Guide for Members who would like to become a best practitioner

Developing a Best Practice Case Study for Your Intervention or System By Louis Carter

BPI’s definition of Best Practices

BPI’s definition of best practices is a program, intervention, and/or organization system that achieves sustainable positive results over time through diagnostic, assessment, design, implementation, continuous support, and evaluation phases.


Description of Four-Steps for Global Change
An organization should start by identifying talent through a best practice talent and succession plan. Next, a performance management system is necessary to differentiate the talent. Once you know your talent you must develop it through a best practice leadership development program. Once all of these systems are in place it is time to align them with your organizations global values to allow for global change and growth

Developing a Case Study on Your Intervention or System

PURPOSE
This guide is intended to provide you with framework for developing a case study for your Global Change and Development intervention or system chapter. We want to provide our audience with a clear, well-written, comprehensive “cookbook” for implementing a Global Change and Development intervention or system at their respective organizations. The closer you follow these guidelines, the less work you will have to do after you submit your final draft.

WRITING RULES
1. Write in a clear and consistent manner with proper grammar and sentence structure that is understandable to the average reader.
2. Be specific to the issues and questions within the chapter outline (See Chapter Outline on next page).
3. Write in the third person about your work with your company (i.e., Sun Microsystems, its, they). Do not write about yourself in the case study in the first person (e.g., I created a team of, I developed the entire proposal, etc.) – it appears to be too self-serving - - that’s the purpose of your biography in the end. You will gain much more credibility with your reader if you write about your work from the third person.
4. Avoid editorializing or praising a program without providing direct evidence or testimonials from participants. Example: ABC Company’s training program dramatically transformed its employees. What evidence does ABC have to support this statement? What employees were transformed? What were their stories of transformation?
5. Be Specific! Provide examples of training (e.g., teams that successfully completed an action learning project, the specific business challenges that we accomplished or handouts and tools that the participants leveraged to stay on track). These examples will help to actualize your case study for the reader.
6. Provide Exhibits. Tools, instruments, evaluation forms, questionnaires, training materials that can be transferred onto your word document, and competency models that are relevant to the context of your case study chapter.



Chapter Outline and Expectations
Your case study will be chosen for its innovative design, customization, fit with company strategy, reputation for excellent global change and development practices, results-orientation, as well as a host of factors that affect the program’s effectiveness and desired outcome(s). The factors that affect the program’s effectiveness are based upon a six-phase approach for developing successful global change and development interventions. Each case study must provide comprehensive data and description on each of the six phases for the specific organizational priority.

Phase One - Diagnosis
The first phase is a diagnostic step in which the business drivers and rationale for creating an initiative are identified. Critical to this stage is creating consensus and a sense of urgency regarding the need for your intervention. A future vision that is supported by senior management is key. All chapters will have some model as a focal point for their work. The best of these models capture the imagination and aspirations of the organization and its leaders.
• What is the business problem/rationale for the Initiative?
• What are the stated objectives of the system/intervention?
• What are the company’s current strengths to be leveraged for future success?
• What are the “gaps” that must be bridged to avoid difficulty?
• What new skills or competencies are needed to achieve the intent of new strategy?

Phase Two- Assessment
Assessments are delivered to both individuals and to teams, resulting in development plans and actions. Assessment has become a norm for business—the question is how we use the assessment to drive change in our businesses and ourselves. Individual coaching often accompanies this assessment.
• How was assessment used in your program?
• Who participated in the assessment?
• What types of instruments were used?
• What feedback or coaching was provided?
• What issues surfaced from the assessment data?
• Did the assessment results drive the program design?

Phase Three - Design
Phase Three is program design. This phase addresses the issue of how your intervention or system was designed to fit the business needs and objectives of the organization.
• How did the needs assessment impact your system/intervention?
• How did you customize the program features to fit the strategy of the business and meet the overall program objectives?
• What were some of the critical success factors to designing your intervention/system?

Phase Four - Implementation
The fourth phase is program implementation. In this phase, you must identify the critical aspects of how the intervention/system was carried out. This stage should address the following questions:
• What was the specific content of your program? (e.g., include training agenda, strategic plan, change blueprint, and other core elements of program design)
• What were the critical elements of your implementation?
• What 2 or 3 features of your program had the most impact on participants?
• What was it that made your program memorable and useful for participants?
• How did you keep participants on-track?
• What tools, instruments, or training material did you use to assist in the intervention? (note: include items in Exhibits)
• What techniques or concepts did you use to address issues that arose during your intervention?
• How does the team/group stay together as “learning groups”
over time?
• If you could choose 1 or 2 aspects of your program that distinguishes its success, what would they be?

Phase Five - Follow-up
The best programs reach beyond the boardrooms and provide reinforcement and support. Work in this phase is the follow-up support that determines whether the “learning’s” of the program will transfer to the job.
• What specific steps did you take to reinforce learning after the program?
• What follow-up support was provided?
• What connection did you make from one program to the next one offered?
• How did you connect to other management or HR systems in the organization?

Phase Six - Evaluation
Evaluation is the capstone—the point at which the organization can gain insights on how to revise and strengthen a program, eliminate barriers to its reinforcement and use in the field, and connect the intervention back to the original goals to measure success.

• What evaluation methods did you leverage to measure the program’s effectiveness?
• What quantitative and qualitative measures of impact did you gather?
o Retention
o Customer Service
o Entrance into New Markets
o New Business Development
o Profitability
o Other?
• Beyond hard measures, did the program achieve:
o Action team breakthroughs?
o Cultural Change?
o Global Branding and Presence?
o Other?

