Documentation Example

The Need: A multi-service agency was frustrated by the impact of staff turnover. New or re-assigned managers were asking the same questions their predecessors’ had asked just a few years before. They also noticed staff re-inventing similar solutions to the same old problems. Different departments were often unaware of one anothers’ procedures and policies, or were separately pursuing parallel solutions to the same problem, duplicating efforts and wasting time.

How we helped: MGA helped the organization create a single, widely accessible “Resource Library”. An interdepartmental  team of staff became committed to a simple concept: all staff and departments must be responsible for articulating their policies and procedures, and for placing these in a single, known place online (where everyone would be able to find them). They created this online place by using simple technology already available in the organization. They made sure each department had a volunteer “librarian” who would publicize the notion and enforce its proper use within their part of the organizaiton.

The Results: Over a period of months, the new Library gathered steam. Soon, all staff knew where to put their “finished” documents. They also knew where to go find any policies, forms and procedures they might need. Rather than burying or losing the accumulated knowledge of each worker within his or her own email, personal directory or paper files, critical information is now retained in a common repository. Even after employees have moved on, their contributions live on in the “Institutional Memory” of the organization.