When things get crazy in business…you need to get more organized

I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve read (or written) that started by stating “The World moves faster today than it ever has!” And, they are all correct. The business environment seems to continue to expand at an exponential rate, and that makes it especially hard for organizations to keep up. It feels like […]

Scoping a benchmarking project is the first step

I’m often asked what the first step should be once you decide you need to benchmark. I’m assuming that you have already done the vital steps of understanding the value this benchmarking effort will bring to your organization, aligned it with a current strategy or business issue, and have common agreement within your organization that […]

In Benchmarking, It’s Time to Get Started

The ability to benchmark your organization’s performance is expanding quickly. Services for metric benchmarking, as well as qualitative (or best practice) benchmarking are growing and expanding. The market has solved barriers around security and confidentiality. If you don’t have a benchmarking source that can guarantee you that level of trust, you need to find another […]

A new user’s assessment of Asana’s productivity tool

This review was a collaboration between myself, Ron Webb, and John Tesmer (@johngtesmer). One of the teams I work on recently started a test of Asana, a product touted as “…the next big step in productivity”. We were looking for tools to help us manage the work we do on a regular basis. I’ll put […]

A different type of shark encounter

If you have been bitten by the process bug, like me, then you always see parallels between business, process, and everyday life. It drives my wife, mother, and friends crazy, but I always see them, and it is usually in the context of how I can make the process better at the airport, church, restaurant, […]

Need to Benchmark? Don’t wander Too Far from Home.

If you’ve followed this benchmarking series, you know there has been a lot of information shared around benchmarking peer groups or those you compare yourself to when you conduct a benchmarking project. My message in this post is that you don’t have to go outside of your own organization or value chain to get highly […]

Building Your Benchmarking Team

In this installment of the benchmarking series I cover team composition. The team is a critical aspect of any project and a benchmarking effort is no different. There are roles on a benchmarking team that you’d expect to see on any project team, but there are some that are unique to this type of project. […]

Using Benchmarking Vendors (Part 2 of 2)

In part 1, of this benchmarking series, I covered a few of the instances where you might want to engage a benchmarking vendor to assist you with your projects. In this installment, I outline my recommendations around what to do when you find a vendor (or short list of vendors) that you might want to […]

Using benchmarking vendors (Part 1 of 2)

This installment of the benchmarking series focuses on using benchmarking vendors and will be in two parts. This part will focus on when you might want to use a benchmarking vendor, and the second part will focus on what to do once you find a vendor. Benchmarking vendors, like all other vendor, should be held […]

Great companies benchmark differently

In a recent post in this benchmarking series, I discussed the issues I see with defining benchmarking peer groups based on industry. That led me to share the similarities I see among great companies when they benchmark. Benchmarking roles In our benchmarking projects, there are primarily two roles. The sponsors are the organizations wanting to […]

Your benchmarking peer group says a lot about you

In this entry to the benchmarking series, I want to cover the benchmarking peer group. The benchmarking peer group is both vital and controversial for the vast majority of benchmarking projects. It is an issue we discuss at the beginning of every project, and it alone can make or break a benchmarking project. But here […]

In benchmarking, you are the output

I wanted to tackle another benchmarking myth in this post. I’ve touched on it in previous posts in this series, but wanted to address it specifically. It is the myth of getting EXACTLY comparable data within peer groups. Why is it a myth? You can’t achieve the elusive “apples-to-apples” comparison when humans are involved, ever. […]

Global process standards eminent

It has been a long time coming, but it appears there will be process standards developed and implemented globally in the very near future. The World Economic Process Academy for Simplification and Standardization (WE_PASS) announced the upcoming release of globally-accepted and implementable process standards for all enterprise processes. Change is finally here In a statement […]

Benchmarking: I’ll see you in court

Legal concerns around benchmarking have been around since the practice really exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These issues should be considered, but shouldn’t be a barrier to benchmarking. Logic and common sense should rule your benchmarking efforts well before the legal concerns. A benchmarking code of conduct to guide your activities is […]

Getting valid benchmarking data

In my other benchmarking posts I’ve explained that you’ll never get to a level of precision where you will truly have an exact comparative benchmark value. It has been proven and noted that the same person asked the same question will give you different answers. But, even if it were possible, you would not be […]

A benchmarking lifecycle

I’ve mentioned a benchmarking life cycle in my previous benchmarking posts, and there is a definite trend I see emerging among the organizations I work with on a daily basis. The benchmarking need is born The “need” to benchmark is generally born from a few key categories: External disruption: A shift in the marketplace occurs, like new […]