The Value of Good Policy

Policies and procedures communicate expectations and explain how organizations should conduct their operations.

Indigenous organizations often feel they lose their flexibility when they create policy and specific procedures. In fact, by creating clear and easily understood policy and procedures, clients and community members are provided with safety in their interactions with the organization. Through following the policy, with clearly outlined exceptions, trust in the organizations practices is built.

Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the purpose of having a policy
• Understand that policy is written from the perspective of the values of an organization
• Write policy in clear, plain language
• Recognize where and when to identify exceptions to the policy
• Explain the difference between a policy and procedure and what the purpose is of each of these documents
• Understand and use the process for writing clear procedures associated with specific policies

Part One:
The value, use, and importance of good policy (3hrs)

• What is policy (how is it different from procedures)
• The purpose and function of policy in an organization
• Why values are matter in policy
• What information do you need to write
• Avoiding ambiguity – Plain and Simple
• Revise a Policy
• Practice Writing a Policy

Part Two:
How to create and write procedures (3hrs)

• What are procedures (how is it different from policy)
• The purpose and function of a procedure
• The process for writing a procedure
• Practice revising an existing procedure
• Practice writing a procedure