Webinar Highlights: Are You Tempted to Use a Template to Expedite Policies & Procedure Development?

Last week Raymond Urgo – also know as “Mr. P&P” – covered a highly useful topic you may not have considered before. If you are authoring or revamping your Policies and Procedures, what considerations should you have around templates? Should you work with boilerplate? Should you have a dynamic “shell” that your staff can easily fill in? There are many choices, and the wrong choice can have consequences down the road. Urgo gave some very sage advice: “Know the rules before you choose the tools.”

You will find a link to the recorded webinar at the end of this blog.

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Are You Tempted to Use a Template to Expedite Policies & Procedure Development? from Raymond Urgo

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Aliases for Policy and Procedure “templates”

Believe it or not, there is not even agreement on what most people generally consider to be a template for P&P:

• Boilerplate
• Formatting style sheet
• Cascading style sheet
• Canned procedures
• Packaged procedures
• Pre-written procedures

Key Issues to Address about P&P Templates

• Who will actually use the template?
• What are you trying to achieve with a template?
• What leads you to believe a template is the answer?
• What type of template are you considering for your needs?
• What are its limitations for your needs?

Definition: Content Format Template

“Provides the prescribed, sequential layout of generic sections (such as Purpose, Scope, Responsibilities and Procedures) of a P&P document, so the writer can “fill in the blanks” with the information.”

Definition: Mechanical Format and Style Templates

Provides macros or instructions for:

• creating a pre-set layout for pages or screens
• applying pre-set fonts and type sizes for headings, text, tables and more.

Definition: Prewritten Policies & Procedures Templates

Provides generic content about P&P-related subject matter for adaptation to the specific needs of a user or organization.

Listen to the recorded webinar

Raymond Urgo addresses many specific issues and sub-bullets not covered in this brief summary. In order to view the webinar, click here: “Are you Tempted to Use a Template to Expedite Policies & Procedure Development?“. You will learn a great deal and also avoid many common mistake by following Raymond’s experienced advice.