The business world is definitely hooked on “best practices.” Companies and other organizations are hungry for examples of how to do anything right – from manufacturing to security to firing people and more.
I must admit, I am a bit bugged by the prevailing obsession with finding examples to follow like sewing patterns…
I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I would cringe whenever I’d hear the phrase “best practices” – until I recently found this definition in brilliant-id’s Buzzword Dictionary:
“best practices, n: Describes business tactics (and strategies) being used in successful companies. Also used to describe a set of internal processes that have been found to yield the best results. The term, however, can be misleading. While ‘best practices’ seems to imply success, they may have nothing to do with the actual success of the company.”
That last sentence nails the essence of my cringe. In my experience, “best practices” for one organization or project often don’t translate well to other settings. There is always a unique context of resources, goals, target audience or participants, organizational culture and history, markets, and timing that will make your efforts significantly different from the example.
I wish that, before chowing down “best practices” like they’re potato chips, more business people would focus on honing the indispensible arts of common sense, intuition, and experimentation. Learn to think with your own brain first. Take the time to learn the relevant concepts and skills related to your project, don’t just copy what other people do. Come up with your own ideas and try to justify them within the context of your own real situation. Figure out ways to start small and experiment.
I don’t think “best practices” are worthless, however. Those kinds of case studies are useful for gathering ideas if you don’t already have a strong sense of how to start. They can get your brain going. But I think it’s a mistake to pursue a strategy of simply finding and duplicating “best practices” which may or may not be best for your circumstances.
Sewing patterns are truly useful only in a cutout world.
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