It’s gotten pretty lax.
What was once a well-defined line is now a big grey zone.
Basically, it’s become unmanaged.
What do we do now?
Here are some steps to get things back on track:
1. We have to own up to it. Tell staff, “Our bad, we have not been upholding this policy and we are changing that now.”
2. Start over. Clearly state the policy as if it is brand new. Make sure everyone understands it.
3. Set a grace period. Now you manage with reminding, coaching and supporting staff to come into compliance. Use noticing, acknowledging and appreciating, be careful not to fall into impatience and irritability.
4. Moving forward with conversations of accountability. After the grace period if there are still stragglers move forward with 6 step accountability conversations.
Drift from policies doesn’t have to be a big thing.
Remember, it all boils down to dealing with employee incidents one at a time with acknowledgement, reminding and /or correcting.
Often the main problems for us as managers is that the policy wasn’t valued in the first place.
So, part of repurposing a policy is to remember the value that policies bring the co-op and ourselves.