Themes
The four areas discussed earlier all rely on the six-phase approach to run successfully. The four areas of talent/succession, performance management, leadership development, and global change are interdependent. BPI researches practices that have sustainable change over time. We look for positively reinforcing systems that have achieved positive change over time.


Talent/Succession
Talent/Succession is an essential step in recruiting, retaining, and providing a clear career path for new and emerging talent. A successful talent/succession program examines how each candidate adds value to team performance, selects the best candidate, and places them in the appropriate position for growth and development.

Performance Management
A performance management system is an essential step in leading your global growth process. Performance management focuses on performance, feedback, common cultural elements, methods, and the opportunity for reinforcement of cultural elements. A successful performance management system is a collection of fundamental behavioral principals and methodologies that managers and supervisors can utilize to improve employee performance (e.g., efficiency, quality, quantity, and cost effectiveness).

Leadership Development
Companies are not only focusing on high-potential employees. They are also beginning to measure the specific contributions and results of leaders at all levels. Among its many purposes, leadership development is used to help align leaders with global values. Leadership development is used to enhance performance and help people reach their highest potential as leaders. A successful leadership development program blends in-depth assessment, individual feedback, coaching, and activity based learning that stimulates long-term improvements and change in leadership style and behaviors.

Global Change
The Best Practices Institute recognizes global change as the next step in the process that allows entrance into new markets, cultural change, innovation, new business development, and consistent global growth (herein known as "result areas"). We will research each of these result areas within our study as separate practices.

Description of Model
An organization should start by identifying talent through a best practice talent and succession plan. Next, a performance management system is necessary to differentiate the talent. Once you know your talent you must develop it through a best practice leadership development program. Once all of these systems are in place it is time to align them with your organizations global values to allow for global change and growth.


Overall BPI Questions:
• What is your company’s intervention for global growth/change?
• Does your company implement all four program areas?
• When did the program (i.e., initiatives or practices that support your programs for global growth and change) begin? Who implemented it? How?
• Are there any specific models you used to develop this program? To implement it? To review it? Please define them.
• Please describe in detail the components of your program, process and model.
• Where in your company does your program reside?
• What makes your program unique? Why?
• What resources, if any, did you find particularly helpful in your design process? (E.g., what people, departments, literature, technology, tools, websites, etc.? Please give specifics.)
• Would you consider your program to be complete? Why or why not?
• What are your plans for the future of your program? Have you set goals?
• In your words, what makes your program successful?
• What are the programs top 3 challenges?
• What does this program mean to your organization?
• Who is responsible for measurement and evaluation of the program process?

QUESTIONS BY TOPIC AREA

Talent/Succession
Talent/Succession is an essential step in recruiting, retaining, and providing a clear career path for new and emerging talent. A successful talent/succession program examines how each candidate adds value to team performance, selects the best candidate, and places them in the appropriate position for growth and development.
• How does your company recruit needed leadership?
• What is your approach to talent/succession management?
• How does your organization define high potential and developmental roles?
• How does your company assess talent?
• How does your company manage its talent for growth?



Performance Management
A performance management system is an essential step in leading your global growth process. Performance management focuses on performance, feedback, common cultural elements, methods, and the opportunity for reinforcement of cultural elements. A successful performance management system is a collection of fundamental behavioral principals and methodologies that managers and supervisors can utilize to improve employee performance (e.g., efficiency, quality, quantity, and cost effectiveness).
• How does your company remain performance management driven?
• How does your company institutionalize new processes & tools?
• What are you doing to make your organizational structure & process more cost effective?
• How did you find the correct performance management system? How did you implement it?
• How does your company conduct stretch assignments?

Leadership Development
Companies are not only focusing on high-potential employees. They are also beginning to measure the specific contributions and results of leaders at all levels. Among its many purposes, Leadership Development is used to help align leaders with global values. Leadership development is used to enhance performance and help people reach their highest potential as leaders. A successful leadership development program blends in-depth assessment, individual feedback, coaching, and activity based learning that stimulates long-term improvements and change in leadership style and behaviors.
• How does your company identify high potential leadership?
• How does your company approach new leadership growth?
• How does your company cascade quality leadership down from the top?
• How does your company develop new and emerging market leadership? Mature market leadership?
• What is your company doing to develop leadership?



Global Change
The Best Practices Institute recognizes global change as the next step in the process that allows entrance into new markets, cultural change, innovation, new business development, and consistent global growth (herein known as "result areas"). We will research each of these result areas within our study as separate practices.
• What is your company’s strategy for growth?
• How does your company approach the available and unavailable markets?
• How does your company approach new business development?
• How does your company manage a global culture?
• How do established cultures survive sudden culture changes (e.g., merging of tow cultures through acquisitions)?
• How do you relate your company’s processes and tools with global change?
• How did your company complete the transition from a national company to a global one?
• How does your company change its organizational model and structure to respond to some of the changes in the marketplace?
• What is your company strategy to increase revenue/profitability?
• How does your company approach innovation?
• How do companies with multiple cycles manage their culture?
• What is your approach to penetrate high growth markets?
• What is your process for developing new business models?
• How does your company manage to sustain culture change over time?

You may submit your best practice to: bestpractice@bpinstitute.net or contact us for more details.