I heard a great quote from Chuck Harris, long-time CEO of the South Hampton YMCA. He’s been in the game a long time, about to retire actually. Here is what he said:
“Best-Practices is the new box of mediocrity”. Oh I really love this.
See there really aren't best-practices anymore. Or if you do get to a point where you can script out your best practices, they are obsolete the moment you type “Best….”.
Why mediocre? Best-practices take too long to assess, create and teach. Likely your work landscape has changed throughout this period. If so, the result will be milk-toast.
So why are so many still obsessed with “best practices”? Because the very title “Best” implies finality. I wasn't the best…but now I am the best. I have reached the pinnacle of best-ness. My work here is complete. Also, doesn’t it feel good to work hard on any system, study it, tinker with it, rework it and when you determine what works best with it… BE DONE WITH IT. Dang, that does feel awesome sometimes.
Problem is… systems are too orga
nic to ever be done with. Also, systems are too complex to be boxed into your idea of what is “Best” for it.
And forget about it if you want to be a true leader. I rarely have seen a leader who is a starch defender of “best-practices” succeed. Why? Usually that type of leader is big on “practices” not on outcome. Usually that type of leader is someone who needs a tremendous amount of control and little room to flex. I have seen leaders so obsessed with making their subjective best- practices work, that they bulldoze other good thought-contributors out. Some may say ones obsessed with “best-practices” are usually only obsessed with their best practices.
There is a very popular Salvador Dali quote that states, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it”. That rings true here and in our context is very freeing. You’ll never reach a best-practice nirvana and if you do, based on the speed of business, it won’t be for very long. Having systems to get things done is OK. But never strive for your best-practices to be the end-game.
“Because the very title “Best” implies finality. ”
That’s an assumption in and of itself.
Best practice can merely imply a practice that currently is successful right now. it doesn’t necessarily mean it will never change.
And give me a break. Few practices would ever be considered best if they don’t produce desired outcomes, so your critique of leaders who value best practices is on very shaky grounds.
Totally agree, Dawn! Oftentimes, “best practice” is a wild goose chase prompted by major CYA attitudes!
I really like Facebook’s apparent motto (don’t remember where I heard it from): “Done is better than perfect.”
YES! I haven’t thought about this before, but it is completely true. We work in organic environments, and calling things “best practices” for the sake of feeling like we checked off our to do box properly does a disservice to our organizations. Appreciate the good perspective.
Hi Dawn,
I liked your piece very much because it caused me to think and talk back (out loud). I think I agree with your overall premise, yet I can also understand where Alan B in his comment is coming from.
There are downsides to best practices both real and perceptual, and I think that is the value of your piece. It causes us to pause and think about how we use best practices. Do we hide behind them, do we use them to self aggrandize or even to beat up on other folks who might doubt our false wisdom?
There can be value in the use of best practices, but maybe in a limited way. There are other barriers to their use that you don’t suggest. Like, it is very difficult to move a best practice from one organization to another. It’s hard to account for culture and often the translation is superficial. One of my favorite stories is about folks who traveled to Nordstrom in the height of the original service management movement in the 80′s and came back to their companies and installed a grand piano in the lobby. Later, when these retail companies went into bankruptcy or were sold, the piano was one of the first possessions to go.
The practice of benchmarking and looking for best practices can have value in generating our thinking about possibility. It’s not taking the idea as found, rather it is about taking an idea and turning it around and upside down a figuring out how it will work in our culture and make a difference for our organization. Hi Dawn,
I liked your piece very much because it caused me to think and talk back (out loud). I think I agree with your overall premise, yet I can also understand where Alan B in his comment is coming from.
There are downsides to best practices both real and perceptual, and I think that is the value of your piece. It causes us to pause and think about how we use best practices. Do we hide behind them, do we use them to self aggrandize or even to beat up on other folks who might doubt our false wisdom?
There can be value in the use of best practices, but maybe in a limited way. There are other barriers to their use that you don’t suggest. Like, it is very difficult to move a best practice from one organization to another. It’s hard to account for culture and often the translation is superficial. One of my favorite stories is about folks who traveled to Nordstrom in the height of the original service management movement in the 80′s and came back to their companies and installed a grand piano in the lobby. Later, when these retail companies went into bankruptcy or were sold, the piano was one of the first possessions to go.
The practice of benchmarking and looking for best practices can have value in generating our thinking about possibility. It’s not taking the idea as found, rather it is about taking an idea and turning it around and upside down a figuring out how it will work in our culture and make a difference for our organization.
I’m with Alan B.
Best practices should come from analyzing. Analyzing and comparing practices with results. Sometimes results show that what one person (possibly a leader) or a certain group of people does or is doing yields better than average results. Best practices are put forward to suggest that should one, or a group, do what others are doing or have done that yielded better than average results, they too should realize similar results. If similar results aren’t realized it would be prudent to analyze further and compare.
If someone wants to disagree or argue that what’s put forward as a “best practice” isn’t, properly acknowledged disagreements can be highly beneficial to the organization or group. In order to dispute or prove something isn’t a best practice requires providing an alternative that yields equal or greater results.
Those are arguments I want to have in my organization!
I’m with you 100% Dawn. In Humanize, we actually say that best practices are evil. That’s not to say that there is no value from observing and analyzing others and learning from what they have done. That’s all good. But there is so much wrong with the thinking behind best practices (outside of the “learning from others” logic). It assumes that what works in one context will naturally work in others. It assumes (as you point out) that systems are fairly static (but they’re not). It assumes there is a single answer to a given problem (there are typically many). It implies that the best learning and thinking happened in the past (sow e don’t have to think or learn as much now). Best practices is essentially against innovation! I know the people who like best practices are not against innovation, but it’s important to see how the assumptions are stacked up against it. I don’t think we intend to, but when we go down the “best practices” path, we turn off parts of our brain and innovation takes a back seat.
And if there is one part of “management” that is most in need of innovation right now, I think it could be HR.