An ongoing quest

Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as “best-in-class” to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

1. World Book, s.v. “Wheel.” [BACK]

2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, “Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices,” Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff. [BACK]

3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

5. “Identifying and transferring internal best practices,” published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

6. A “boomerang” employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to co
   Job Interview Success Secrets: Stand Out from the Crowd by Knowing Your Facts
   Job interviews are inevitable and unavoidable part of adult life. Unfortunately, so are the often clich?d and canned answers associated with the typical job interview. “Where do you see yourself in five years?” “What is your greatest accomplishment?” or my favorite, “Tell me about a time when you had a problem with a supervisor.” With such canned questions, it can be very difficult to come up with an original and memorable response. Sure desperate attempts to get noticed like wearing a wacky tie or bringing the interviewer cookies may immortalize you in annals of the prospective employer’s water cooler fodder. But, to truly leave a lasting impression and get the job, you need a secret weapon--research. This is where business searches come in.What exactly is a business search? PeopleFinders.com defines a business search thusly, “Business searches provide various data on a company including basic information such as the name, address and phone number of a business to more complex data such as the physical description of the building that the business is located in and corporate filing information.” So how can business searches help in a job interview? As the famous expression goes, the devil is in the details.For about the cost of a large pizza, job seekers can purchase a business search from people such organizations like PeopleFinders.com or VoomPeople.com. Anybody can look over a company’s Web site before an interview and try to impress an interviewer with random facts about the company. However, to show that you have a significant interest in the organization, it is best to avoid a simple regurgitation of the company’s “about us” section. Therefore, smart job applicants turn to business searches to gain an edge.Just what type of information do business searches provide? Quite simply, business searches provide you with a structural, financial and legal snap shot of a particula
   Good news spreads quickly

   News of the invention of the wheel must have traveled in every direction as quickly as horse or camel could run. Those who learned of its advantages over the litter and the sledge adopted it right away. And no sooner was it adopted than it began to be adapted: made lighter, stronger, faster. Wheels were soon attached to axles, then to axles with pivots.

   The idea catches on

   Then transportation lost its monopoly on the new technology, and wheels helped to make pottery, lift buckets out of wells, steer ships, grind grain, keep time. Even now, the process of adopting and adapting the wheel continues as new uses are modified, improved, and applied in ingenious ways. The observation is certainly true: “Without the wheel, today’s civilization would be impossible.” [1]

   No wheel, little progress

   Meanwhile for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, in islands of the South Pacific, the Americas, and other isolated places, cultures existed without any knowledge of the wheel. Their technology lagged behind because they still faced that first, high hurdle. Human beings have always been better modifiers than inventors. Why reinvent the wheel when someone has already done the hard work?

   Best practices needed

   Like civilization, your company is on a journey; yours is one of continuous quality improvement. It is “a journey with a definite a beginning but no end, and every one of your employees is a co-traveler. The extent of your progress depends on how well you live your core values values: like company family, commitment to quality, customer focus, embracing technology, integrity and respect, and teamwork. These values overlap, merge, and blend into one another when it comes to the sharing, evaluating, and implementing of best practices.

   Definition is important

   What are best practices? Unless we have a clear idea of what they look like, we won’t recognize them when we see them. According to the American Productivity and Quality Centre, best practices are “those practices that have been shown to produce superior results; selected by a systematic process; and judged as exemplary, good, or successfully demonstrated.” [2]

   Of course, this definition still leaves quite a bit of room for differences of opinion about what is “best” and what is not. According to C. Ashton in Managing Best Practices, “best” is always contextual, or situation-specific.” [3] A more sophisticated, multilevel approach to defining best practices comes from Chevron: [4]

   • Good idea – unproven but makes sense intuitively; could have a positive impact on business performance; worth investigating further.
     
     
   • Good practice – technique, methodology, procedure, or process already implemented that has improved business results for an organization in a measurable way.
     
     
   • “Proven” best practice – a good practice determined to be the best approach, based on analysis of process performance data.

   For more than the past decade, businesses across the country and around the world have been developing, identifying, implementing, and adapting best practices as one means of achieving the excellence of efficiency and superior customer service that would set them apart from their competitors. No doubt your company is engaged in the same quest.

