Best Practice and Good Practice

Introduction

Often in business we hear about Best Practice and Good Practice, but what does it mean? Where and when should we use it?

Definitions – Practice

To do or perform habitually or customarily; make a habit of: practices courtesy in social situations.
To do or perform (something) repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill: practice a dance step.
To give lessons or repeated instructions to; drill: practiced the students in handwriting.
To carry out in action; observe:

Definition – Good

Being positive or desirable in nature; not bad or poor: a good experience;
Having the qualities that are desirable or distinguishing in a particular thing
Serving the desired purpose or end;
Superior to the average

Definition – Best

Surpassing all others in excellence, achievement, or quality; most excellent: the best performer
Most satisfactory, suitable, or useful; most desirable: the best solution
Most highly skilled

What is Best Practice?

Best Practice suggests that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other.

The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications.

Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

Best Practice is considered by some as a business buzzword used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use for management, policy, and especially software systems. This is often true within the public sector.

What are the benefits of Best Practice?

A best practice strategy is one where the organization strives to copy those deemed to be proficient in a given activity. This can help your organization to:

• Respond more quickly to changes or innovations in your market space
• Become more competitive
• Increase sales and develop in new markets
• Manage and reduce costs and become more efficient
• Improve the skills of your people
• Use appropriate technology more effectively
• Reduce waste and improve quality

Tools to improve Best Practice

There are several business tools that you can use to achieve management best practice, including:

• Networking
• External benchmarking
• Quality and other external awards
• Strategic planning
• Performance management

Achieving Best Practice

We know that Best Practice means finding – and using – the best ways of working to achieve your organizations objectives. It involves keeping up to date with the ways that successful organizations operate and measuring your ways of working against those used by the market leaders.

Methods of Best Practice include:

• Benchmarking – learning from and through the experience of others.
• Standards – Best practice through achievement of standards.

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