Visionary practices (beyond "best practices")

Camelot Consulting helps leaders envision the ideal organization as their end-point.

This vision is not constrained by what others are doing today (the lemmings approach to leadership). It's a long-term goal, beyond being as good as today's best. Think of it as "best conceivable practices," not "best current practices."

Over the last two decades, NDMA has worked with over a thousand leaders in dozens of corporate, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Each has brainstormed what they envision should be expected of a world-class organization. Then, each team has reviewed, refined, and augmented the work of past leadership teams.

The resulting database melds all their visions of everything that's expected of an organization if it's to consider itself "world class." Breathtaking in its scope and precision, this database provides an inspiring benchmark which leaders use to assess the gaps in their current organizations and establish clear, consistent directions for organizational improvement programs.

Examples of expectations of a world-class organization....

Using this database, leaders can examine the capabilities of their current organization and assess the gaps.

Their gap assessment may include gathering input from a broad cross-section of staff and from key clients.

Then, Camelot helps leaders diagnose the root causes of these gaps -- obstacles that prevent the organization from achieving this ideal vision. Root causes are fundamental attributes of the organization that cause good people to perform poorly.

Root cause analysis is quite distinct from "best practices." In one study, three leaders expressed the same goal and the same concerns. But root cause analysis revealed three very different problems to solve, three different obstacles to achieving the same goal.

Had one leader resorted to best practices and imitated the solution implemented by another, he/she would not have solved that organization's unique problems. This is an example of how best practices can, in fact, be worst practices!

Solutions aren't always transferable, and mimicking the practices of seemingly successful organizations may or may not work for you. Best practices are a short-cut. While it's good to learn from others, real leadership involves understanding your unique challenges and addressing them at the systematic, not the symptomatic, level.