VERIFICATION

Many people in business suffer the same fate. They issue policies, procedures, reports, and other documents that preach. However, they fail to verify if their pontifications have been implemented. Quite often, they stay in their office and disregard the need for verification, assuming everyone will follow orders.

You can discover how well you’ve implemented your ideas in many ways. You can interview people. You can also collect and review statistical information or metrics to determine the impact on your organization. Or you can walk around the company and observe.

The advantages to verification are obvious. It provides an opportunity to see if linkage exists between decision and implementation. It also enables questioning whether you made a wise decision and helps you to determine whether corrective action is necessary.

for Verification

• Determine exactly what to verify (e.g., a specific procedure).
• Gather as much background about the environment (e.g., people, organization) as possible.
• Compare the item-to-verify with what is actually occurring.
• Note deviation(s).
• Determine whether revisions are necessary to the item-to-verify or with what is actually occurring.
• Take corrective action.