   Process of best practices transfer

   A recent study identified six steps involved in the transfer of best practices:” [5]

   1. Searching

      This step involves finding best-in-class solutions from a variety of sources, both internal and external to your company. Your company's SOPs constitute a tremendous resource (hopefully available on your intranet) available to and from employees in all of your sites and regions. Success stories contained in newsletters and award presentations are another internal source. Good sources for external searches can involve newsletters and journals, business contacts, trade shows and workshops, new hires, “boomerang” employees.” [6] and outsourcing contacts.” [7] If you start looking for best practices, your search will certainly pay off.” [8]
      
      

   2. Evaluating

      This is a critical but essential step, though it is heavily dependent on the specific situation and people involved. On the one hand is the tendency to assume “the way we’ve always done it is the best.” On the other hand is the equally questionable assumption, “it must be better because it’s new.” [9]
      
      

   3. Validating

      Measurements help to eliminate this kind of subjectivity. Does the department already engaged in the practice have higher productivity, less downtime, more rapid customer response, or fewer reworks than the same department at another site that has not adopted it? The evidence should be compelling that the payback of the change will be much greater than its costs. And once a practice is validated as “best” it needs to be publicized. This will encourage others not only to adopt it, but to come forward with best practices of their own.
      
      

   4. Implementing

      The practice has to be documented (usually in an SOP), and usually someone already engaged in the practice should be involved in training others. During the implementation step, team members should be looking to adapt the practice to local needs and varying circumstances, as well as analyzing opportunities for improvements.

      A note of caution: Although “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” copying someone else’s success does not always work. As David Bracken, director of Mercer Delta Consulting, put it, “I have always been skeptical about taking tools designed in one setting and using them in another organization ... more often than not attempts at ‘copying’ are doomed to failure.” [10]

      Not only might the copied practice suffer from “copy-of-a-copy” degradation, but the people on whom the practice is imposed might very well lack the motivation of the group that developed and implemented the practice in the first place.
      
      

   5. Reviewing

      Once a best practice has been plugged in, it should be reviewed from time to time. All processes—even the best ones—grow stale over time, and what is “best” now may not remain “best” for long. As one study noted, “‘best’ is a moving target in today’s world.” [11]
      
      

   6. Routinizing

      Making a best practice into a standard practice is what the transfer process is all about. Successful adoption means that a best practice has become incorporated into the culture of what it means to do business with your company. What was once above the ceiling now becomes the floor upon which we stand to reach even higher.

   Beyond best practices

   Identifying, evaluating, adopting or adapting, implementing, reviewing, and routinizing best practices can lead to marked improvements in the way you do business. This strategy can help you to be more efficient, improve your profitability, eliminate mistakes, and most importantly, raise the level of your service to the external customer even higher.

   There is a proviso, however. Peter Skarzynski and Peter Williamson of Strategos warn that all of this adopting of best practices can lead to what they call “strategic convergence,” a phenomenon in which each competitor within an industry moves its practices and procedures closer and closer to those of its rivals. Their survey of more than 500 CEOs indicates that such convergence is actually taking place in many industries. Its eventual result would be the elimination of virtually everything that distinguishes one competitor from another. [12]

   Their solution? Innovation! The company that devotes itself to innovation will always be able to differentiate itself from its competition. They offer ten rules on how to innovate successfully in their article, “Innovation as Revolution.” [13]

   Another important caveat is that sharing best practices is not the only tool you have to achieve excellence. Of even greater importance are your people. You must continue to hire people with great attitudes and then provide them with the training they need to be experts at their job. Then you need to re-recruit them so that they will stay with the company. This re-recruiting process involves making your company the “employer of choice” by having great managers, a great working environment, and great benefits. [14] The best people—your employees—will drive your best practices, speeding you ahead in your Quality Journey. Your company's search for best practices Your company should be pro-active in its search for best practices. The main points of the program should include:
   
   

   • Internal search – Researching best practices should start with what is already being done internally, concentrating on improving perceived weaknesses.
     
     
   • Sharing of information – News about best practices should be disseminated throughout your company by department managers’ meetings and senior managers’ meetings, the publishing of SOPs on your intranet, employee newsletter and e-mail announcements, employee meetings, and as many other methods as you can devise.
     
     
   • Corporate and management support – The capture and transfer of best practices should be supported by your board of directors and senior managers by promoting the development of SOPs throughout the company, encouraging alignments, and proactively supporting all quality initiatives. Corporate support must also be strong to make improvements through identifying and implementing best practices.

