Best practices are really important to your business because they can help it grow, reduce stress, and make everyone the most effective they can be. Does that sound useful? Well it is! It’s really useful - but finding a true best practice and not just business writing hype isn’t easy.
To find the best practices that are true gold nuggets you need some help, you need a process.
Today we are going to look at 5 steps that will help you identify the most useful best practices for your company. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it will help give you a place to start and help you understand where to better focus your efforts in any area of your small business.
1. Start by collecting some books on the best companies in your industry. You’re going to use these to find some stories of how they did it. If you can’t find them in your industry find 3 books by business writers that interest you and are also on the topic you are struggling with. For example, you may be struggling with your employees not caring or not giving their best at work. This would be an employee engagement challenge. One of the books you might find is The Carrot Principle by Gostic and Elton.
2. Look for an example that is common in most of these books. It doesn’t have to be the exact same example but similar. Maybe you want to focus on setting clear goals.
3. Look at that example and ask the question, “Do they have evidence that this thing they did, this technique or process they implemented, helped to improve their business?” Most writers will talk about this so it shouldn’t be hard.
4. Now ask the question, “Do they have any examples of how their results are better than the average number.”
5. If the answer is yes to questions 3 and 4 then write that practice down and compare it to what you are doing to address this issue. Are your results equal or better than the examples you have found? Do you think you could implement this example or something like it in your company even if it takes the next year? Then you have found a “Best Practice” for business whether they call it that or not.
Congratulations have found a “Best Practice” because it is a system or a method that has helped a business solve a problem and improve its results over what it has been doing in the past, and over the average success of most other businesses. You have also discovered a system that has been tested in multiple environments or companies and has proven its value.
This alone can really help you and your business thrive. Remember this is a passion and provision solution because it increases effectiveness and decreases stress.
Now that you have these 5 steps to help you identify the most useful best practices for your company it’s time for action. Before you do anything else I want to encourage you and help you get started:
- Write down 3 challenges you are having right now in your company.
- Pick one of them and write a comment after this blog mentioning the one you are going to research first. I really want to hear from you.
This will help you with accountability. Your brain will see this as your intention and give you some extra focusing power.
Now write down those three challenges…and have a great day.
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