Transforming organisations

Leadership and Best Practice

The problem with ‘Best Practice’ for many leaders is that they find it boring. All organisations today, including my own, have a Key Change Project, even if they don’t know what it is. This project is most easily accessed by the Board discussing and eventually completing a Bull’s Eye measurable statement of excellence for their organisation. This can take a couple of days depending how much debate and disagreement takes place. However, once the Board have signed off their Bull’s Eye the next stage is to complete a SWOT analysis against that Bull’s Eye.

This is no ordinary Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats list. This is specifically against the numbers in the Bull’s Eye. The bigger the numbers are the more important his exercise becomes. In fact it is the weaknesses of the organisation, as volunteered by the Board, that are often the clue to the Key Change Project. Typically the Project could be ‘marketing’; it could be ‘structure’, it could be systems and procedures. Whatever it is, the way to implement it is the regular and consistent application of Best Practice. If the Key Change Project is ‘Culture for example, then typical weaknesses may include:
· There is no training plan for the company
· No staff surveys are conducted
· Regular appraisals, starting with the directors, are not done
· Meetings are poor and often start late
· There are no Key Performance Indicators

And so on. But Best Practice has been ascertained long ago, decades ago, so there is no need to go looking for it. No, it is not the information that is lacking but it is the application. Best Practice is not a ‘magic bullet’. You can’t do it once and hope that it will change the organisation. No it has to be done week in week out, month in and month out, year in and year out. It has to become part of ‘business as usual’. That’s why some leaders find it boring.

So what if you are one of those leaders? That’s no problem, you just need to find someone that really has the skills (the how to do), the knowledge (the what to do) and the attitude (the wanting to do). And when this person makes the job a habit, you’ve cracked it! Then you can get on with what you do best.

posted by Tim @ 9:52 AM