   An ongoing quest

   Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as “best-in-class” to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

1. World Book, s.v. “Wheel.” [BACK]

2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, “Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices,” Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff. [BACK]

3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

5. “Identifying and transferring internal best practices,” published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

6. A “boomerang” employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to com
   Improving the Resale Value of the Fixer-Upper Home
   Never underestimate a fixer-upper home. This can be a money-generating endeavor. Just give it some good loving and caring and a few finishing touches.Many people are considering buying fixer-upper homes as a sort of an investment. This is because they can be a good source of profit.The fixer-upper homes may not be the mansion that paparazzis feast over. However, the fixer-upper homes can still have a good market out there, especially if the there is an eager and dedicated seller to give the house a good boost.Some Tips to Improve the Resale Value of the Fixer-Upper Home1. Be committed in making the house valuable. Give it enough time and effort to make it a beauty. Don't rush on this project and just make sure that any plan is carefully implemented.2. If the fixer-upper home to repair is still being scouted, make sure to find a good location. This is an important matter to most buyers. Ensure also that the house is at a reasonable condition, that minimal repairs will only be required, not a complete overhaul.3. A building inspector is sure to inspect the house. Make sure that you get important feedback, especially the wrong aspects that must be addressed to know what to repair.Once the repairs and refurbishments are done, make sure to get the affirmative reports. This will be a good assurance to your prospective buyers.4. Be sure to get rid of any pests that may have infested the house like mites, mice or roaches. These are the undesirable elements that must not be forgotten.5. Check out the roof, ceilings, and walls for any problem. Any cracks, even if just in the aesthetic level, may turn off potential buyers.6. Scout for painting, carpeting and flooring services that are competitive yet affordable. These aspects are what meet the eye of the buyers. Thus make sure to give the house a good and lasting impression to the buyers.
   at is “best” and what is not. According to C. Ashton in Managing Best Practices, “best” is always contextual, or situation-specific.” [3] A more sophisticated, multilevel approach to defining best practices comes from Chevron: [4]
   • Good idea – unproven but makes sense intuitively; could have a positive impact on business performance; worth investigating further.
     
     
   • Good practice – technique, methodology, procedure, or process already implemented that has improved business results for an organization in a measurable way.
     
     
   • “Proven” best practice – a good practice determined to be the best approach, based on analysis of process performance data.

   For more than the past decade, businesses across the country and around the world have been developing, identifying, implementing, and adapting best practices as one means of achieving the excellence of efficiency and superior customer service that would set them apart from their competitors. No doubt your company is engaged in the same quest.

   Process of best practices transfer

   A recent study identified six steps involved in the transfer of best practices:” [5]

   1. Searching

      This step involves finding best-in-class solutions from a variety of sources, both internal and external to your company. Your company's SOPs constitute a tremendous resource (hopefully available on your intranet) available to and from employees in all of your sites and regions. Success stories contained in newsletters and award presentations are another internal source. Good sources for external searches can involve newsletters and journals, business contacts, trade shows and workshops, new hires, “boomerang” employees.” [6] and outsourcing contacts.” [7] If you start looking for best practices, your search will certainly pay off.” [8]
      
      

   2. Evaluating

      This is a critical but essential step, though it is heavily dependent on the specific situation and people involved. On the one hand is the tendency to assume “the way we’ve always done it is the best.” On the other hand is the equally questionable assumption, “it must be better because it’s new.” [9]
      
      

   3. Validating

      Measurements help to eliminate this kind of subjectivity. Does the department already engaged in the practice have higher productivity, less downtime, more rapid customer response, or fewer reworks than the same department at another site that has not adopted it? The evidence should be compelling that the payback of the change will be much greater than its costs. And once a practice is validated as “best” it needs to be publicized. This will encourage others not only to adopt it, but to come forward with best practices of their own.
      
      

   4. Implementing

      The practice has to be documented (usually in an SOP), and usually someone already engaged in the practice should be involved in training others. During the implementation step, team members should be looking to adapt the practice to local needs and varying circumstances, as well as analyzing opportunities for improvements.

      A note of caution: Although “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” copying someone else’s success does not always work. As David Bracken, director of Mercer Delta Consulting, put it, “I have always been skeptical about taking tools designed in one setting and using them in another organization ... more often than not attempts at ‘copying’ are doomed to failure.” [10]

      Not only might the copied practice suffer from “copy-of-a-copy” degradation, but the people on whom the practice is imposed might very well lack the motivation of the group that developed and implemented the practice in the first place.
      
