Planning
We have a rolling three year plan. The current one finishes this December, the next one starts in January 2022. We are writing that one as I newsletter. It contains all of the above requirements from the standard and a little bit more. Heck, it even talks about succession plans and blue sky thinking. But we don’t just write it and then leave it fallow. The plan is reviewed biannually by the directors to ensure there is no drift. Sure there is always drift, but we react, improve, test and rethink. Each of these reviews are recorded and any opportunities or risks identified, get rolled into our RIO (Ree-oh, which actually stands for “risk improvement opportunity”) system for further evaluation and escalation as needed.
We could probably do without our risk register because of the detail in our plan. But our plan doesn’t talk quality-speak, so we keep its intent intact; and cut over to the requirements of the standard through a risk register, objectives register, a structured management review forum, an open and monthly team huddle and a wonderful scorecard for all team members to measure our progress and understand how they contribute to our success. Just walking the talk folks.