Activities and Games to prepare for ISO Audit

C

carpeml3

#1
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.
 
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A

arios

#2
Re: Activities/games to prepare for ISO audit

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.
In 1992 when the first companies started to get ISO certified in my area, our QA and HR departments came up with a brilliant idea to promote the knowledge of the standard:

A selected group of employees (wearing Mariachi sombreros and fake mustaches, and fake guns) joined to walk from one side of the facility to the other with a video camera and approached the employees randomly to ask them about their procedures, the quality objectives, the quality policy, etc. The video was later shown on the cafeteria and every body learned and had a big fun hearing the answers and how even a manager was chased when he tried to hide in a mens-room. The ones who gave the best answers were given small gifts as a souvenir.

On the other hand, these folks also made a very good video of two employees being interviewed in an "audit". The role of one of the actors was the good guy giving the right answers as to how he was trained, how to segregate non-conforming product, and the use of his visual aids and the use of the calibration status labels. The other actor was a crack-up, making up answers or lying to the auditor or just putting himself into trouble with his silly comments. The result was amazing, everybody in the company went into the same motivation and we had a successful QMS implementation, which also turned into a successful audit result.

I am glad you wish to incorporate fun into your project., it really works. For me it brings very good memories about those who were involved in that project back in the early 90's.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
#3
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.
Maybe you could try another focus? 'ISO' isn't important to 95% of people! If the procedures aren't helping, maybe that's why they are bogged down in 'paperwork'. I think you may wish to re-evaluate what's going on here, before you try to 'energize' people when it's maybe not necessary...
 

Stijloor

Staff member
Super Moderator
#4
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.
The best quality systems I have seen are the ones that are not even noticed by the employees. Their quality system is totally integrated, is a way of life, it's their culture, and operates flawlessly without the hoopla.

Stijloor.
 

Golfman25

Trusted Information Resource
#5
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.
Riddle me this batman: If your employees are bogged down in paperwork, how are the procedures making their life easier?
 
M

Migre

#6
I completely agree with AndyN, Stijloor & Golfman25. I'm attempting to implement a system which, when functioning as I want it to be, won't even be recognised by the employees (in that they won't be able to refer to a recognised Quality Management System as such but they'll certainly be able to refer to the elements of it which are embedded within their day-to-day work).

I'm not necessarily saying the "fun" approach is a definite no-no but I really would pay heed to the above comments, certainly when it comes to judging the nature and mood of your workforce. The last thing you need is to alienate them and cause resentment before you've even begun, especially if they're already bogged down with paperwork. For instance, I would never attempt such an approach where I work. The general mood of staff here is indifferent at best, downright cynical and bitter at worse (given recent pay-cuts, no annual pay-rise, uncertain futures and the prospect of huge cut-backs), hence my need to go about my job in a fairly subtle and understated manner.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.
 
M

mzeeshanz

#7
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
 
G

George Costanza

#8
Oh YEA!! Migre you said it. With the hostile environment where I work, and regarding lay-offs, cutting salaries by 10% and freezing wages year over year back to back any sign of blowing smoke will bring on feelings of resentment and disgust. Keep low key.
 
Q

qagirl

#9
I had to train over 300 employees on an ISO 13485 quality system a few years back. It was hard to make it creative - and not boring. I created a 'game' where there was a list of important questions to answer about the specifics of quality system procedures - and the people in the class paired up in teams and had to find the answers in the QA Manual. The list of questions was about 30 questions long. I had so much fun when I trained groups of 40 people. When each group sat around for 45 minutes reading the QA Manual to find the answers to the questions - I stood by and smiled that it was the first time that I got so many people to actually read the 4-inch binder of procedures. :biglaugh:

The questions were things like: Who can initiate a CAPA? How many people have to approve an Engineering Change? these are questions that everyone should know - but maybe they don't know where in the procedures they are located.
 
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