      

   5. Reviewing

      Once a best practice has been plugged in, it should be reviewed from time to time. All processes—even the best ones—grow stale over time, and what is “best” now may not remain “best” for long. As one study noted, “‘best’ is a moving target in today’s world.” [11]
      
      

   6. Routinizing

      Making a best practice into a standard practice is what the transfer process is all about. Successful adoption means that a best practice has become incorporated into the culture of what it means to do business with your company. What was once above the ceiling now becomes the floor upon which we stand to reach even higher.

   Beyond best practices

   Identifying, evaluating, adopting or adapting, implementing, reviewing, and routinizing best practices can lead to marked improvements in the way you do business. This strategy can help you to be more efficient, improve your profitability, eliminate mistakes, and most importantly, raise the level of your service to the external customer even higher.

   There is a proviso, however. Peter Skarzynski and Peter Williamson of Strategos warn that all of this adopting of best practices can lead to what they call “strategic convergence,” a phenomenon in which each competitor within an industry moves its practices and procedures closer and closer to those of its rivals. Their survey of more than 500 CEOs indicates that such convergence is actually taking place in many industries. Its eventual result would be the elimination of virtually everything that distinguishes one competitor from another. [12]

   Their solution? Innovation! The company that devotes itself to innovation will always be able to differentiate itself from its competition. They offer ten rules on how to innovate successfully in their article, “Innovation as Revolution.” [13]

   Another important caveat is that sharing best practices is not the only tool you have to achieve excellence. Of even greater importance are your people. You must continue to hire people with great attitudes and then provide them with the training they need to be experts at their job. Then you need to re-recruit them so that they will stay with the company. This re-recruiting process involves making your company the “employer of choice” by having great managers, a great working environment, and great benefits. [14] The best people—your employees—will drive your best practices, speeding you ahead in your Quality Journey. Your company's search for best practices Your company should be pro-active in its search for best practices. The main points of the program should include:
   
   

   • Internal search – Researching best practices should start with what is already being done internally, concentrating on improving perceived weaknesses.
     
     
   • Sharing of information – News about best practices should be disseminated throughout your company by department managers’ meetings and senior managers’ meetings, the publishing of SOPs on your intranet, employee newsletter and e-mail announcements, employee meetings, and as many other methods as you can devise.
     
     
   • Corporate and management support – The capture and transfer of best practices should be supported by your board of directors and senior managers by promoting the development of SOPs throughout the company, encouraging alignments, and proactively supporting all quality initiatives. Corporate support must also be strong to make improvements through identifying and implementing best practices.

   An ongoing quest

   Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as “best-in-class” to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

1. World Book, s.v. “Wheel.” [BACK]

2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, “Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices,” Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff. [BACK]

3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

5. “Identifying and transferring internal best practices,” published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

6. A “boomerang” employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to co
   Want To Incorporate Your Business? Here Are Some Simple Tips!
   Naming your business properly is important. It should be distinguishable from other companies. Depending on where you incorporate, it must contain words like ‘Limited’ or ‘Incorporated’. It must also not have words that imply any other purpose other than what is stated it its articles of incorporation or the corporate laws of the state. These would be words like ‘Bank’ or ‘Government’.Picking a place of business is a crucial step. You need to decide which state or country to incorporate. Many states have different laws that govern how you incorporate business practices. These laws also may govern how you run your company.Now that you have performed these functions, then the actual structure of your company will begin to take place. You will pick your board of directors, assign company byelaws, adopt the articles of incorporation and draft a shareholders contract.For a small company with 1 or 2 partners naming your board of directors may be a simple process. For a larger company this may be a delicate and important task. A board of directors perform specific duties decreed by the corporation charter. This may be appointing executives, handing out shares, assigning dividends or other things. In larger corporations a board of directors may have influence when companies incorporate company procedures.Shareholders may be one partner, most partners, or in the case of a public corporation may be the general public. For a small company traditionally 1,000 shares are assigned. It is possible that there will need to be additional shares assigned from the beginning.Research your market. The financial success of your company will depend on knowing the product or service you will sell. In order to successfully grow in any venture you must know your industry. This will allow you to choose a name and a strategy for your business.Define a clear marketing strategy. Getting th
   cause it’s new.” [9]
   
   
7. Validating

   Measurements help to eliminate this kind of subjectivity. Does the department already engaged in the practice have higher productivity, less downtime, more rapid customer response, or fewer reworks than the same department at another site that has not adopted it? The evidence should be compelling that the payback of the change will be much greater than its costs. And once a practice is validated as “best” it needs to be publicized. This will encourage others not only to adopt it, but to come forward with best practices of their own.
   
