Innernextpractices

Not every innovative company uses every best practice. Not every authority agrees on every best practice. One size doesn't fit all.

Change becomes the new normal, and the speed of change is increasing significantly. Dynamism consists in being able to break away from being static, and becoming proactive to changes. 

To capture trends and create business synergy, organizational management should strive to scale up agility, innovation, business transformation efforts by exploring the "best and next practices" throughout their organization to accelerate digital transformation.

Best practice is something one does or meets expectations in a positive way: Whatever the activity, there is one best way of performing it; one way that uses the least resources takes the least time and still meets quality standards. That method is the best practice. Every organization should strive to explore the "best practices" throughout their organization. These practices might be different across organizations, across departments, divisions, and affiliates within an organization and can change over time. In fact, they should change and evolve over time.

Best practices should be institutionalized across the organization. One of the benefits of the phrase "best practices" is that it is aspirational. Every organization should strive to explore the "best practices" throughout their organization. With effective tools or methodologies, the best practice can be used wisely and with the expertise to really add value; gain advantage from the "wisdom of crowds," share best practices across the organizational hierarchy, and improve business management efficiency and competency. To scale up, we can identify individual, group and collective best practices that we can then choose to implement in our own societies, with the goal to advance human society systematically.

The practices that are "best" today are almost always not "best" in the future: Organizational management is a set of principles, processes, and practices. The practice is always a combination of people and how they are used to doing things. Often, the best practices were industry-specific and evidence-based, meaning they were based on data. Developing the best practices help to standardize solutions to some common problems usually within the industry.

However, with an increasing pace of changes, technologies and markets are constantly morphing under pressure from the waves of creative destruction that keep the business in innovation mode. Therefore, the best practices perhaps make people get stuck in the “we always do things like that,” mentality, and become the very obstacle to progressive changes. Thus, it is always critical to develop the next practices for both stimulating new ideas and optimizing the innovation process to reach the next level of maturity.

Some "next practices" continue to emerge: Not every authority agrees on every best practice. Best practices are contextual, and no best practice is perfect. The best practices might be different across organizations, across departments, divisions, and affiliates within an organization; it can change over time. Perhaps it is a better approach to strive for using good practice, good enough for a certain organization and for the specific situation and challenges that are faced and that actually requires different priorities or approaches as compared to others.

The key is context. If the best practice you want to adopt is to be implemented in the same context, it could work. It actually leads to a better solution for your environment, to improve efficiency and productivity. Taking the best practice from one environment into another could turn out to be the worst practice, as so-called best is now out of its benchmarking context. The real problem with best practices is that sometimes it stifles creativity and innovation, works against creating competitive advantage and creates the illusion of continuous improvement.

One size doesn't fit all. The best practice is more about setting principles and standards for driving markets change and shift. For each company attempting to deal with these changes, there is a different path to follow. Next practice is a recommended way of doing things. Digital is the era of innovation, every organization should strive to explore "the next best practices" throughout their organization continually.

Posted in: Principle/Practice