When you present your processes and ideas that are best practices or that have the potential to be repeatable best practices, you are likely to get some professional respect and a lot more open ears listening. People are always looking for new ideas that have yielded good results and can be used and adapted for their needs. But what really makes something a 'best practice'?

•       What do you really do well that is repeatable?
•       What process have you implemented that became well adopted by choice?
•       If you changed to a new department - which processes would you take with you and adapt to the new job?

If you, individually or as a team, use processes that work well and can be adapted for others, or already have been adapted for others to use, you likely have a Best Practice on your hands. In an earlier blog, as an example of a best practice, I shared one of our internal procedures when we prepare for a new hire and need to create a job description.

When you go to a conference, are you looking for new ways of doing things? People often seek out what others are doing so that they don't have to invent a process themselves. This is good for productivity. Think about the things you do well, and be prepared to share them. I have a friend who works at GE. He told me networking is very difficult because everyone assumes that GE has a better way of doing a process and they ask him for his templates or checklists, etc. He is willing to share where it's appropriate, that is not his challenge. His challenge is the reluctance of others to share their best practices with him. He said they get all flustered and say - "I am sure it is not as good as yours" - and they will seldom follow through with delivery of the goods. This is not fair to my friend, who works hard to be helpful to so many people. It also means there are not near enough people giving themselves adequate credit for their own good processes.

Aquire invented the best practice of building your organizational charts from your existing HR data. We invented the best practice of putting those org charts online for the entire enterprise to see them. Our customers are FULL of best practices. I have experienced the joy in seeing companies develop new ways to promote employees from within the organization, which fires up the engagement with their employees. I have seen our customers do incredible integration of merged workforces by distributing the efforts logically and collaboratively, and communicating the changes in a world class way that kept the stress of the merger to a minimum.

I encourage you to look at your work. What do you or team do so well that you wouldn't change - even if you had the opportunity and money to do so? Label it as a Best Practice. Be proud of it and teach others about it. Consider how others might adapt it to their own work and give them the idea. Think about the quality and increased productivity we could all experience if we share our best practices. I'd really like to hear from you about business processes you use as best practices, or if you're looking for some help on developing best practices.

Cheers,
Lois

Lois Melbourne is CEO and Co-Founder of Aquire, Inc., a provider of visual workforce planning and management solutions based in Irving, Texas.