In London yesterday I had four meetings with four different clients/prospective clients.  In one of those “this is odd” moments I was asked similarly structured questions in each of the meetings.  The questions were around best practice.  As we have a lot of experience in 360 feedback and performance appraisal that is clearly a typical thing to be asked but what made me reflect more was that in each situation there was a difference between what I may consider as industry best practice and what I would recommend for this particular client/propsect.

New processes, systems, and ideas need to meet the recipients where they are.  Training, guidance, presentations, and other promotional material can and should make a shift from current practice but to ignore the current culture, capability, and expectation is likely to lead to a poorly accepted and poorly used process.  So while being aware of industry best practice and having a clear view on the ideal implementation is useful (it’s clearly best to have some direction), adapting that best practice to suit the amount of movement that the majority of the firm/organisation can cope with is a pragmatic way forward.

Our long term clients tend to move over time to better and better processes and practice as the members of the organisation become increasingly comfortable with giving and receiving feedback, build trust in both the process and their management, and develop personally.  The first implementation should be the most change in the correct direction that will be absorbed positively by the majority.

Brendan

www.bowlandsolutions.com