Best Practices Won't Make You Best

Best Practices Won't Make You Best

There are a handful of expressions in business that have always made me twitch a little.

“Circle back.”

“Reimagine.”

“Pivot.”

And one of my favorites:

Best practices.

Years ago, I recorded a video about how much that particular expression bothered me.

I may have been a little overly enthusiastic about it.

But I still think I had a point.

Because most of the time when someone says they want to adopt “best practices,” what they really mean is:

We want to do this more like organizations that are already good at it.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I’m just not sure it makes you best.

Some things we already know

To be clear, I’m not suggesting we should reinvent everything.

There are accepted standards and principles that represent decades – sometimes centuries – of accumulated knowledge.

Measurement.

Experimental design.

Statistical inference.

Financial controls.

Safety.

Quality assurance.

We understand quite a bit about how to do these things well.

That knowledge has been tested, challenged, refined and, importantly, has survived scrutiny.

Use it.

There is no virtue in rediscovering what is already known.

The same can be true of processes.

Sometimes someone really has developed a better way of doing something.

If their process is better than yours, learn from it.

Maybe even adopt it.

That’s improvement.

But there’s an important difference between following an accepted standard and copying someone else’s process simply because they’re successful.

Don’t copy the answer

Processes exist within a context.

Different customers.

Different capabilities.

Different economics.

Different people.

Different constraints.

Different objectives.

When we copy another organization’s process, we’re implicitly assuming enough of those conditions also apply to us.

Maybe they do.

Maybe they don’t.

So instead of simply asking:

How can we do what they’re doing?

perhaps we should ask:

Why does this work for them – and what does that teach us about what might work for us?

Learn from the answer.

Understand the principles behind it.

Adopt what makes you better.

But don’t copy the answer.

Understand why the answer works.

The problem with catching up

There’s another limitation to “best practices.”

Suppose your strongest competitor does something considerably better than you.

So you study them.

Benchmark their performance.

Understand their processes.

And eventually implement many of the same practices.

Great.

You’ve improved.

But something else has happened.

You’ve arrived where your competitor already was.

And while you were busy getting there, they probably didn’t stop.

Benchmarking can tell you where someone else has already been.

It can’t tell you where you should go next.

Best practices can help close gaps.

They can improve consistency.

They can help establish competence.

Best practices can establish the floor.

They rarely establish the ceiling.

No Best. Only Better.

Years ago, through my work with one of my clients, I was introduced to a philosophy that has stuck with me ever since:

No Best. Only Better.

The more I’ve thought about those four words, the more I think they capture what has always bothered me about “best practices.”

Best sounds like a destination.

Better is a direction.

Best suggests we’ve arrived.

Better asks where we should go next.

But “better” also seemingly carries an obligation.

Different isn’t necessarily better.

New isn’t necessarily better.

Innovative isn’t necessarily better.

Better requires evidence.

That’s where testing comes in.

Push against the ceiling

Every practice we now consider exceptional started with someone wondering whether there might be a better way.

Someone saw a problem.

Or an opportunity.

Or a customer need that wasn’t being served particularly well.

And asked:

What if we tried something different?

Testing gives us a disciplined way to answer that question.

Try something.

Measure what happens.

Learn.

Refine it.

And, when the evidence supports it, do more of it.

Testing gives us a disciplined way to push against the ceiling without ripping up the floor.

We don’t have to choose between blindly following what everyone else does and recklessly pursuing every new idea.

We can build on what we already know while testing what might be better.

Better for whom?

There’s one more question worth asking.

Better for whom?

Our customers don’t care that we’ve adopted an industry best practice.

They care whether we’re more relevant to them.

Whether we solve their problem better.

Make something easier.

Create greater value.

Give them another reason to choose us.

And that target keeps moving.

Customer expectations change.

Alternatives change.

Technology changes what’s possible.

What was exceptional eventually becomes expected.

What was differentiated becomes common.

And yesterday’s “best practice” eventually becomes today’s price of admission.

Organizations don’t remain relevant by perfectly preserving what worked yesterday.

They remain relevant by continuing to learn what might work better tomorrow.

For lack of a conclusion…

Learn from accepted standards.

Learn from organizations that do something better than you.

Understand why their processes work.

Adopt what makes you better.

But don’t stop there.

Ask:

What could we do better?

What could we try?

What could we test?

What could we learn that might make us more valuable and more relevant to the people we serve?

Then find out.

There is no virtue in rediscovering what is already known.

But there’s also no virtue in assuming what is already known is as good as it can get.

Best practices can establish the floor.

The ceiling?

No Best. Only Better.