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Mastering the Manual
A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Marilyn Stieneke has held responsibility for compliance issues and quality initiatives in a number of agency settings throughout the past 24 years. She has authored policy and procedures manuals for the North Carolina Division of Community Correction, North Carolina Department of Correction Pre-Release Training Program, Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, the North Carolina Criminal Justice Partnership Program, and the Cary (NC) Police Department. Currently, the Accreditation Manager for the Cary Police Department, Marilyn is the Vice President of the North Carolina Law Enforcement Accreditation Network (NCLEA), and a CALEA assessor. The Thud Test Have you heard of the Thud Test for evaluating the quality of agency policies and procedures? Ask a group of policy writers how they judge the quality of their policies and procedures, and at least a few will say, "I rely on the thud test.” "What's that?" you might ask. "After completing the policy and procedures manual, I drop it on the floor," they answer. "The louder the thud, the better the manual." Although some agencies still measure the quality of written directives by weight or volume, many are beginning to understand the liabilities of policies and procedures that are too many, too long, or too wordy. To be effective, policy and procedures manuals must be trim, current and accessible. Consider some examples of policies and procedures that are not trim, current, and accessible: · A General Orders manual that includes step-by-step internal operating procedures for every unit whose commander believes that a procedure will secure the unit's existence during reorganization. · A policy that buries critical decision-making criteria in wordy narrative paragraphs. · A draft agency policy that requires eleven original signatures for approval, half of which belong to off-site supervisors and command staff who are not directly involved with the issue being addressed. · A written directives manual containing copies of forms, with separate procedures for filling out each form. · A 350-page Standard Operating Procedures manual with a one-page, non-alphabetized index. · A policy issued or revised by memorandum as an immediate "knee-jerk" response to a particular event, yet remaining in effect for years or even decades. · A policy and corresponding procedure with pages of commentary, written by a supervisor eager to demonstrate his comprehensive knowledge of the subject and ability to use "legalese”. · A written directives manual with two years of updates stuffed behind the last page. All of these examples demonstrate written directives systems that are bulky, hard to access, time-consuming to process, obsolete, incomplete, or resource gobbling. None of the examples support an agency's responsiveness to rapidly changing conditions. All can sabotage an accreditation manager's best efforts toward effectively managing written directives. Flunking the Thud Test Well-written, streamlined policies and procedures flunk the Thud Test. Streamlining can be accomplished by using a zero-based approach. Rather than arguing for excluding a given policy or procedure or portion of one, this approach requires the justification of its inclusion. Each new manual, policy, procedure, section, paragraph, or phrase is evaluated from a zero base. That means that nothing is accepted into the written directives system unless it can be proven to meet clearly defined needs, or its exclusion can be shown to cause possible harm to the agency or its employees. Test criteria for a zero-based approach can be stated in question form. A positive answer to any one of the following questions justifies inclusion or further study. Four "no's" and the policy or procedure should be history. 1. Is it required by law or by CALEA standard? 2. Is it specified by contract? 3. Is it necessary for effective operations? 4. Would any harm come to the agency or its employees if it were eliminated? On a Mission Policies and procedures should be derived from the defined mission of the agency and the agency's overall philosophy. Without a mission statement, the policy and procedures manual will, in all probability, contain policies that lack direction and are contradictory, resulting in confusion in their implementation and inconsistency of enforcement. Therefore, before the first draft or revision is begun, the agency's management should make sure that the mission of the agency and its operating philosophy are clearly defined and understood, in compliance with CALEA standard 12.2.1 (a). In many agencies, the terms "policy" and "procedure" or "standard operating procedure" are used interchangeably to describe a management directive relating to the performance of a particular activity. The terms do, however, have distinctly different meanings, which are relevant to their development. The Glossary section of the Standards Manual of the Law Enforcement Agency Accreditation Program defines policy as "a written directive that is a broad statement of agency principles" and procedure as "a written directive that is a guideline for carrying out agency activities." In general terms, a policy reflects the agency's philosophy regarding a particular issue. It defines what the agency intends to do, on a consistent basis, with respect to that issue. In some cases it also may address why the agency intends to take that defined action. A procedure, on the other hand, describes in a sequential manner how - and who, when, and where - the agency intends to implement the policy. The policy and procedures manual as a comprehensive document is an organized compilation of many policies and procedures developed to address all aspects of the agency and its operations.
Essential Characteristics Policies and procedures, if they are to be an effective management tool, should reflect the following: Agency Philosophy and Desired Outcomes The policy and procedures manual provides staff members with a clear, overall picture of the purpose of the agency and their respective roles in the fulfillment of that purpose. Constitutional and Professional Requirements These include federal laws, state statutes, administrative rules and regulations, and professional standards. CALEA standards in particular are an excellent source for determining performance requirements in various subject areas. Because standards are written as objective, measurable directives, they are often easily adapted into policy statements. Operational Realities Each agency has unique mandates, characteristics, capabilities, and limitations, all of which affect the content of the agency's policies and procedures. This issue is often overlooked by agencies that attempt to use model manuals or manuals from other agencies, only to find that the contents cannot be applied in many situations. The Any Key Most of you have probably heard the tale of the computer help-desk operator who received a call from a perplexed new computer owner who, having read in the user's manual to "press any key" called in to ask "Where's the any key? I can't find it anywhere on my keyboard." The saga of the any key is a reminder to keep the end-user in mind when writing policies and procedures. Start where your readers are, and do not write at a level higher than your readers' knowledge of the subject. Resist the temptation to use legalese. Make sure all the information needed to carry out a procedure is given, the steps are presented in logical sequence, and the meaning is unmistakably clear. The Manual: Who Needs It? A trim, current, and accessible written directives manual is an effective management tool that can benefit the agency in many ways. A well-written manual:
Electronic Alternatives Online policies and procedures can be a tremendous improvement over hard copy manuals. Some benefits of electronic systems include immediate accessibility to current information, no inserting of hard copy updates, printing on demand, reduced costs, reduced time from approval to publication, and much faster searching. The best online systems include links to related forms and data, automatic notification, and an integrated search engine. To maintain the integrity of the current version of policies and procedures, an online system should include an "enabling" statement that defines the manual and its format, explains the approval authority system and maintenance responsibilities, and establishes that the online version prevails. Before deciding to publish an electronic "manual”, it is helpful to ask the following questions: · Would publishing both in print and electronically be advantageous or possible? · How much more effective would an electronic "manual" be? · How much value is added by offering search ability, timeliness, instant access, and the time and money saved in revising and reprinting? · Would it be as readable, as easily distributed, as easily accessed? · Would it be perceived as having the same authority? · Which format would be most useful? · Which format and delivery system can the agency support (software and hardware)? · Does the agency have staff with the time and expertise to produce and maintain and electronic "manual"? Mastering the Manual is a training session designed to provide participants with ideas for improving their agency's policies and procedures - to help trim them down, keep them current, and make them easily accessible and user-friendly. Covered are the basics of layout, design, and effective technical writing principles, as well as more advanced concepts of indexing, streamlining, updating, and online options. Presented at recent CALEA conferences in Greensboro and San Diego, Mastering the Manual will be on the training agenda again in Jacksonville, Florida in March 2002.
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