We are looking for "fun" ways to teach and learn why ISO is important, how ISO works and to review the details of our procedures.
It seems as though our employees have gotten bogged down in the "paperwork" and have forgotten that the procedures are in place to make lives easier!
Any suggestions for games or activities that will engage all employees would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
Agreed with other members in a sense that if your employees are bogged down in the paperwork there must be some problem either in the documentation system or in the practices of change management.
To comply with an ISO standard does not mean to have heavy documentation system. For example, the requirement to have a documented procedure can be fulfilled by making a simple one page flow diagram that could be understandable for all stakeholders.
Other that heavy documentation system another reason of poor acceptability of procedures are bad practices of change management. People generally resist change. Whence managers try to induce changes/improvements in the existing way of work, the workers usually do not accept the same with open heart unless that manager uses the best practices of change management. (a lot of good stuff is available on net related to principles and good practices of change management such as
http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm)
So in my opinion, you have to follow some essential steps like following to make your procedures and systems the way of life of your employees and staff:
1- Make your documentation system as much lean as possible (simple, understandable, less time taking in reading and recording). First exclude additional and useless documentation that is not matched with the requirements of auditable ISO standard. An effective and efficient system with mandatory requirements only is better than ineffective and non-efficient sophisticated system blended with requirements beyond the scope of auditable standard. Its good to cross the boundaries but only when you have successfully completed all the pre-requisites.
2- Generally implementation of procedures is judged with the implementation of associated forms/formats. Make a routine (other than internal audit) to check the implementation of forms/formats and note down associated problems such as difficulty in recording, duplication of information, recording of useless or non-synchronized data etc.
3- Involve your people to own the procedure. Arrange simple discussion sessions to focus on one procedure at a time. Invite all stakeholders related to that procedure for open discussion. Tell them guidelines for positive open discussion. Tell them what are the requirements written in the procedure to perform core activities. Ask questions from stakeholders about the difficulties they usually face while performing their work according to the procedure. Write down the conflicts between different functions in performing work. Tell them that management would consider their problems in line with the requirements and company policies. Discuss the proposals for changes with senior managers with the objective to simplify and improve the procedure.
4- Design short sessions to give training / awareness on one procedure at a time. With the help of multiple-choice simple and logical questionnaire evaluate the understandings of stakeholders and focus on gaps.
Hope it helps!
Zeeshan