Process 6: Best Practices

Best practices can be treated as a domain of knowledge for CoPs where CoPs are allowed to form with a certain practice as the focal point, where they own the process of disseminating the prac­tice, tracking its implementation, updating, and validating it across the organization. The CoP council may act as the process owner and the review committee. Alternatively, the process of col­lection, validation, and dissemination of best practices may be entrusted to a separate review committee that reviews the best practices submitted to it by various divisions or teams. After approval of certain best practices the committee should entrust the implementation, review and update of the best practices to a Best Practice team.

Step 1: Submission of Best Practices to the Review Committee. Upon receipt of a submission to consider a certain practice as a best practice, the Review Committee should undertake the fol­lowing:

1.       Define the areas where best practices are expected to be identified and circulate this list to heads of concerned departments and divisions for them to motivate their staff in iden­tifying and collecting best practices.

2.       Define the criteria upon which a practice will be judged and the data that need to be sub­mitted in the proposal, regarding how the best practice improves productivity and enhances performance (see also about safe investments).

3.       Put in place incentives (e.g., an award system) for such departments that submit their own and implement other's best practices. Hold an annual best practices day wherein departments display and explain their best practices.

4.       Create a portfolio of best practices wherein the type of the practice, number of users, success stories, results, originators, and subject matter experts are identified. This port­folio should be supported by a best practices database with a resource map that enables location of best practices.

Step 2: Assessment, Approval, and Dissemination.

1.      Perform an internal benchmarking exercise to determine whether the submitted practice is the best (i.e., assess if it is a proven practice).

2.      Assess if the practice can be replicated and assign a best practice team to monitor its implementation across the organization and collect data on its performance.

3.      Upon approval as a best practice, disseminate the best practice through publishing it in the organization's best practices database and informing the departments and divisions that may be interested.

Step 3: Local Assessment, Application, and Reporting. Upon receiving a notification of a best practice, local management of a certain department or division should undertake the following:

1.       Assess the applicability of the practice to local business needs and strategies.

2.       Assess the costs involved in the implementation of the practice against expected gains.

3.       Decide on implementation or otherwise, with a justified rejection in the latter case, and submit to the Review Committee.

4.       If implemented, report to the Best Practice team with plan of implementation, targeted results, and performance metrics.

5.       Monitor and track performance, review and report to the Best Practice team.

6.       Any major changes to the best practice should be submitted to the Review Committee for consideration as a new best practice.