In many of the organisations in which I have worked, whenever we have been faced with a big issue to resolve, someone always pipes up with ‘What do [insert name hear] do?’ The name to insert is our neighbouring authority, our biggest competitor or our most admired organisation. Everyone agrees that a visit to that organisation would be worthwhile.
This happens for a variety of reasons: a genuine desire to not reinvent the wheel by learning from other people’s experiences in a related field or a wish to save cost by taking the work already carried out by other organisations and building upon it. This also happens however as it is seen as an easy option, a way to quickly resolve an issue by being a Cuckoo in some on else’s nest
The problem with this approach is that no organisation has ever solved your issues, they have only solved their own.
Whilst many organisations have a lot in common and work in the same field, each one remains different to every other in so many ways, structures, accounting practices, procedures, processes and of course customers.
By all means go and investigate how another organisation has addressed what seems to be the same issue with which you are faced but only from the perspective of their approach and the areas that they took into consideration. But don’t come back with a blueprint that can be applied to your own situation. Doing so will only lead to the costly resolution of an issue that never really existed.
Only you can solve your own problems and the first place to start is by obtaining an understanding of what the true issue is.
If you feel that a visit would be worthwhile, the best place to go is into your own organisation to have a look at the issue at first hand. You won’t even need to arrange transport.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 