{"id":866,"date":"2008-03-19T01:00:16","date_gmt":"2008-03-19T09:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=866"},"modified":"2008-03-19T01:00:38","modified_gmt":"2008-03-19T09:00:38","slug":"universal-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=866","title":{"rendered":"Universal Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s funny to me that these are even called best practices.\u00a0 First of all, there really are no \u201cbest practices\u201d.\u00a0 Perhaps these should be called \u201cleading practices\u201d or even \u201ccommon practices\u201d, but something that does not state that this is the way to go all the time.\u00a0 It is simply not true that we have practices that are applicable all the time.<\/p>\n

Then again, perhaps there are a couple of universal best practices that are applicable to just about every project, process, technology, etc.\u00a0 If so, what would these be?\u00a0 I borrow from a post by Phil Fersht<\/a> from the best outsourcing blog out there.\u00a0 In it, he comes up with 5 worst mistakes for outsourcing that I think can be distilled down into a couple of key thoughts.\u00a0 His five mistakes go something like this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Poor communication to key staff<\/li>\n
  2. Failing to weed out the dissenters<\/li>\n
  3. Not involving HR<\/li>\n
  4. Not involving IT<\/li>\n
  5. Not using a good adviser<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Therefore, I distill into the following universal best practices:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Change Management.\u00a0 This is from mistakes numbers 1 and 2.\u00a0 However, I\u2019d carry it out much further than simply doing good communications and getting the right levels of support.\u00a0 I\u2019d want to make sure that we are getting the right messages across including making sure everyone understands the strategy and goals behind the change, and helping people understand why we need the changes and why it\u2019s good for the organization and hopefully for the individual as well.\u00a0 I\u2019d also want to make sure that as much as possible, we\u2019re driving towards changing key behaviors to make the project successful.\u00a0 Lastly, I want to make sure my change management tasks ensure the highest levels of overall adoption once the project is completed and live.<\/li>\n
    2. Good Governance Models.\u00a0 This is from mistakes numbers 3 and 4.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about getting the right people involved, but also about being inclusive so that you can make good decisions.\u00a0 Basically I could care less about involvement.\u00a0 That\u2019s just something that happens to happen when you have a good, defined decision-making process.\u00a0 Broadly defined, it\u2019s about governance.<\/li>\n
    3. Strategic Planning:\u00a0 It\u2019s absolutely critical that that any project you go through is framed with the overall strategic vision.\u00a0 Then, each component and decision should be based on that vision.\u00a0 Phil got many comments to his post.\u00a0 Among them, someone mentioned that people should be aware that they should focus not on how much to outsource, but what processes make sense to outsource.\u00a0 Often, it\u2019s hard to get this point of view internally if your staff hasn\u2019t been around the block hundreds of times in the last couple of years.\u00a0 That stuff comes from consulting firms.\u00a0 Consulting firms help define what the logical steps are and make sure the decisions you make fit in the overall strategic plan and cultural model.\u00a0 Sure you can go it alone, but for some things, it sure helps to have someone else around.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      It\u2019s funny to me that these are even called best practices.\u00a0 First of all, there really are no \u201cbest practices\u201d.\u00a0 Perhaps these should be called \u201cleading practices\u201d or even \u201ccommon practices\u201d, but something that does not state that this is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,47,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change-management","category-governance","category-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}