Introduction
The military have a slogan - SMEAC. It covers the scope of orders received and issued at platoon level - not how the orders are generated, which requires careful planning. SMEAC is translated as follows:
- Situation
- Mission
- Execution
- Action
- Communications.
The situation is the one you find yourself in. And it is one which you grossly dislike. You may be considering making a complaint, but your instinct tells you do it will probably fail - after all most complaints management systems in Scotland are NOT about improving things but about protecting the guilty; and secondly that if you go to court the system has an experienced legal team and very very long pockets.
So the mission is simple - get things sorted yourself. This requires setting an objective, or series of objectives - all of which must of course be achievable within whatever constraints one has - time, effort, ability, and money - whether your's or someone else's. The mission requires a plan - and that is what this article is all about.
Execution is an important part: there is no point in having a plan which cannot be executed. And of course there will be lots of information to be provided like where when and how. So the gathering of information before execution is both a painstaking and vital process.
Action. This is where what is going to be done is defined in detail, by whom, and in what order. The details of the plan in other words.
Communications. Who is to say what to whom and when.
About creating a Plan
The first thing to write down is your Objective, which will basically be what you want to achieve and why:
- is it for you ?
- is it for rectification of a wrong ?
- just to obtain an apology ?
- or for good old fashioned revenge - an eye for an eye ?
- or for the greater good to make sure it never happens to anyone else ?
Before you can create a plan you need to gather all the relevant information.
A note on what is relevant:
- The structure of the organisation you are having a problem with - who is who, who reports to who, etc etc. See
- The relevant rules, statutes, etc. Identify what is according to the Laws of Scotland, and or UK if it is NOT a devolved matter, and what may be in the Organisation's rule book. An example is Scottish Water's rule book which is published by a private limited company called CMA [Central Market Agency] - so it does NOT have the authority of Law, but be warned lawyers for the opposition and others will quote it as if it were.
- The breaches of the Law, or Rules, and who breached them. It is probable that there will be several.
About Gathering Information
First one has to gather the facts for analysis. Remember, whether its been written down or just said, the ABC rule [supposedly to be the mantra of every policeman]:
- Accept Nothing
- Believe No one
- Challenge Everything
And then there is the standard of proof - or reliability of the information. There are three levels - well two plus the last one: reality.
- Civil - on the balance of probability,
- Criminal - without any reasonable doubt,
- However, for civil servants, the truth absolute and final with no dubaiety.
There are a number of ways to gather information
- Freedom of Information request [viz an FOI] - complaints handled by the Scottish Information Commissioner
- Subject Access Request [viz an SAR] - complaints handled by the [UK] Information Commissioner
If you do NOT like the result of the FOI, or SAR, you can always raise a further objection. Though in Scotland this is virtually impossible, which is not surprising.
However, the gathering of information is a hugely time consuming and difficult task.
Indexing of Information
All records should be indexed, and record of conversations made as soon as is possible after it took place, if it was not recorded: and is recorded it should be transcribed as soon as practicable.
A note on indexing of documents: the index is the means by which you can find documents easily. It is recommended that you give every document a name, and experience shows that a good format is as follows: yyyymmdd_no_from_to_subject.
Note:
- use underscores NOT spaces.
- "yyyymmdd" will ensure the documents are in date order. When you have emails batting back and forth, then it may be worth adding a "no" - and don't forget that computers use text - so "01" comes before "1", and "2" comes after "10". Thankyou to Microsoft et al.
- "from" should be an acronym - like XXCC - meanning Xxxx Xxxx City Council.
- "from" might have an extension like XXCC-initials [of the particular person]. Legally ALL documents from and entity such as XXCC are all deemed to be from the same authority.
- "to" should be identical to "from" - so that you can see a conversation.
- "subject" should again be an acronym.
It is good practice to make a list of the acronyms you have used.
Presenting the History
Having sorted out all your information into indexed documents, the next task is to write "short stories" about each breach about which you are complaining. This can be a very painful experience. It is often best to write them in the third person, using the acronyms defined above, in the text.
Do not at this stage make allegations, write the facts and only the facts as supported by your information - which should be referenced to the documents: do NOT quote vast sections of the documents, it is wholly unreadable to anyone else.
Each story should be written in short sentences, and kept into short paragraphs. It may be worth explaining briefly why something occurred, and what was happening - NOT what you would have liked to happen, NOR anything judgemental.
Presenting the Case
This would be referred to as the indictment in a court of law.
Set out firstly a summary of the events as you see them, and for each one state what laws or rules were broken. Each event should have one or more a stories about them. So in reverse, each story becomes an event. Try not to intermingle them.
You may need then to identify a person and describe their traits - falsification of facts - remember that they will be doing the same to you ! So make sure that you are correct - see the last item under Standard of Proof above.
The Plan
Now you are possessed of all of the facts, you can work out what to do with them.
Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable".
It is the effort of planning [and the gathering of information] which is in valuable.
Consider the risks and expense of going to Court, to the SPSO [free], or the SIC [also free], but also what if they do NOT see things your way.
Get an outsider to review your efforts, and keep it all in manageable chunks. Such a chunk will fit on one side of A4 paper.