It's not enough that an institution’s policies are wise, changes warranted and decisions inspired. That’s substance.

Process involves the way those changes are implemented, the institution’s stakeholders are treated and their conflicts are resolved.

The White House sometimes creates a plan to enact legislation with action mileposts, a war room, lobbyists and staff to execute and monitor the plan.

A school district doesn’t have the large staff or war room. But it can have plans for involving stakeholders when implementing change.

Our district may not always have done that as well as it might have.

Remember the Golfview and Twain-Wood boundary changes? The Trudy Day resignation? The new math curriculum? The City High dress code?

But building consensus for change is only one aspect of process.

Another is sensitive treatment of stakeholders.

Some companies’ motto is, “We hire for attitude and train for skills.”

Wal-Mart trains for attitude -- the respectful response and constructive cheerfulness you now expect from a Wal-Mart clerk. What I call “the Wal-Mart standard.”

Because the White House failed that standard with Senator Jeffords it’s now working with a Democratic Senate.

Has our school district provided all employees Wal-Mart training? Does it meet the Wal-Mart standard in resolving special education disputes? In its response to parents’ concerns about large class sizes?

The final element of process is resolving conflicts.

One of the most common, popular and successful institutions for doing this is an “ombuds” (formerly “ombudsman” now “ombudsperson”). It was a creation of the Swedish king around 1700 to oversee his officials.

My administrative law colleague, the late Columbia Law Professor Walter Gellhorn, brought the concept to America with two books in 1966: When Americans Complain and Ombudsmen and Others.

During the intervening 35 years ombuds have spread across America in for-profit and non-profit corporations, government agencies from federal to local and educational institutions from school districts to universities.

The State of Iowa has an ombuds. So does the University. The law school has its own.

[Omitted by editor: There are a number of national associations of ombuds, and tens of thousands of ombuds Web pages.]

Even the American Bar Association, normally not anti-lawyer, acknowledges that ombuds, operating outside the legal system and without lawyers, are “essential to a society in which fundamental rights and human dignities are respected.”

Why? Because expressing concerns may bring recrimination. Defensive administrators tend to put the wagons in a circle. A stakeholder may encounter institutional intimidation and intransigence and feel there’s nowhere else to turn. Or, how do you complain to your supervisor about your supervisor?

An ombuds can help.

What are the classic qualities of an ombuds?

• Independence. Ombuds must be independent of the institutions they oversee. State legislatures control the ombuds who oversee executive agencies. In other institutions an ombuds may report to the organization’s board. It can’t be a lacky of the CEO.

• Neutrality. The ombuds is nobody’s advocate. Her goal is to be an unbiased, outside third party resolving problems in a non-adversarial setting.

• Recommendations. An ombuds has no authority to made, or reverse, decisions. She just makes recommendations.

• Proactive. An ombuds can resolve disputes before they escalate into public meetings and headlines. That saves the time of administrators and boards, the emotional energy of everyone, and the goodwill of the organization.

• Powers. The ombuds must have broad powers to interview and see all files. But normally everyone’s privacy is protected and confidentiality maintained.

• Proposals. An ombuds can propose changes in practices to avoid a category of future complaints. But implementation is left to the CEO or board.

We do not.

Improvements in our school district’s process are coming. They will benefit everyone.

Nicholas Johnson is an Iowa City School Board member. More information is available on his Web site www.nicholasjohnson.org.