My Love-Hate Relationship with the Procedures Manual

Measuring in at 165 single-spaced pages and 50,000 words, the procedures manual that we developed for our department is a true administrative tome or tomb, depending on your perspective.

The past year has included both an system audit and a formal self-assessment for our department. Among many positive findings, these experiences have also exposed the occasional inconsistency in procedure, gap in documentation, or unwritten understanding. In response, we shored up our procedures, which doubled the heft of our manual.

I will admit that part of my personality relishes the crispness and clarity of a thorough procedures manual. Following rules can produce a certain beauty, like a well-mown lawn. Following rules can also keep one out of of trouble, which - generally speaking - is a good thing for a department to do. Add to the equation that I (the department director) am preparing to leave the institution. There is both efficiency and comfort in the institutional memory created in the page upon page of the procedures manual. Structure can be empowering.

  Of course, structure can also be imprisoning. As a department director, I could easily spend all of my time and then some simply documenting whether or not we are in compliance with our procedures manual. I would like to think that I have something greater to contribute to the grand mission of higher education than simply ensuring that all of our receipts are in order. The zeitgeist of auditors can quickly mistake the forest for the trees.

  So how can we strike the right chord to harmonize procedures and performance?

Procedures should be driven by the end user. As department director, I set the parameters while engaging the end users to operationalize the structure. Not only does this engender ownership and hence implementation, but it also incorporates the best ideas of the most informed.

Procedures should be clearly demarcated as a means to an end. The purpose of my department is to improve student outcomes, not to follow procedures. It is imperative to structure procedures accordingly. A procedure should support achievement of your goals. This is a simple litmus test.

  A procedure should be reflective instead of additive. It can be easy to simply pile one procedure on top of another as new situations or understandings arise. Soon your department will make a Byzantine labyrinth look like a stroll through the park. Reflect on your procedures manual as an interconnected system and mindfully create, refine or eliminate procedures accordingly.

  Should I print bounded copies of my procedures manual...or should burn it? I have experienced both ends of the emotional spectrum. Approaching the procedures manual as a strategic tool to support the effective and appropriate achievement of outcomes, as opposed to a sacred text for proselytizing and condemnation, is a step toward a healthy relationship.