Staircase Model for New Practice Implementation

Abstract

Implementation of new ideas and new practices are essential for an organization to remain competitive in a changing business environment. The absence of these new ideas will eventually lead to stagnation, but the challenge to organizations remains how to overcome the many barriers that appear during an implementation process and successfully convert these ideas into sustainable practices. Within the capital facility industry, this challenge is amplified based on long-held industry practices, corporate culture, and a necessary focus on minimizing risk. However, even the capital facility industry is being forced to recognize the need to adapt to changing business conditions through the implementation of best practices. Specifically, organizations require an implementation plan that provides enough detail that all parties impacted by the process understand the process (roadmap) that is going to be followed during implementation. This paper introduces the development of the staircase implementation model and how it addresses the need for an implementation roadmap that is applicable to all implementation initiatives. The paper introduces the model components, the proposed application of the model, and the initial testing of the model that led to specific implementation considerations. This paper has significant relevance to industry as it gives a practical introduction to the important focus of implementing new practices.