Best Practices: They Usually Aren’t And Keep Them To Yourself

      With this PIP, I continue to examine various tools and techniques whose relevance and effectiveness are not as potent for process improvement as in the past.  I’m going to look at best practices and two aspects of them which you should question.

      First is best practices in many cases is an oxymoron.  Frequently they are just some practices someone with both extensive process knowledge and good technical writing skills put down on paper.  No one puts them to the test.  All too often large portions are pulled straight out of a vendor’s instruction or equipment manual.  They might just as well be etched in stone because no one questions them or shines the light of continuous process improvement on them either.

      Second is they are no longer exclusive.  In the past, industry followers looked to industry leaders to copy, steal, borrow, or pick your own term for absconding their best practices.  In the ultra-competitive, standardize everything world we work in they aren’t exclusive.  People move around and consultants hire on to various firms so both introduce them to the next organization they join.  Exclusivity is no longer there since everyone is probably doing the exact same thing, plus or minus about 5%.  We’re playing not follow the leader but follow the follower.

      So shine a strong light on your so called best practices and make sure they really are.  Question your process experts to ensure best practices are reviewed and kept up to date, especially with rapid changes in technology.  If your practices are exclusively the best, other organizations may look to benchmark your organization.  You might want to avoid unless you want your competitors to have that knowledge.  We’ll look at benchmarking in the next PIP.