The Downside of Best Practices

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

Believe it or not, there is a downside to best practices. Even though I will from time-to-time slip and refer to something as “Best Practices” I am attempting to extricate that phrase from my vocabulary. I have actually come to cringe every time I hear a so called expert use the phrase in an authoritarian manner as a justification for the position they happen to be evangelizing. In today’s post I will put forth my perspectives on this subject which are meant to reveal the many hidden dangers that are often associated with Best Practices implementations…

Let me begin with a bold statement that I’m sure will unleash the wrath of many: “There is no such thing as best practices” and you can feel free to quote me on that…Best Practices are nothing more than disparate groups of methodologies, processes, rules, concepts and theories that have had success in certain areas, and because of those successes, have been deemed as universal truths that can be applied anywhere and everywhere resulting in dramatic improvements. Just because someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true…Moreover just because “Company A” had success with a certain initiative doesn’t mean that “Company B” can plug-and-play the same process and expect the same outcome.

Let’s use an example of a common problem that most businesses face at some point in their lifecycle (if not at multiple points) which is needing to implement a certain application or toolset to automate an existing manual process. Okay, my question is this: What constitutes best practices in this situation? Does the company purchase an off-the-shelf solution, utilize an ASP (Application Service Provider) solution or embark upon developing a custom application? Moreover if they decide to develop the application should this be done internally with existing staff, or outsourced, and if outsourced will it be done domestically or offshore and who will manage the process. Oh, and what about development methodology? I could go on ad-nauseum with this line of thinking, but I’m sure you get the point by now. The reality is that you can find someone who will tell you that anyone of the options mentioned above constitutes best practices, so who is right and who is wrong? 

It has been my experience that whenever methodologies become productized objectivity is removed from the equation. Whenever you are being pitched a product as a solution I suggest you exercise extreme caution. Business is fluid, dynamic and ever evolving, which means that static advice at best is short lived, but most times is simply incongruous with the very nature of business itself. I’m not looking for someone to cram my enterprise into their set of canned rules and processes, rather I’m looking for someone to tailor a solution based upon the unique circumstances of my environment.   

My experience has been consistent over the years in that whenever a common aspect of business turns into a “practice area” and the herd mentality of the politically correct legions of consultants and advisers use said area as a platform to be evangelized, the necessity of common sense and the reality of what actually works often times gets thrown out the window as a trade-off for promotional gain. It is precisely the dispensing of one-size fits all advice that has allowed the ranks of consultants, coaches, mentors and other professional advisers to swell to historical proportions. After all, if you can apply someone else’s theory in a vacuum it lowers the barrier to entry doesn’t it? Labeling something as Best Practices is not a substitute for wisdom, discernment, discretion, subject matter expertise, intellect, creativity or any of the other qualities I value in an advisor.

Popular business axioms and management theories are thrown around in such cavalier fashion these days that they can actually result in flawed decisioning. It is for precisely this reason that I believe too much common management wisdom is not wise at all, but instead flawed knowledge based on a misunderstanding or misapplication of “best practices” that often constitutes poor, incomplete or outright obsolete thinking.

Let’s look at this from another angle…Why would you want to do business in the same fashion as your competitors? Don’t utilize your competitions practices, but rather innovate around them and improve upon them to create an advantage that can be leveraged in the market. Be disruptive in your approach and don’t fall into the trap of doing something in a particular fashion just because others do it that way – think “next” practices not best practices.

Bottom line…Just because a professor says it’s so, a consultant recommends it, a book has been written on it, or a product has been developed for it doesn’t mean that whatever “it” is constitutes the right option for you. I have personally witnessed companies that embarked upon an enterprise-wide initiative because they were sold on “best practices” and after two years into a seven-figure implementation without any meaningful benefit woke-up to the fact that purchasing a product as a solution does not constitute best practices.