Most organizations know that learning from the past increases the chances of success in the future—finding ways to do so can also link staff with the resources they need to complete tasks faster, better, and more cheaply.
Frequently, this is done by means of instruction manuals or “how-to” guides—which typically provide information or advice on a particular topic, or with taxonomies—which are a common way to organize content logically. Leading organizations maximize opportunities across all core knowledge activities to identify, create, store, share, and use better.
When identifying and documenting an experience, it is important to understand the different states of a practice, regarding the level of evidence and its replicability potential. And to recognize that not all experiences can be qualified as good practices.
What is a “Good Practice”?
The following statements define what a good practice is;
- A good practice is simply a process or a methodology that represents the most effective way of achieving a specific objective.
- A good practice is not only a practice that is good, but a practice that has been proven to work well and produce good results, and is therefore recommended as a model.
- A good practice is a successful experience, which has been tested and validated, in the broad sense, which has been repeated and deserves to be shared so that a greater number of people can adopt it.
- A good practice is defined as anything that has been tried and shown to work in some way—whether fully or in part but with at least some evidence of effectiveness—and that may have implications for practice at any level elsewhere.
For a practice to be considered as a “good practice”, it needs to be supported by a series of evidence obtained through data gathering and several replications. In some cases, a practice has the potential to become a “good practice” but cannot be yet qualified as one because of a lack of evidence and/or replications. In this case, it can be considered a “promising practice”.
A promising practice can be defined as follows:
A promising practice has demonstrated a high degree of success in its single setting, and the possibility of replication in the same setting is guaranteed. It has generated some quantitative data showing positive outcomes over a period of time. A promising practice has the potential to become a good practice, but it doesn’t have enough research or has yet to be replicated to support wider adoption or upscaling. As such, a promising practice incorporates a process of continuous learning and improvement.
Why document and share good practices?
Good practices are usually outcomes of knowledge management. The essence of identifying and sharing good practices is to learn from others and to re-use knowledge. Good practices are the reusable practices of the organization that have been successful in respective functions. The biggest benefit consists in well-developed processes based on accumulated experience.
By documenting and sharing good practices, a team and the organization can learn from their own experiences and from others. They can turn this knowledge into action and develop their capacities to improve their results, and respond more quickly and effectively to different changes that may arise.
If no action is taken to analyse, capitalize and share the knowledge gained in programmes and projects, mistakes will likely be repeated, successful experiences may be forgotten and opportunities for improved practices may be lost.
There are several creative and constructive actions by people and organizations in the telecommunications industry. Making knowledge of such actions widely available may prevent the repetition of mistakes and loss of valuable time.
Thus, the main rationale for documenting and sharing good practices is to enable persons and organizations working in/with your organization to avoid “re-inventing the wheel”; to “learn in order to improve performance” and; to “avoid the mistakes of others”.
Documenting and sharing good practices affords one the opportunity to acquire knowledge about lessons learned and to continue learning about how to improve and adapt strategies and activities through feedback, reflection and analysis in order to implement larger-scale, sustained, and more effective interventions. A commitment to using a good practice is a commitment to using the body of knowledge and technology at one’s disposal to ensure success.
A good practice may come from a variety of sources including: staff, stakeholders; customers; The general public; and individuals. A good practices could be related to the implementation of a programme, a project, a policy, a legislation, a strategy, an activity, a manual, etc. In all these, what is important is to document and share knowledge on what elements of these work or do not work, how they work, and why they work or do not work. There are two types of good practices in an organization:
- Internal good practices – Internal best practices are originated by the internal knowledge management efforts.
- External good practices – External best practices are acquired to the organization by hiring the skilled, educated and experienced staff and through external trainings.
Evolution of a good practice
A practice often evolves through four stages. At the start, a potential innovation carried out as a pilot or an initial new technique or technology shows minimal evidence of results. After being tested several times in a specific context, it becomes a promising practice; i.e. a practice that is successful in its specific context, but represents a risk if applied in a different context. Finally, when it has proven to be successful through various replications in multiple contexts, the practice may be qualified as a good practice and may be widely shared to be adapted and adopted by others. In some cases, a good practice can evolve to be institutionalized, for example when it becomes the basis on which a policy or a norm is formulated.
In order to capture a good practice, it is necessary to initiate the documentation process at the earliest stages when the practice is still a potential innovation.
Benefits
The benefits from identifying and sharing good practice are that doing so will
- Identify and replace poor practices
- Raise the performance of poor performers closer to that of the best
- Decrease the learning curve of new employees
- Reduce rework and prevent “reinvention of the wheel”
- Cut costs through better productivity and efficiency
- Improve services
- Minimize organizational knowledge loss (both tacit and explicit)
What is the process to capturing and sharing a good practice?
Contact Phowad Solution Limited to guide you in the process of capturing and sharing your good practices. Just like any other people related knowledge sharing initiative, there is need to contextualize good practice in the flow of processes in your organization. Organizational culture will be key as well as knowledge management governance framework. Apart from these considerations you will need to develop a set criteria for validating a good/best practices for your organization. Talk to us!
