Recently, I read a book called “Be Unreasonable” which made a point that resonated with me. The author, Paul Lemberg, decries the age old reliance on “best practices” and convinced me, as the title of this post states, that best practices… aren’t.
How’s that?
Think about it… “Best Practice is an idea that asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc.” (from Wiktionary)
Best practices for any given business are assumed to work in other similar businesses. While this may be true (or not) the danger is, once best practices are adopted, innovation stops, testing takes a back seat, and “ant mentality” begins.
As we all know, ants like to follow each other. We always assume that the ant at the front of the line knows where he is going. However, as I was catching a dose of NPR the other day I heard scientists had stumbled upon an entire colony of ants who were following each other in one giant circle. In a matter of days the entire ant colony starves to death.
It occurred to me that relying on so called best practices can lead a company in a similar situation.
Not only can you get caught erroneously following another company’s lead, but relying on a set of best practices might “trick” you into permanently following your old semi-successful (or unsuccessful) self… all the while thinking you are on your way to the top.
Instead of Best Practices
No, I am not about to give you a set of best practices for avoiding best practices. Rather, I’ll tell you what works for us.
We test new ideas, track returns and keep the operating manual light.
For example, the world of social marketing is full of well intentioned purists who think a Facebook profile set up solely for the purpose of marketing is an outrageous social faux pas, or at the very least… NOT Best Practice. Personally, I think we will begin to see more and more successful “engineered” Facebook marketing campaigns that are entertaining or compelling enough to be acceptable to the general audience. If we relied on conventional best practices, we would not test our intuition, and, miss out on a great innovative success story for a client.
Bottom line is… If you have joined the bandwagon that is social marketing, don’t let ANYONE strap you down to a set of guidelines or a list of tasks. There are no rules that are hard and fast correct for every person. Learn from what’s worked for others but create your own path.
Every organization advances through three stages. First, they have no practices. No process, no methods, nor organization–just an idea and maybe a customer and sheer force of will.
At some point, the organization decides to get serious about the systems of business. They attempt to copy other companies (such as zig-zagging like Starbucks), try to seamlessly outsource core functions and try to hire specialists without understanding how to evaluate them. This, of course, doesn’t really work.
Finally, the group realizes that innovation requires as much self-reflection as outside research. They build their own tactics and their own strategies out of what they find in books, what they learn from consultants and (gasp) what they hear from their own employees. This is a healthy, mature, yet agile organization. They are rare but marvelous.
Most companies (and individuals) are stuck in stage one, and for them, best practices are a marvelous idea. If you need accounting, buy Quickbooks or Freshbooks, these are fine.. If you want to get your name in the papers, download sample press releases and follow the format, or blindly hire a PR firm. This is what everybody does at first and it is totally ok. Yes, you will someday get beyond stupidly duplicating what everyone else is doing, but for starters, try finding some best practices. They are marvelously better than no practices at all.
@robbyslaughter
Robby Slaughter’s last blog post..Frantic Cashier