Embracing the Principles of Best Practice

Best practice is often misunderstood, as what’s best for you is constantly developing and changing over time. What is best practice today won’t be best practice tomorrow. Also best practice for one organisation won’t necessarily be best practice for another, so it isn’t just about copying what everybody else is doing; but is about identifying your organisations specific needs to get you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow.

I often tell clients that you can find many reasons why you shouldn’t do the right thing in business; the trick is to find the one reason why you should. Best practice only appears daunting because we allow it to be, we create negative images in our head of unachievable goals and create unrealistic expectations and happily reject a solid business principle based on our uncertainties and fears. However best practice, when implemented correctly will;

 keep your organisation focused on realistic goals and objectives,
 have realistic timeframes for implementation, (that you’ve agreed),
 will take your organisation on a journey of incremental improvement and sustainable growth,
 will be ‘enjoyable’ and enhance job satisfaction as all employees will be contributing to organisational efficiency and improvement.

Deciding to adopt a best practice approach to business is not a difficult step and can start today. In its simplest form, adopting a philosophy of best practice, is asking you and your organisation if there are ways to improve your approach to business. In fact, best practice asks;

 Do you have a best practice culture, where the organisation looks beyond just continuous improvement to improvement via best practice;

 Do you fully understand and engage with your customers (and do you engage with those who aren’t your customers, but could be);

 Have you developed the optimum strategy for your organisation, and in doing so considered all the potential strategic options;

 Is your strategy being implemented in the most efficient and effective manner;

 Have you identified a credible and sustainable competitive advantage that is understood by the whole organisation;

 Have you the right people in the right positions;

 Are your leaders effective and leading and developing your leaders of the future;

 Are your business teams working efficiently together, at all levels, where the
focus is on the organisation rather than the individual;

 Do your systems, processes and performance measures support your strategic objectives;

 Does your organisation have a solid business foundation for it to grow.

So as 2011 approaches, decide that it is going to be a year when you and your organisation challenge your business principles and practices to become the best that you can be.

References

Brownbill, N. (2009). Be the Best in Business. Advanced Corporate Concepts: Cape Town