I cringe when I hear people say “Best Practice”
I admit it; I find the phrase “Best Practice” cringe-worthy. I know a lot of people say it with the best of intentions, but I hear that phrase with a much different contextual understanding of what it means and the implications it has, especially in the professional world.
If “best practice” is the best plan we have, then we are unprepared to address the kinds of problems the world will face in the next 50 years.
I’m a big fan of the Cynefin Framework and Dave Snowden’s work. If you haven’t been exposed to Cynefin, I cannot recommend Dave’s work enough. His youtube video and original HBR article are good places to start learning. I’m not going to explain Cynefin here, there are many solid efforts out there already. Please read one of them.
If you’ve been exposed to Cynefin and have learned that different domains yield different practices: Novel, Emergent, Good, AND Best practices, then you will understand why I think we need to have this discussion.
It’s Obvious
In Cynefin, the application of “Best Practice” is the practice of the Obvious domain. This is the right place to apply a best practice. This is the domain of the industrial revolution, manufacturing and assembly-lines. Tons of businesses operate within this area, at least in some facet: what we do is obvious, the way we compete is to optimize speed and cost. i.e. converge towards a best practice.
“Best Practice” is the natural end result of Taylor’s “Scientific Management”. It is essentially Michael Porter’s generic “Cost Leadership Strategy”. Technique is known, execution is what matters.
There is nothing wrong with a “best practice” when applied in the Obvious domain. It enables consistency and scalability. If it is applied to well-known problems that we have already faced, we can solve those problems again by the application of those techniques.
However, most of the problems technology and services based organizations work on are not Obvious Domain problems. Misapplying “best practice” in other domains will yield disastrous results. To apply them unilaterally to all situations is the hobgoblin of little minds.
The Limits of Best Practice
I believe there are many ways to solve a problem. While there is value in consistency, in the Complicated Domain, “good practice” is a more effective approach than “best practice”. We avoid valueless religious arguments over “best” and we move forward with a “good enough” practice to solve the problem. That flexibility enables us to better leverage the intrinsic motivations of those doing the work. People choose the path and the process/tools serves their work. Value humans over process.
The limitation of “best practice” is even more pronounced when dealing with the Complex Domain or Chaotic Domain. If there is no direct causal relationship between input and output, attempting to apply a perceived “best practice” is going to be an epic failure. Snowden’s classic video on organizing a children’s party goes straight to the heart of the matter.
If by applying best practice, we are lucky enough to see initial positive results, confirmation bias will likely be ingrained even when those results change after the initial honeymoon period. And if negative results occur, the “best practice” argument enables the currently in-vogue “double-down without evidence” response, especially for the arrogant and stubborn.
Falling off of Cynefin’s Cliff
Even when applying “best practice” in the Obvious Domain, there is the danger of falling off Cynefin’s cliff into Chaos. This is exactly what Silicon Valley venture capital bets they can force by “disrupting” industries. While I don’t think SV is as successful as it believes itself to be, given the successes they have had, they provide an example of deeply entrenched best practice. Therefore, it’s always important to be mindful when applying “best practice” even in the Obvious Domain.
Situational awareness is a must. And is why, in general, “good practice” is a more resilient choice even in an Obvious Domain. It is often an affordable strategic hedge if your competitive advantage is one of quality/feature distinction rather than cost-optimization. That competitive advantage is typically successful in the Complicated Domain anyway.
Everyone has a bias; saying “best practice” is your tell
We all have a natural bias towards viewing a specific situation through one Domain of the Cynefin framework. I am personally biased towards the Complex domain. I have to work harder to see things as an ordered system. My skills and temperament naturally work along the blue (explore-exploit) and yellow (shallow-dive-into-chaos) dynamic. I am comfortable grazing.
So when someone advocates using “best practice” in a Complicated Domain, and especially in a Complex Domain, I question their biases. Wanting to apply “best practices” in those Domains implies a way of thinking and understanding the world that may ignore present circumstance. Therefore, my suspicion is that they will be biased towards certainty, order, and control.
They will have a bias towards traditional management techniques and structures. They will likely feel comfortable in top-down/command & control management hierarchies. They will believe that respect is derived from their relative position of authority rather than being earned though their work. They will apply carrot and the stick techniques to manage employee motivation extrinsically favoring the use of money and job title rather than appealing to intrinsic motivations like those outlined by Daniel Pink’s Drive: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
I acknowledge it’s a huge leap from someone merely saying “best practice” to assume they completely embody those characteristics. Their first-fit pattern matching brain may trigger them to say this well-accepted business phrase simply because they want to be “the best”. And I whole-heartedly admit that I am overly sensitive due to my own disdain for authoritarianism and my penchant for civil disobedience, but my first-fit pattern matching brain takes me there.
Please Stop saying “Best Practice” All The Time
I know people aren’t thinking about Cynefin when they say “best practice” in meetings and conversations, but I wish they were! We need a framework that gives us the ability to make sense of our world and then provide guidance for how to solve the challenges we face.
If we want to be able to solve problems characterized by Complex and Chaotic domains, we need to move beyond “best practice” and understand emergent and novel practices. If we want to accurately reflect the Complicated Domain, then start saying “good practice” instead of “best practice”. I believe using language more precisely helps communicate more effectively.
We can make a conscious decision to break the thought patterns and language around traditional management techniques. We can apply sense-making, mindfulness, and critical thinking in realistic and pragmatic ways.
Cynefin is a brilliant framework on which make sense of our world. It provides a common language and framework to work together. Once we make sense of where we are, we can create strategic plans to help move us in the direction we want to go; not with certainty, but with understanding and wisdom.
