Best practice benchmarking is the on-going process of identifying, understanding, modifying, and incorporating the outstanding practices of others. It is a useful, disciplined approach to organizational innovation and increased effectiveness.

How does best practice benchmarking compare with other approaches to innovation? Where does one look for best practices? What are the enablers of and barriers to the transfer of best practices? How do you create a best practice culture within your own organization?  These are the topics we'll explore in the opening session of NMTF 2004.

Leading this session is Scott Holste, who serves as Director of Global Research for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. His team tracks the advance of the gospel among each of the world's more than 11,000 people groups. Before coming to serve in the organization's home office, Scott served as a Strategy Coordinator for an unreached megapeople in southeast Asia and then as director of orientation and training for the organization's work among unreached peoples in Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. Scott has a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and has written regarding the effects of trust on the transfer of knowledge within organizations. He is a scheduled presenter for The Fourth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organizations  to be held at the University of Greenwich (London) in August 2004.