   

8. Implementing

   The practice has to be documented (usually in an SOP), and usually someone already engaged in the practice should be involved in training others. During the implementation step, team members should be looking to adapt the practice to local needs and varying circumstances, as well as analyzing opportunities for improvements.

   A note of caution: Although “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” copying someone else’s success does not always work. As David Bracken, director of Mercer Delta Consulting, put it, “I have always been skeptical about taking tools designed in one setting and using them in another organization ... more often than not attempts at ‘copying’ are doomed to failure.” [10]

   Not only might the copied practice suffer from “copy-of-a-copy” degradation, but the people on whom the practice is imposed might very well lack the motivation of the group that developed and implemented the practice in the first place.
   
   

9. Reviewing

   Once a best practice has been plugged in, it should be reviewed from time to time. All processes—even the best ones—grow stale over time, and what is “best” now may not remain “best” for long. As one study noted, “‘best’ is a moving target in today’s world.” [11]
   
   

10. Routinizing

    Making a best practice into a standard practice is what the transfer process is all about. Successful adoption means that a best practice has become incorporated into the culture of what it means to do business with your company. What was once above the ceiling now becomes the floor upon which we stand to reach even higher.

Beyond best practices

Identifying, evaluating, adopting or adapting, implementing, reviewing, and routinizing best practices can lead to marked improvements in the way you do business. This strategy can help you to be more efficient, improve your profitability, eliminate mistakes, and most importantly, raise the level of your service to the external customer even higher.

There is a proviso, however. Peter Skarzynski and Peter Williamson of Strategos warn that all of this adopting of best practices can lead to what they call “strategic convergence,” a phenomenon in which each competitor within an industry moves its practices and procedures closer and closer to those of its rivals. Their survey of more than 500 CEOs indicates that such convergence is actually taking place in many industries. Its eventual result would be the elimination of virtually everything that distinguishes one competitor from another. [12]

Their solution? Innovation! The company that devotes itself to innovation will always be able to differentiate itself from its competition. They offer ten rules on how to innovate successfully in their article, “Innovation as Revolution.” [13]

Another important caveat is that sharing best practices is not the only tool you have to achieve excellence. Of even greater importance are your people. You must continue to hire people with great attitudes and then provide them with the training they need to be experts at their job. Then you need to re-recruit them so that they will stay with the company. This re-recruiting process involves making your company the “employer of choice” by having great managers, a great working environment, and great benefits. [14] The best people—your employees—will drive your best practices, speeding you ahead in your Quality Journey. Your company's search for best practices Your company should be pro-active in its search for best practices. The main points of the program should include:

• Internal search – Researching best practices should start with what is already being done internally, concentrating on improving perceived weaknesses.
  
  
• Sharing of information – News about best practices should be disseminated throughout your company by department managers’ meetings and senior managers’ meetings, the publishing of SOPs on your intranet, employee newsletter and e-mail announcements, employee meetings, and as many other methods as you can devise.
  
  
• Corporate and management support – The capture and transfer of best practices should be supported by your board of directors and senior managers by promoting the development of SOPs throughout the company, encouraging alignments, and proactively supporting all quality initiatives. Corporate support must also be strong to make improvements through identifying and implementing best practices.

An ongoing quest

Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as “best-in-class” to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

1. World Book, s.v. “Wheel.” [BACK]

2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, “Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices,” Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff. [BACK]

3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

5. “Identifying and transferring internal best practices,” published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

