"We do the thing" - how to succeed with success criteria

If you work in a large organisation, you're probably familiar with success criteria that look like this:
"Company X has policies and processes in place to ensure that the thing is done."

That's staggeringly indirect.  Never mind the passive voice in "the thing is done" - that's not even saying that the thing must be done, it's just saying that someone has to ensure that the thing is done.  Who?  Actually, nobody.  There just have to be some policies and processes that ensure it.  That's three layers of indirection, and a whole bunch of words that don't add value.

On the surface, this doesn't seem so bad - it's just standard business-speak, right?  Not so much.  People forget that change initiatives are as much about people and their roles as they are about policies and processes, and without getting people on board, the change initiative is worthless.

There's no reason to write about your company in the third person.  It encourages distance, and stops readers from feeling like they're part of the solution.  Chances are, if you're in a big company, you already feel like it's a big amorphous entity and not something you can relate to.  So, instead of saying "Company X", just say "we".

Large organisations are usually all over the whole policies and processes thing, too - if anything, they tend to go in for them a little too much.  There's no need to encourage it.  Leave out "has policies and processes in place to".  So far we're down to "We ensure that the thing is done".  Progress!

And what's with the "ensure that"?  If something needs to be done, your success criterion is not fulfilled if it doesn't get done.  All that's left now is to get rid of the passive voice, and we've boiled down that cumbersome criterion to "We do the thing".

Every time you write success criteria, do one simple thing: look at the levels of indirection in it.  Each level of indirection is another way everyone can use to absolve themselves of responsibility.  Use direct language and the first person, and people feel like there's something they have to do, and that they're part of the solution.  Of course, sometimes your project is enabling others - and in those cases you can say "the user can do the thing".  It's still much simpler.

Or, to follow the rule:
We write success criteria in direct language, active voice, and in the first person where appropriate.