ARCHIVED - Quality Service - Benchmarking and Best Practices: An Update (Guide X)

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3. Best Practices Sharing

"The characteristic that sets apart companies that achieve high levels of customer satisfaction is their willingness to learn from - and share with - others. They "steal" shamelessly and share openly because they have learned how valuable that process is."[5]

Best Practices Sharing In The Federal Public Service

Best Practices Sharing involves the capture, dissemination and sharing of a work method, process, or initiative to improve organizational effectiveness, service delivery and employee satisfaction. Federal government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations have a long history of defining needs, measuring performance, adapting and sharing best practices to ensure quality service. This legacy of informally benchmarking a management practice, process or service, and then applying a best practice, is a foundation to build upon to promote a wider sharing of best practices, and to apply formal benchmarking leading to the major improvements needed to meet present challenges.

The possibility of involving all employees in the sharing of best practices as part of continuous improvement initiatives, which include informal and formal benchmarking, is fast becoming a reality. This is due to the emergence of a wealth of information sources, namely: departmental and Treasury Board Secretariat data bases of best practices, the Canadian Centre For Management Development (CCMD) data bases of research and best practices; and the opportunity to economically access information electronically through the InterNet (and World Wide Web) and 1-800 numbers. Vigorous leadership is needed now to regain momentum lost during major restructuring efforts, to adopt systematic improvement approaches such as formal benchmarking, and to share and implement best practices to ensure optimum organizational effectiveness, quality service, and employee satisfaction.

Best Practices Sharing should be:

• widespread:
  • face-to-face, on paper and electronic;
  • within teams, departments, the federal Public Service, Canada, the world;
  • available to employees at all levels in the organization;
• effective:
  • to systematically improve service, processes, client and employee satisfaction;
  • by briefly describing the practice and results, and designating an accessible contact person;
  • by leaders, trainers, facilitators and employees supporting best practices sharing;
  • by taking full advantage of present and future technological possibilities.

There are many examples of the face-to-face, paper and electronic sharing of best practices in Appendix A and descriptions of how best practices sharing is being improved or supports continuous improvement. These examples are listed under "Best Practices Sharing Examples", page 14, with the names and telephone numbers of contact persons. Additional contacts are listed in Appendix B, page 18.

Some Points To Ponder

1. What is the most effective way of sharing best practices? Staff say orally - in meetings or other face-to-face fora, where participants can hear of a practice, pose questions, discuss pros and cons and agree on a course of action.
2. Why do some leaders allege that it is difficult to provide meaningful recognition to employees? Encouraging and championing employees' suggested improvements is one of the most powerful forms of recognition available.
3. Why are yesterday's "heresies" today's best practices (e.g., telework, flexible working hours, hotelling, benchmarking, client and employee surveys, client consultations, sharing best practices)?
4. Given the benefits of best practices sharing, why aren't more organizations doing it better and more systematically?
   
   

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