Best Practices
The concept of use of Best Practices is a fundamental one in good public management and leadership. In the ideal, the question truly is: What is the proven very best way to do something? In common use, the use of best practices research tends to be more of an effort to find out how other jurisdictions have successfully addressed common issues and implemented successful programs, and to adapt such practices to one’s local environment. Sometimes the very best practices are identifiable: various organizations, including the Federal Government (see GAO, Selected Best Practices Work, the National Governors Association (Center for Best Practices), the United Nations (Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme), the Public Technology Institute, the US Conference of Mayor’s, the National League of Cities, and others make efforts to identify and issue awards to ideas and projects that truly represent the best practices in the field. For an individual manager working on a project, however, best practices research can be highly beneficial even if it only identifies “very good” practices that provide models to help frame their thinking as they implement their own solutions.
For individual public managers and work teams, best practices represents a process as much as a specific technique or single solution. It is the research process to find the approaches to problems being taken by one's peers in other cities and states, and the resulting research compilation itself is often a useful contribution to best practices literature. With this in mind, the sources offered here are a mixture of actual practices and solutions to problems, as well as sources of information and research that will be useful to public managers seeking to do their jobs better and to find solutions to problems that may be either old or new to their own jurisdictions. Along with the organizational best practices links above, we recommend use of the following:
Best Practices, LLC is a for-profit research, consulting and publishing firm that is a world-leader in the field of best practice benchmarking. Our company works on the principle that organizations can chart a course to superior economic performance by studying the best business practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of world-class organizations. Our benchmarking products, membership research services, best practice databases and reports, benchmark metrics library, and custom studies provide clients with access and intelligence to achieve performance excellence.
AcqNet is a federal government source for information on procurement practices. They have an extensive collection of information on this subject. See their Acquisition Best Practices section, where they define the term as follows: As government agencies implement reinvention policies, they may develop promising practices that may be applied by other organizations, thus becoming Best Practices.
The United Nations Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP) is a global network of institutions dedicated to the identification and exchange of successful solutions for sustainable development. The BLP partners' network identifies initiatives in such areas as housing, urban development and governance, the environment, economic development, social inclusion, crime prevention, poverty reduction, women, youth, infrastructure and social services. Every two years, up to 10 outstanding initiatives receive the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, a biennial environmental award established in 1995 by the Municipality of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Those initiatives meeting the criteria for a Best Practice are included in the Best Practices database. The lessons learned from selected best practices are analysed in case studies and guides and transferred to other countries, cities or communities.
Best Practices Reviews of Local Government: A series of best practices reviews of local government services conducted by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) within the legislative branch of the Minnesota state government. The OLA is a professional, nonpartisan audit and evaluation office. The topics covered by the OLA reviews include Fire and EMS Services, snow and ice control, e-government, Non-Felony Prosecution, and Preventive Maintenance for Local Government Buildings.
Some best practices documents
of interest include:
Guidelines for Using Collaborative Agreement-Seeking Processes: Best Practices for Government Agencies: These guidelines for best practice are proposed by the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution for government-sponsored collaborative approaches that seek agreement on issues of public policy. The processes these guidelines address have the following attributes: a) participants represent stakeholder groups or interests, and not simply themselves; b) all necessary interests are represented or at least supportive of the discussions; c) participants share responsibility for both process and outcome; d) an impartial facilitator, accountable to all participants, manages the process; and e) the intent is to make decisions through consensus rather than by voting.
Best Practices Review of Local E-Government Services in Wisconsin: A review of the extent to which Wisconsin local governments have developed electronic, or "e-government," services and capabilities, using the Internet to provide government information and services on line. E-government is expected to improve government service delivery; increase public participation in government; and provide society as a whole with easier and greater access to government information and services by providing information to the public, allowing the public to report problems on line, and providing the public with the ability to purchase, request, or otherwise obtain government services on line. In theory, E-government allows the public access to government information and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provides the potential for government to fundamentally restructure its operations.
Government Innovators Network: A portal site focused on innovation and best practices, produced by The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Performance Measurement Best Practices: Part of the National Performance Review (NPR) to reinvent government, this report documents the Performance Measurement Study Team's findings, and will be a useful tool for public and private leaders and managers in identifying and applying best-in-class performance measurement and performance management practices. When used in conjunction with the Customer-Driven Strategic Planning Study, federal agencies will have a framework for success in meeting the Administration's expectations for not only "doing the right things" but for "doing them right," as well.
Fairfax County Performance Measurement Initiative: Fairfax County, Virginia's Budget Office has published some useful resources on performance measurement on it web site. As Fairfax says "[w]e are constantly seeking to improve our operations and services. Performance Measurement is one of the tools we use to do this. Fairfax County's performance measures are integrated into our annual budget to ensure accountability and establish the link between resources and results. The following are some of the materials we found useful and hope you do too."
Performance Reporting, an article by John Kamensky. "Slow, but steady improvements have been made in performance reporting at all levels of government over the past decade, but now I've seen Nirvana. And as a result, I'm even more adamant about what needs to happen in government performance reporting."