Procedural Satisfaction, and using it to create substantive change

Last week, we looked at business culture and how it leads to the three satisfactions: relational, procedural, and substantive. Today, I’d like to zoom in on procedural satisfaction, and take a look at how it integrates into the culture equation.

An organization’s processes will, to a large degree, determine whether that organization is capable of substantive change. The processes, protocols and procedures are central to an organization’s internal communications.

By having the right procedures in place, an organization can address issues effectively. The right procedures allow for and even encourage participation in the success of the organization. It brings the relationship between issues and people to the front, where they can be addressed and utilized. When you combine trust in and between your people (relational satisfaction) with trust in the process (procedural satisfaction), you’re ready to bring about meaningful change (substantive satisfaction) for the organization.

Why strive for procedural satisfaction?

A healthy business culture, as we discussed previously, leads to relational, procedural and substantive satisfactions. Procedural satisfaction, in particular, garners specific benefits. It leads to:

• Predictability and certainty around staff meetings. An effective business has meetings in which the participants see themselves as developers — contributors working toward a common goal. Procedural satisfaction encourages this mindset by letting people know exactly what to expect from a staff meeting. If the right procedures are in place, each person knows their role and what they are expected to contribute and take away from meetings.
• Proper assignment and expectation. Too often in businesses the lines between various positions become blurred. While there will inevitably be some overlap between certain jobs, procedural satisfaction makes clear the assigned duties, as well as the expectation, for each person and position. This leads to fewer conflicts and helps to better define the team.
• Clarity, specificity, and integrity around agreements. Procedural satisfaction sets specific parameters in regard to tasks as well as agreements. In addition to removing confusion from an organization, it can actually help to encourage relational satisfaction.

The power of having buy-in on process

By having an agreed-upon process in place, an organization reaps certain benefits. Most significantly, it reflects buy-in from the relevant decision-makers and participants.

This changes how people view process. They agree upon it, which gives them ownership. They know about it in advance. Because their name is on it, they are more likely to bring their best to it.

There is also an aspect in which those who agree to the process can determine whether others in the organization are living up to it. Are others holding up the core values and contributing to the culture or not? In a healthy business culture, this creates a sense of accountability. Be careful here, however; in an unhealthy business culture, it can be an opportunity for an individual to undermine another individual for personal gain. (We’ll talk more next time about relational satisfaction, and how it can mitigate this danger.)

Creating relevant and realistic expectations

An effective process will set specific expectations for decisions as well as outcomes. Here are some questions to ask when developing processes:

• What are the overall expectations? This will allow the participants to address any issues.
• Who is involved in the decision-making process? Being clear about who is responsible for guiding a procedure is essential to getting buy-in, and to the procedure’s overall success.
• What is achievable? A given process should have a definite, reachable goal. Set the expectations too high and you defeat morale. Have loosely-defined goals can be even worse, as people struggle to match their quantifiable results up with nebulous goals.
• What are the issues at hand? What sort of obstacles will you face along the way, and how should they be addressed? While you can’t anticipate every issue to come, you can deal with the immediate issues decisively.
• What can we expect from the agreements reached? Here again, we’re talking about very specific and identifiable outcomes. What will a worthwhile agreement look like?

Expectations done right empower procedural satisfaction. Done wrong, they wreak havoc on procedures as well as on morale.

Feedback and input mechanisms

Procedural satisfaction means having specific mechanisms in place that allow for feedback and input. In fact, in the best kind of corporate culture, feedback and input are regularly invited and expected from people.

Business participants should be able to identify what was accomplished. They should be able to point out quantifiable results. Tasks can always be measured, and participants should be encouraged to measure them. Procedurally, there needs to be a system that defines how and when feedback takes place.

Feedback should also be evaluated. After receiving feedback, you need to ask a few questions:

• Was the feedback meaningful? Did it reflect some important aspect of the business or the process involved?
• Was the feedback purposeful? Does the feedback offer a specific goal or recommended action, such as changing something for the future or replicating certain successful processes?
• Does the feedback give clarity? We keep coming back to clarity for good reason. When dealing with human beings, expectations are essential. Unfortunately, they are often misunderstood. Clarity is integral to procedural satisfaction.

Experiences you create within a timeline (that is, by following procedure) offer an opportunity to be decisive, which will support a healthy business culture.

How procedural satisfaction creates understanding

Procedural satisfaction leads to understanding when everyone involved trusts the process, and leads to change that can be designed, clarified, and agreed upon. If the process is trusted, a discussion can take place which leads to positive change.

Over the next couple of posts, we’ll take a look at relational and substantive satisfaction. Relational satisfaction builds upon procedural satisfaction; together, they work to create an environment in which substantive satisfaction becomes possible. All three are made possible by, and also help to perpetuate, healthy business culture.