6. A “boomerang” employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to co
   Four Corners of a Triangle: Why Organizations Succeed or Fail
   When we want to hire people for a corporation or non profit organization, we follow certain rules and look for appropriate qualifications and expertise so that we succeed in our aims: the investors get their money’s worth in form of financial success and enhanced prestige of the principals involved.An organization represents the interests of many people: the sponsors and the consumers. Any flaws in a corporation’s organizational capacity and management can prove financially disastrous as in the case of the Enron Corporation. Here we must not lose sight of the public image. Big giants like IBM, General Motors, General Electric and Disney spend millions to keep their image positive in the public eye.But in different situations we have to apply different rules to reach our goals. In a non-profit organization like the United Nations where the social welfare and political interests of all the member nations (under 200) are involved, totally different criteria are used in hiring people.In a business organization like a Fortune 500 company the main aim will be to enhance the public image of the company, thereby generating more public support that will translate into money.In a domestic political organization like the Republican or Democratic National Committee there are political interests that take precedence over all other issues.Let us go back to the UN and see what happens when people are hired that don’t fit in the setup. There are two facets to this. One is the personal philosophy of the person, the other is the organizational Charter. If there were a conflict between the two, the hired person will have a very hard time adjusting his or her personal philosophy to that of the organization. Such a situation may lead to lower productivity and an internal conflict between the self-image and the value system of that staff member.This observation of the co
   , adopting or adapting, implementing, reviewing, and routinizing best practices can lead to marked improvements in the way you do business. This strategy can help you to be more efficient, improve your profitability, eliminate mistakes, and most importantly, raise the level of your service to the external customer even higher.

   There is a proviso, however. Peter Skarzynski and Peter Williamson of Strategos warn that all of this adopting of best practices can lead to what they call “strategic convergence,” a phenomenon in which each competitor within an industry moves its practices and procedures closer and closer to those of its rivals. Their survey of more than 500 CEOs indicates that such convergence is actually taking place in many industries. Its eventual result would be the elimination of virtually everything that distinguishes one competitor from another. [12]

   Their solution? Innovation! The company that devotes itself to innovation will always be able to differentiate itself from its competition. They offer ten rules on how to innovate successfully in their article, “Innovation as Revolution.” [13]

   Another important caveat is that sharing best practices is not the only tool you have to achieve excellence. Of even greater importance are your people. You must continue to hire people with great attitudes and then provide them with the training they need to be experts at their job. Then you need to re-recruit them so that they will stay with the company. This re-recruiting process involves making your company the “employer of choice” by having great managers, a great working environment, and great benefits. [14] The best people—your employees—will drive your best practices, speeding you ahead in your Quality Journey. Your company's search for best practices Your company should be pro-active in its search for best practices. The main points of the program should include:
   
   

   • Internal search – Researching best practices should start with what is already being done internally, concentrating on improving perceived weaknesses.
     
     
   • Sharing of information – News about best practices should be disseminated throughout your company by department managers’ meetings and senior managers’ meetings, the publishing of SOPs on your intranet, employee newsletter and e-mail announcements, employee meetings, and as many other methods as you can devise.
     
     
   • Corporate and management support – The capture and transfer of best practices should be supported by your board of directors and senior managers by promoting the development of SOPs throughout the company, encouraging alignments, and proactively supporting all quality initiatives. Corporate support must also be strong to make improvements through identifying and implementing best practices.

   An ongoing quest

   Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as “best-in-class” to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

1. World Book, s.v. “Wheel.” [BACK]

2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, “Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices,” Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff. [BACK]

3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

5. “Identifying and transferring internal best practices,” published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

6. A “boomerang” employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to co
   Is It Possible to Love Your Job
   Passion in the workplace, is that even possible? Yes, and I’m not referring to an affair with a coworker or sleeping your way to the top. I’m talking about discovering what you want to do on the job that will make you want to be at work.I discovered my niche almost by accident. I say almost because at some level I believe there are no accidents and everything happens for a reason. My life went through a series of what seemed like cataclysmic changes and I found myself unemployed and attending a government sponsored training program. It was there that I was exposed to what would become a passion for me - facilitating classes for adults. Now, the changing careers didn’t come without sacrifices. When I made the change from my previous career to facilitating, I now earned about one third of what I used to take home but I was three times happier. Work was no longer work. It had become a pleasure. There were even times when my weekends were irritants because they kept me away from what I loved doing.Before you race out and become a facilitator of classes and workshops understand that it isn’t any specific job or occupation that creates this unheard of kind of bliss. I talked with a dentist who told me that he looks forward to coming into his practice on Mondays because he loves what he does. A meat cutter told me that he enjoys what he does so much that the day just melts away and before he knows it, it is time to go home.Identifying what motivates you, what gets your juices flowing is key to knowing what intrinsic needs you have that have to be fulfilled in order for you to experience true job satisfaction. For me it was things like the constant learning of new skills, making a difference in people’s lives and meeting lots of interesting people. For you it could be creating something new and exciting, building something that adds value or beauty to someone’s life or being recognize
   ing of SOPs on your intranet, employee newsletter and e-mail announcements, employee meetings, and as many other methods as you can devise.
   
