Without A
Trace
Andy spent 15 years working in product development and was the go
to person for product life cycle questions. Jennifer was the one person HR department and could quote state regulations by
heart. As the company's lead partner, Heather knew more about your customer's than the entire team.
What do these fictional employees have in common? They all left their companies and with them left the company's
intellectual property. When they quit or got fired, the knowledge of company policies, procedures and standards left with
them. The information vanished - without a trace!
Ever watch the TV show Without a Trace? The show
tells the story of the FBI searching for missing people - people who, like your documentation, have vanished leaving few clues.
I thought about this show while at lunch recently with a client, who confessed that one of their senior managers who was moved to a new
position seemingly sabotaged their replacement by shredding, deleting, losing and in other various ways, destroying vital records.
The "missing" documents included state, federal and internal policies, procedures and standards. They disappeared without a
trace. While sabotage is rare, employees quit or get fired everyday and only then do you find out that their work and their knowledge was not
documented. So, I started thinking about how you can prevent such a loss. How can we learn
from my client's real pain?
Much of our work with clients focuses on setting standards,
processes, metrics, and guidelines in sales, service and operations - directives that give the staff a road map. Those road
maps lead to closed sales, satisfied customers, long term customer relationships and efficient customer driven operations. Imagine
what happens when those crucial directions disappear? Chaos at best and lost revenue and unhappy customers at worst!
Here are some actions you can take NOW to prevent the "gone missing" syndrome:
- Rewrite job descriptions and
performance expectations to include maintaining and updating of relevant standards, procedures, processes etc
- Include a
"documentation audit" in all Performance Reviews - jointly review a check list of required documentation
- Maximize your
technology. Build an Intranet with a central storage location with defined file structures and locations
- Require that all standards,
policies, procedures etc be stored on the server or Intranet and not on individual laptops
- Consider investing in formal
Document Management software
- And for the very ambitious,
walk that talk and build a continuous improvement culture that supports ongoing review and improvement of your internal
roadmaps
High performing companies are created by clearly defining,
communicating and following standards of excellence. Your customers must be able to depend upon consistent performance from sales
to delivery to service and it all begins with the quality of your documentation of those standards and processes. Include this
critical element to high performance in your strategic planning for 2008 and beyond. Insure that the foundation for excellence
doesn't disappear without a trace!
