Policy and Procedure

There's a way that we do things. And there are reasons that we do things the way we do them. And there are consequences to doing them that way. 

There are things we consider when we're deciding how we do things and things that we don't consider and things that we consider, then decide not to consider any more and things that we haven't considered that end up surprising us. 

I am fairly fond of saying that it doesn't much matter to me what we do as long as we're consistent about it. When I see policies and procedures being violated, my conclusion is that we either need to enforce the policy that we have or re-evaluate and change it to match what we're actually doing. It's hard to function in the world when you don't know what it expects of you, what it requires of you, and where it restricts you. 

And yet, there are also times that I basically scream that we must re-evaluate what we're doing, but honestly, I'm screaming into the abyss. 

In just the past week, I've run up against both. 

I've run up against breaches of policy that have caused me to push and say that we need to either enforce or evaluate because that's going to be valuable for how we function in that space. But then, just a few days later, I came up against policy that we desperately need to re-evaluate because it's hurting folks. Real folks. Real hurt. 

Maybe that's the deciding factor for me - are we hurting anyone or are we just creating chaos? If we're just creating chaos, then let's step back and decide what we want to do about it. But if we're hurting folks, let's throw the whole thing out and try something different. 

The truth is...things in this world can change. The effects of our policies can change. The impact of what we're doing can change. And it's not enough to sit back and say, "We already thought about this and made a decision, so there's no point in revisiting it or considering a different decision." Sometimes, there is a point in that. 

For example, if you give someone a certain responsibility and it later becomes apparent that they are not capable of handling that responsibility, then it is a failure of the system to sit back and say, "We already decided to give them that responsibility. There's no need to reconsider any of that." This assumes we don't live in a changing ecosystem. It assumes that things are static and persons are reliable and that nothing is ever deceptive or broken. 

Our due diligence requires us to always be re-evaluating our policies and procedures. (And not just the formal ones.) The reality of living in a fallen, broken world is that we have to keep playing it by ear for as long as we're living here, able to adapt and change and make adjustments as necessary for the outcomes that we want, whatever we determine those to be. Because the road that gets you there today might need a little tweaking a couple of years from now to get you to the same place. You might have to make a little fork in that road tomorrow. You don't know. 

But you have to be ready for that. You can't just sit back and say, "That's the policy. That's what we decided, so that's what we're doing." Because it won't take long before what you're doing will take you some place you don't want to go, and you'll end up there without even realizing that's where you're headed, and then you'll look around and wonder how it happened...and it happened because you were more confident in the policy than you were invested in the outcome. 

So be flexible. Reconsider things. Take new information into account. Make a new decision. Alter your course. Do what it takes to get you where you're going. Invest in your outcomes. Take ownership of your decisions. 

And...do something good and beautiful in this world.