   
7. Corporate and management support – The capture and transfer of best practices should be supported by your board of directors and senior managers by promoting the development of SOPs throughout the company, encouraging alignments, and proactively supporting all quality initiatives. Corporate support must also be strong to make improvements through identifying and implementing best practices.

   An ongoing quest

   Your search for best practices must be continual, as you strive to strengthen what is weak, make what is good even better, and plug in what is best. You should also seek ways to adapt practices regarded as “best-in-class” to new situations and circumstances. The overall direction of your improvement journey is away from isolation toward interconnectedness, away from the static toward the dynamic, and away from top-down management toward the empowerment of all employees. You should make measurable progress in all three of these aspects; enlisting the cooperation of all employees will ensure that such progress accelerates.

1. World Book, s.v. “Wheel.” [BACK]

2. Yasar F. Jarrar and Mohamed Zairi, “Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: a study of best practices,” Total Quality Management 11, 4-6 (July 2000):S734ff. [BACK]

3. Ashton, Managing Best Practices (London: Business Intelligence, 1998), cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

4. As cited in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

5. “Identifying and transferring internal best practices,” published by American Productivity and Quality Centre in 1997. This white paper is summarized in Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

6. A “boomerang” employee is one who leaves to work for another company and then returns. The returning employee may prove to be a valuable resource for best practices from their previous company, since they were able to compare the practices they learned at the other company from the perspective of those they knew at your compoany. Karen Lee, “Tales of ‘boomerang’ employees on the rise,” Employee Benefit News 14, 6 (May 2000): 63; Tiffany Kjos, “Boomerang employees on the rise in tight market,” Inside Tuscon Business 9, 52 (March 20, 2000):14. [BACK]

7. For outsourcing as a source of best practices, see Peter Bendor-Samuel, “Leverage Best Practices,” Executive Excellence 18, 2 (February 2000):17. For a case study of an excellent external search for best practices, see Michelle M. Rodier, “A quest for best practices,” IIE Solutions 32, 2 (February 2000):36. [BACK]

8. Some organizations formalize this search process by demanding managers provide a timely decision for each proffered best practice: to investigate it; to adopt or adapt it and say when; or to reject it and explain why. They then track which departments are most active in adopting best practices and which are resisting change. Thomas A. Stewart, “Knowledge worth $1.25 billion,” Fortune 142, 13 (November 27, 2000):302. [BACK]

9. According to Ed Yager, a consultant and trainer on best practices implementation, we should evaluate the validity of so-called best practices according to three categories: 1) The known knowns – what we are aware that we know or think we know; 2) the known unknowns – our awareness of what we don’t know but wish we did; and 3) the unknown unknowns – what we are unaware of, but could really use if we knew it. “Adopting best practices,” Enterprise/Salt Lake City 30, 28 (January 15, 2001):11. Those most resistant to best practices tend to absolutize category 1, thinking their knowledge is broad and deep; minimize category 2, assuming what they don’t know is insignificant or irrelevant; and deny even the possibility of the existence of category 3. [BACK]

10. David Bracken, “Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices in Leadership Development Handbook [Book Review],” Personnel Psychology 53, 4 (Winter 2000):1026. [BACK]

11. Jarrar and Zairi. [BACK]

12. As cited by Daniel Jennings, “Benchmarking best practices may not be the best practice for your company,” EBN 1254 (March 19, 2001):47. [BACK]

13. Their ten rules are: 1) Seek innovation at the level of the business model; 2) Listen to new voices; 3) Work from the future back; 4) Diverge, then converge; 5) Use multiple lenses to generate new learning and opportunities; 6) Create a portfolio of options on the future; 7) Evaluate new opportunities using different criteria; 8) Embed innovation through practice; 9) Instill a passion for creating the future; and 10) Break the rules. Peter Skarzynski and Dr. Peter Williamson, “Innovation as Revolution,” Economic Bulletin (April 2000). [BACK]

14. Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, “Best Practices,” Business Credit 102, 3 (March 2000):52. [BACK]