Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures [Paperback]

MBA (Author), PMP (Author), CFC (Author), Stephen Page (Author, Editor, Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1929065507 | ISBN-13: 978-1929065509 | Publication Date: June 1, 2010 | Edition: 5th Edition

Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures is a longer version of the author's popular book, Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures. This book helps the reader understand how to make improvements to existing policies and procedures as well as how to add improvements to new policies and procedures the first time through (NOTE: Often writers document a process as a policy or procedure and then later, in the next revision, add improvements). A case study is used to show just how easy it is to make improvements to policy and procedure content.

Complete chapters are included on process improvement, communications, training, compliance, auditing, cost benefit analyses, team building, writing policies and procedures, and for making changes to the company's culture to assure the success of published policies and procedures.

A 40-step action plan provides information for how a policy and procedure program should be set up; it also gives ideas to the policy and procedure writer as to the required flow for writing policies and procedures from A to Z.

There is a bonus chapter at the end of the book that gives you ideas as to what a policy and procedure writer should be studying to enhance their skills.

This book is based on a case study and will take an old, outdated procedure and show the reader how to do process improvements and turn the procedure into a streamlined procedure that's easier to use and apply.

Examples of policies and procedures are also included in the appendices to this book. Check out the author's website for additional information and a place to find free advice: Just Google for the URL: companymanuals.com.

There is a 100+ word glossary as well as an index.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stephen Page is the author of four books on policies and procedures, each one complementing the other. This set of books is the only work of its kind in the industry. There are other books but they focus primarily on editing and word choice, not on actually showing the reader how to do research, write a draft, get it reviewed and approved, get it published, communicate and train it, measure it, and revise it. These steps are missing in the other books.
This author, Stephen Page, has received hundreds of praises from readers saying how wonderful and easy the books are to read and apply. These books will become a part of your reference library and you will be proud to own them.
Stephen Page has written three other books that complement this book including "Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures," "7 Steps to Better Written Policies and Procedures," and "Best Practices in Policies and Procedures." Do yourself a favor and read all of his books. You'll never buy another policy or procedure book.
NOTE: These books are TIMELESS and regardless of the copyright, they will never go out of date. This is why we love the books so much. --Process Improvement Publishing Editorial

From the Publisher

"Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures" is the third book of a four-part series on policies and procedures. This exciting new business book focuses on a subject that fills a major void for those individuals who are responsible for the life cycle of business processes, policies, and procedures. This 359-page book is all about change and continuous quality improvement as it applies to policies and procedures. A real-life case study is used to help explain the principles of this book. The reader is led from a labor-intensive system (procedure, procedure flow chart) through the necessary steps, including a cost-benefit analysis, to accomplish compliance and continuous improvement, resulting in a business process/procedure and a $2 million dollars savings.

This book is about improvement and metrics and contains five quality tools for measuring policies and procedures. As the title suggests, the goal is to achieve 100% compliance, or complete acceptance by the customer. While a compliance goal of 100% is ambitious, you’ll find the process of achieving the goal is just as important as achieving it. Through plans and goals, you’ll increase productivity, profits, and customer satisfaction; as well as minimize process variation, enhance quality, reduce cycle and response time, and help the organization become receptive to change and develop a proactive (forward thinking) outlook.

This book is a necessary addition to any procedures writer’s reference library as it helps to ensure that the policies and procedures infrastructure remains stable by demonstrating to the reader how to write effective policies and procedures that can be measured, communicated, trained, mentored, audited, and improved. There are more than 75 illustrations, examples, tables, flow charts, and written procedures using the standard writing format introduced in my first book, Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures. Most readers will find something useful in this book.

The last chapter of this book focuses on the career opportunities for the procedures writer. A large number of books and associations are referenced.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 359 pages
• Publisher: Process Improvement Publishing; 5th Edition edition (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929065507
• ISBN-13: 978-1929065509
• ASIN: 1929065493
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Total Quality Management
  • #53 in Books > Business & Investing > Skills > Business Writing

More About the Author

Stephen Page is a world-known author and subject matter expert on policies and procedures as well as being an author of other books (FICTION: White House Secrets - Kindle version, NON-FICTION: Yes Dear, You're Right - Kindle version, and NON-FICTION: Putting Secrets for the Weekend Golfer, copyright 1995, published by St. Martin's Press). While the core of his writing centers around policies and procedures, he is working toward becoming a well known author for his two latest books, White House Secrets, a suspense thriller and Yes Dear, You're Right, a coffee table book for men and women who want great relationships and a passionate love life. On to policies and procedures...read ahead for how to get free advice

He has written six books on policies, procedures, work instructions, and continuous process improvement. He has sold his books to more than 114 countries. He regularly speaks on how to write policies and procedures. He consults for large and small companies on how to improve their system of policies and procedures and how to write consistent, logical, and easy to read policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards. He offers a tested and proven method for writing policies and procedures. He offers a free writing format to anyone who asks. He offers FREE ADVICE to anyone who emails him at [e-mail]. He is always ready to chat about policies and procedures. Give him and his books a try.

Stephen Page was born in New Mexico in 1949. He graduated from UCLA with an MBA in Management in 1974. He is certified as a project management professional, records manager, software engineer, and a forms consultant. He has written more than 7000 policies and procedures and manuals. He has designed more than 3000 forms. He has worked on projects such as TQM, CMMI, Value Engineering, ISO Quality Standards, continuous process improvement, LEAN, 5S, and the Malcolm Baldrige Award. He was a newsletter editor for more than 7 years at a division of Eastman Kodak and the communications manager for two years.

