I Don't Believe It!

You can read good words about the importance and value of standards at the various sources such as the International Standards Organisation and British Standards Institute web sites and it all makes good sense. Well, up to a point.

As far as standards are concerned, best practice, ethical behaviour and transparency are what I would prefer to see in everyone I enjoy some sort of engagement with.

So, I’m a believer when it comes to standards but I still have some concerns.

The concerns I have are about the difference between accreditation and implementation.

For something to be fit for purpose it must comply with the requirements, specifications, guidelines or characteristics as described by the standard that defines fitness for purpose. Yet implementation of accredited process seems a bit loose.

Demonstrating a required level of competence is one thing, employing that competence within a strict set of process guidelines is something entirely different. Of course there could be random evaluation of cases at the next review for continued accreditation but the horse may have already bolted.

I’ve learned to cope with the driving stresses of our British road network and have broken the habit of impersonating Victor Meldrew every time someone cuts me up or carelessly pulls out causing me to have to complete an emergency stop. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the vast majority of these drivers have actually been accredited with knowing how to drive properly, observing traffic law and the Highway Code, yet they choose to behave differently to how they did to obtain a driving licence.

The good news is that for more serious instances of ignoring example demonstrated in obtaining the licence there is some policing and penalty, in some cases resulting in that licence being revoked. The horse has already bolted in this case too though.

Some would argue that the comparison between a standard and a driving licence is somewhat tenuous. Maybe so, but the fact is we can obtain accreditation to standards and then simply ignore them, merely using that accreditation as a tick in the box enabling us to engage with a particular industry sector or to allow us to present ourselves as better than someone who doesn’t have the same accreditation, so giving us an advantage.

As a consumer of a service I would always choose an accredited person or company over the alternative. Who chooses to jump into an unlicensed hire car when a licensed taxi is available, even though both drivers are likely to have some driving competence?

So accreditation to a recognised standard is obviously a good thing from a promotional perspective but could it be more? I believe so, yes!

By lifting the process definitions off the document and giving them life through technology we can start to enable the process as integral to the way we conduct our business. So instead of just saying, we start doing what the accreditation implies we will.

There are many additional benefits over and above those that come with a good standard as well. Single source of content means no more wrong versions of forms or ‘boiler-plate’ templates, change management is easy and cheap, training costs fall dramatically and evidencing compliance becomes a natural bi-product of the process.

It just makes sense. If you want to raise the bar get accredited. If you want to raise it even higher, automate your accredited process.

The technology is there to ensure process is followed so we can close the stable door before the horse bolts in a business scenario.

Unfortunately, motoring technologies aren’t available yet to enforce best practice on our drivers.

Who Has the Louder Voice? Actions or Words?

Looking around the abundant content relating to the various accreditations available to organisations that suggest quality, ethics and standards, I can’t help reflect on that often used phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’.

Attaining accreditation to something like ISO9001, ISO22222 or the more recently published BS8577 can be onerous, expensive and frustrating yet once accreditation is achieved does it actually deliver the benefits it should? In truth, the answer is ‘unlikely’!

I’ve seen how some organisations will gain accreditation to then forget the procedures they have so meticulously documented for the assessors scrutiny, consigning the procedure manual to a rarely visited corner of a filing cupboard to collect dust, ‘until the next time’.

Nobody worries or even thinks about those beautifully crafted process flows that describe how things get done, or don’t as the case may well be. No, what happens the moment the assessor has left the building is, business as usual. So what’s the point?

In many cases the point is ‘a box ticking exercise’. We are ISO blah blah so we must be better! Well, actually, no, that doesn’t work unless the requirements to achieve accreditation are actually put into practice instead of just documented and forgotten. So this begs the question as to why such procedures, once documented, are not actually adopted and put into practice.

The answer is quite simple, it’s just too difficult. The process flows say things are done in a certain way, forms always get completed and a record is maintained of everything that is done, and so it goes on. Get the point? It looks like it’s making life more, not less, difficult to do the job. And, sadly, that is the reality of the situation in many accredited organisations, I know, I once worked for one.

It easy to fall back on what we have always done if the better way is more difficult.

The outcome is, therefore, expense, effort and frustration for a certificate when it should actually be for a better quality product, more ethical behaviours and a higher standard of service resulting in a more secure and compliant business with growing profits and lower risk.

To really get the benefits from our investment in attaining accreditation we need to find a way of making our words, or our documented business processes in this case, into actions. Bring the documented procedures to life and let them work for us.

Then the actions really will be louder than the words.