Business and Marketing

Redefine achievable performance. An important tactic is to encourage members to raise their expectations for their own performance. You may find benchmarking a helpful tool for accomplishing this perceptual shift. Benchmarking can force members to challenge their assumptions about the best possible performance that can be expected within a given area and to identify the best practices that are consistently used by the top performers in a field.
As an example, one step that led to the revitalization of Xerox was its decision to compare its copiers to those made by its Japanese competitors. Xerox found that the Japanese companies could produce copy machines at a much lower cost, even when such factors as labor costs were taken into consideration.
To apply benchmarking as a motivational tool:
1. Identify an organization that has a function similar to your own and that is recognized for having demonstrated world-class performance. This function need not be in the same industry but should face challenges similar to your own.
2. Clearly determine the criteria that you will use to compare your operation with those of the benchmarked organization. If you are comparing your performance on delivery schedules, you could measure from the point a delivery order is received to final delivery or from the time a package leaves your shipping dock. Clearly defining your measurement process will keep you from attempting to compare apples and oranges during your benchmark study.
3. Measure the performance gap between your team’s performance and that of the benchmarked organization.
4. Identify those best practices used by the benchmarked organization that could be successfully adopted by your team.
5. Reach agreement with your team regarding the time frame that would be required and the improvement actions that would be needed in order for your team to close the performance gap.