If you spend any time with a service provider, it won’t be long before you hear how the use of so-called “best practices” will pave the way to client success.
Using the best practices developed by other organizations, you’ll hear, will accelerate the design of a solution to most any problem. Listening to this, you’d think best practices were silver bullets.
The problem with the best practices approach is that it usually doesn’t work.
Starting any project with a canned solution narrows your focus to how you will implement that solution, instead of broadening your thinking about what should be done. I’m not suggesting that professionals blindly use the best practices of others without some consideration of the client’s situation. What can (and does) happen, though, is that teams begin with an analysis of how to make someone else’s answer work when they should devise innovations for the situation they face.
What makes the use of best practices even more dangerous is that it’s a follower’s strategy. By leaning on the well-worn solutions of others, you’re dooming your client to a future of following the pack, not leading it.
Of course, there is value in learning from the experience of others. If another organization has addressed a similar issue, it’s helpful to know what they did. And best practices can jog your thoughts and maybe even inspire you.
But as a tool for guiding strategic initiatives, it’s a real loser. Remember, one company’s best practice can too easily become another’s sunk cost.
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This is an excellent point. Working with small businesses in IT service space, I often find that best practices, often established by large vendors, do not apply. While there are always nuggets in various best practice approaches, I often find they do not mesh well with client’s business needs, expectations or budgets. Even with this attitude, I find it easy for us to slip into following the work of others.
One of the things we are doing to prevent slipping into this habit is to lead any practice development with brain storming and internal analysis. Only after doing this, do we look to our vendors, partners and organizations to find best practice guidelines to assist us in practice development.
We’ve recently used this approach with a new security service with good results. I think the end product is better defined and delivers higher value to our clients.
Jeff,
Great insight about the “nuggets” of value. It could be that is exactly what entices us to rely on best practices.
While I agree with your point that best practices should not be viewed as a canned solution that fits all clients, I do not think that they should be tossed aside. Consultants should keep up on best practices to ensure that they are offering the best solutions to their clients and adapting their own policies, procedures and strategies accordingly. Failure to keep up with industry best practices can also land you in a heap of trouble, if your work is ever challenged in court. Nobody ever wants to think about this but the fact of the matter is that if everyone else is doing it one way and you do it another, you should at least advise your client on why you are recommending a path that is different from the industry best practice. In summary, we can’t rest solely on best practices but we must at least consider their value in charting our couse to be innovative.
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