Document as You Implement
People need to refer to policies, procedures and recommended business practices that provide direction concerning how they do their jobs. This type of documentation is especially important when an institution is undergoing change. The best time to establish these materials is when decisions are being made. Functional teams and subject matter experts should work side by side with the staff responsible for outreach, communication and training. The outreach team can help the project team document, prioritize and resolve issues. By being involved in the change implementation, they can assess which changes need to be communicated, to which audiences beyond the project, and when. The documentation becomes the starting point for project communication and training efforts. This method also offers the subject matter experts opportunities to inform and participate in outreach efforts.

Training Is the Beginning
New administrative systems, business process redesign, forms and compliance requirements call for faculty and staff education. Training is an integral component of institutional change. It may be delivered in a classroom, a hands-on computer lab, electronically, or in some combination. Regardless of the delivery method, training should prepare attendees to learn beyond the boundaries of the course. The beauty of training is that professionals can draw from a variety of techniques designed to engage the learner and reinforce concepts and skills that apply to their work. Effective training does not throw a phone book sized manual at people and start reading through at page one. Effective training does prepare the learner to use existing documentation, to stay abreast of updated information and to know where to turn in the future as questions arise. Adult learners should complete their course of study armed with contact information, web site references and familiar documentation that they can refer to when performing business tasks.

Keeping People Informed About New Business Practices and Technology Is Not Impossible, But it Is an Ongoing Effort
At this point, you have implemented changes and delivered a successful training program. Trained staff and faculty have some training materials, perhaps a website and contact information. Faculty and staff need resources to reinforce concepts and skills learned in training. In order to build on all the hard work that went into implementing change and to maintain the project's credibility and relevance, the information they reference needs to be current. If they seek the correct answers, and the answers are not available, they won't come back. Updates should go out as new business decisions are made. When special situations arise, faculty and staff should be able to turn to subject matter experts for the correct resolution.

Business process owners are the ultimate owners of the documentation, not outreach coordinators and trainers. The business owners must ensure that as decisions are made and new requirements are imposed the updates get disseminated to the impacted stakeholders. Of course, the process owners are the people who are the busiest implementing and stabilizing all the change! Whether they do the typing and presenting themselves or work with another resource, part of their job is keeping their constituents informed.

Assign Ownership and an Update Schedule
Develop an inventory of policy and procedure documentation. For every item on the list assign a business process owner who has responsibility for managing the policy, process or business task. In the next column, assign a frequency for how often the information needs to be revisited or updated. For example, the mileage reimbursement rate in the travel reimbursement policy needs to be updated annually. Assign one person to maintain the inventory and gently remind people if they see that the update date is arriving. That might also be the same person who is responsible for making sure the updates are moved to the web site or other documentation repository.

Keep Pushing!
Keeping people informed about new business practices and technology is not impossible, but it is an ongoing effort. Just like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, falling behind can have disastrous results. A well organized, long-term documentation and communication process will build upon a strong training foundation, establish credibility, minimize frustration and mistakes, and make it easier for people to do their jobs correctly.