an antibacterial soap to clean your hands, while wearing a
pair of rubber gloves, in a room disinfected by UV rays. Standards or
procedures defined for the purpose of improving or streamlining workflow
are always simple and easy to follow.
A question I usually get: "Does it mean once we define a process or procedure we should not ever violate it?"
This might not be possible as far as standards or process and
procedures are followed by human beings. There would be improvements in
the workflow, that might have to be introduced due to change in
technology or change in scenario or for the sake of achieving a
significant milestone or goals which would impact the lives of lot of
people. But such violations should be consciously approved and
documented and reviewed so that they are not repeated and become a bad
habit.
An example: After traveling 20 miles trekking in hot sun and with the
destination just 1 mile ahead we may ask our kids to walk thru a dirty
and filthy ravine so that we can reach the destination and rest, rather
than asking to walk around another 500 yards. However we wont ask our
kids to walk thru a dirty or filthy ravine in our neighborhood on a
normal day, instead we would ask them to walk around and avoid it.
The point is violating standards or process and procedures should be
done when many peoples lives are at stake and not for the sake of
achieving a 5pm deadline on a Friday.
