Contents Notes |
Foreword / Larry Herman and Jack Miller -- Introduction: How Best Practices Strengthen -- 1. Understanding Best Practices -- 2. Benchmarking to Identify Best Practices -- 3. Assessing Organizational Readiness for Benchmarking -- 4. Selecting Practices to Benchmark -- 5. The Benchmarking Process Step by Step -- 6. Building Benchmarking Teams and Political Support -- 7. Finding a Best Practice Partner -- 8. Maximizing the Relationship with Your Partner -- 9. Analyzing the Research and Selecting Best Practices to Adapt -- 10. Adapting and Implementing Best Practices -- 11. Sustaining Lasting Performance Improvements -- App. A. Benchmarking in the Knowledge Era: On-Line Resources and Other Research Tools -- App. B. Directory of Benchmarking and Best Practices Organizations -- App. C. Step-by-Step Checklists for Managing a Benchmarking Project -- App. D. Key Benchmarking Tools. Benchmarking for Best Practices in the Public Sector is a unique, practical guide that shows public officials and administrators at all levels of government how to identify best practices and implement them in their organizations. The authors go beyond abstract concepts to bring benchmarking to life with real cases from federal, state, and local governments. They show how benchmarking methods have been adapted to the unique needs of the public sector and describe the. Tangible benefits gained by public agencies that have applied these techniques. Offering step-by-step advice along with checklists, flowcharts, sample forms, a resource directory, and other tools to help managers take action quickly, the authors demonstrate what benchmarking is and how it differs in the public sector, six criteria for selecting a program or process to be benchmarked, ways to generate support and ideas for a benchmarking project, how to select and work. With a benchmarking partner, and how to plan a strategy for using the project's findings. |