His current projects include developing innovation control guidelines, becoming an ISO 9001:2008 quality lead auditor, designing a business continuity system, setting up a way to declare email messages as records, designing an archive solution for electronic records, writing new policies and procedures for the Finance department and procedures for the human resources department in India, and developing new documentation processes for CMMI.

He works hard to make continuous improvements to everything he does in business and in his personal life. He has written FOUR POLICIES AND PROCEDURES books over the past 10 years. He wrote these books because at the time he couldn't find any book that could help him write policies and procedures and create a program that would include researching, writing, reviewing, publishing, communicating, training, maintenance, quality improvement, and revisions. He wrote these books to help all the would-be, novice, and seasoned policy and procedure writers. An interesting fact: He has also written PUTTING SECRETS for the Weekend Golfer, a procedures-based putting style.

NOTE: He wrote the Writing Exceptional Policies and Procedures in electronic format only and this book is only available on Kindle today. If you buy directly from him, you can get it free as a part of the 4-book package.

He has developed a writing format that can be used consistently for policies and procedures. The original writing format (page layout for the content of a topic) had six sections. Now 10 years later, the writing format has 8 sections and is likely to remain at that number as these 8 sections contain everything necessary to write clear and concise policies and procedures for any company in any industry, including governmental agencies in any country. He is currently considering a varied format for CMMI-oriented processes and procedures.

His books are widely sold in more than 94 countries, technical colleges, associations, and online bookstores. He has served as a consultant for many corporations, large and small, to help them quickly develop a robust policies and procedures program using a standard writing format.

Each of the four books has its own theme. The best combinations are: (1) Establishing and 7 Steps; (2) Establishing, 7 Steps, and Best Practices; and (3) Establishing, 7 Steps, Best Practices, and Achieving. While these four books are also available on Kindle, the fifth book, Writing Exceptional Policies and Procedures is only available on the Kindle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TQM-Based approach to implementing and ensuring compliance, May 2, 2001

By 

Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures (Paperback)

This book is one of the most eye-opening, practical and insightful books I have read in a long time. It's one thing to write effective policies and procedures, it's quite another to implement them, and more difficult still to ensure compliance. The author's approach addresses the implementation and compliance challenges head-on.

The key strength of this book is the continuous improvement approach. I am familiar with the TQM Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle because I use a similar approach called Entry Criteria-Task-Validation-Exit Criteria (ETVX)when I am developing processes that are governed by policies and executed by procedures. What I had not thought of before reading this book was how to best implement and enforce policies and ensure procedure compliance. This book showed me how to superimpose the PDCA or ETVX cycle on communicating, measuring and continually refining policies and procedures by starting with writing policies and procedures that can be measured. I found the 40-step plan provided in this book to be straightforward and easy to manage. Do not let "40 steps" deter you because the steps are small and build upon one another. This is reinforced by a case study that completely illustrates how the 40-step plan is applied to a realistic example.

How to implement your policies and procedures is covered in the chapters on communications and training strategies, which are exhaustive and filled with tips and guidance. These chapters are fleshed out with a chapter on creating a review and communication control plan, which is essential for keeping your policies and procedures up-to-date and ensuring that they are living documents that are meaningful to your organization. Outdated policies are often ignored, which is worse than having no policy at all. Ignored policies undermine authority, which is the foundation of a policy. Outdated procedures can result in technical and cost risks at best and unsafe working conditions at worst. The next chapter on establishing a compliance plan is excellent. It incorporates measurements and validation, and shows how to develop and use the compliance plan. This is augmented by an invaluable chapter on developing self-assessment checklists, and how to evaluate the results of an assessment and how to rectify gaps.

Among the most valuable (to me) chapters in this book were: preparing an organization to be receptive to change (a major implementation barrier), conducting audits (key to compliance assurance), and conducting continuous improvement activities (keeping the policies and procedures relevant and aligned to changing requirements and business imperatives).

The information and approach given in this book will make the difference between policies and procedures that are "shelfware" and those that provide real guidance and are meaningful to an organization. I personally think this is one of the most important books on the topic, and the only one that I have come across that actually shows how to implement them and ensure compliance.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceeded my Expectations, October 5, 2000

By 

"aamey" (Phoenix, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures (Paperback)

This book is exactly what I was hoping for. The Case Study was extremely helpful. The book blends nicely and complements his last book - "Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures". The self-assessment checklists play well into our environment where we have to calculate outcome studies to display positive/negative implementation results. Chapter 4, Establishing a Communication Strategy, was very informative being a common breakdown point in any organization, especially when

applied to Policies and Procedures.

We will be purchasing more of these books in the near future.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for TQM, ISO 9000 and GMP organizations, February 20, 2002

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures (Paperback)

Of the three books that the author has published on policies and procedures this one is a masterpiece, and is essential to anyone who works for a company that employ TQM, ISO 9000 or FDA GMP.

Where his first book, Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures, provides a roadmap for new policy writers, this book takes the subject to a much higher level by providing a process that encompasses communications and training strategies, a compliance plan, and continuous improvement. These align seamlessly with ISO 9000, as well as FDA GMPs, and is consistent with the TQM Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. In addition, the self-assessment and auditing approaches set forth will assure policies and procedures that reflect a mature organization that is focused on quality and continuous improvement.

Among the highlights of the book are the numerous checklists, real-life examples, and an underlying strategy for the development of a comprehensive and complete system of policies and procedures, and a means to assure compliance. I particularly liked Appendix C, Cost of Quality, and the succinct description of tools and techniques in chapter 11.

Another strong point is the complexities of marrying policies and procedures writing with a continuous improvement cycle and auditing are handled in a structured, logical sequence. This is no small feat for a writer, and it is one of the reasons this book is so valuable. This book sets a standard in the field and is one that I'll always recommend to colleagues and clients.