Initiatepolicy

Forward thinking business leaders experiment with policies and practices that create a favorable and sustainable outcome.

Generally speaking, the policy is a set of principles or guidelines to shape collective mindset, attitude, drive behaviors, influence culture and collective performance. 

The policymakers such as board directors should have abstract thinking skills, multi-dimensional intelligence, interdisciplinary knowledge & understanding, as well as empathetic communication skills to convey the accurate insight via the brief messages and improve policy-making effectiveness. How does the organization ensure policy coherence across the portfolio?

Policies need to serve a purpose: Good policies are not “shelfware,” but the “shareware,” all parties should benefit from following them, to make the working environment more open and fairer, easy to do good things, and to make collective progress. The worst thing to do is just about putting the policy in place to mandate it, but no one really follows it. There are some organizations out there that have a plethora of policies and many of them are nothing more than that, just a policy. In practice, making a good policy is actually part of governance discipline.

The policy is implemented via a protocol, process or practice: The policy is focused on supporting business processes, etc. A process in and of itself must be governed or it won't be followed and the best procedure or program cannot enforce it, without policy. No process works without policy. A process in and of itself must be governed via a set of policies or rules; otherwise, it won't be followed and the best procedure or program cannot enforce it. Establishing policies and procedures help to ensure understanding, enhance ownership, and accountability by management and employees.

When circumstances change, policies need to be updated to ensure people continue to do the right things: Implementing policy is a management activity, and monitoring policy compliance is a governance activity. Policies are communication from the top. A set of good principles or policies guide the strategy management of the business. Policies need to be updated when circumstances change, so people can continue improving performance and doing the right things. By following a right set of updated good policies, the digital workplace can be provocative, passionate, focusing on solving problems effectively and making progressive changes.

Good policies make good things easy to do, and inspire progressive change. Forward thinking business leaders experiment with policies and practices that create a favorable and sustainable outcome. However, the policy is still on the surface, and only one of the important pillars to run a progressive organization. It’s important to build a high performance culture, build compelling teams and drive desired change to achieve higher-than-expected business results.

Posted in: Principle/Practice