Summary: Clear Desk Policy

[David Harrison <david-x -dot- harrison -at- BAE -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Thanks to all the direct answers that you all sent in on my recent query -
they were very helpful.
Of course there were a few visible judders as some considered that "Clear
Desk" just meant having to clean you desk up at the end of the day and how much
time that wasted. (And yes, I admit that Dilbert has followers in the UK as
well.) There was however a noticeable trend that the larger the company then
the more they considered this to be a problem.

The Clear Desk policy seems to have two deliberate aims:
The first is born by the fact that most products are (roughly) 20% manufacture
process and 80% knowledge, this is especially true in Software. The name of
the game is how to make that knowledge available to those who need it while
protecting it from prying eyes. Embuing a Clear Desk culture helps people to
focus on the issue and to reinforce this Alan told how a larger Computer outfit
was prepared to fire staff who left sensitive material unattended.
The second larger problem comes from the size of company involved. As an
outfit becomes larger, its products complex, and its staff considerable in
size, then the management become more complex. You have a larger managerial
structure who then need a mass of paper reports, memos etc. to keep them
informed of what is going on. If unchecked, this demand for paper can create
its own problems as desks pile up with backlog. The solution is to attack the
mass of paperwork where it is generated at source, and see what permanent
reductions can be made. Also the larger number of staff means that  there must
be free access to appropriate material so that others covering for leave,
sickness, retirement and resignations will be able to pick up the flow and
continue the work. Material must be easily accessed and not piled up somewhere
within a paper mountain on somebody's desk. I am grateful in particular to
Cathy, who works for one particularly large company, who told how their Clear
Desk policy helps keeps material in order. The company are so aware of the
problem that they offer continuous incentives to ensure that their system works
and that staff use it. So while your outfit consists of two or three writers
and a manager, who may or may not be trained in Technical Communications,
then count your blessings. However when the department grows so must your
housekeeping, it may help to adress the situation before it becomes a problem.

As for my own sins, I have made a couple of low level presentations on the
matter at my place of work. This has escalated beyond me to the Head of
Customer Service and is now moving into a planning and implementation phase.
With a department of around 200 authors, engineers and support staff we reckon
that we may be able to get something in place within two to three months.
However, the problem remains, as I suggested in my opening query, separating
the essential paperwork that is the technical authors' product from the mass of
reports, memos, forms and other general information which exists only as a
means of facilitating other works that support or manage them. Perhaps by
Christmas we will have cracked the problem, and start a happy, and clearer,
new year.
Thanks again to all who contributed