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For the past decade or so, there has been an increasing level of focus on adopting “best practices” to improve operations. Many organizations hire consulting firms to seek out the best practice for performing any number of business processes, hoping to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of specific functional areas. Especially during times of focus on product quality and during economic downturns, there is increased interest in adopting best practices to solve challenges. But, are best practices really best for all organizations? Is it really possible to implement a “best practice” defined somewhere else, and realize comparable results?
What is a Best Practice?
There are a number of definitions of the term “best practice”. A quick web search of the term provides a variety of definitions, highlighting the lack of a standard definition. Consider the following:
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Wikipedia suggests “Best practices are generally-accepted, informally-standardized techniques, methods or processes that have proven themselves over time to accomplish given tasks.”
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Answers.com suggests a best practice “…refers to those practices that have produced outstanding results in another situation and that could be adapted for our situation.”
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SearchSoftwareQuality.com defines a best practice as “… a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result.”
Notice that the definition of a best practice varies greatly between a practice which is informal and non-standard, and a practice which is based on experience and research. While I am not interested in debating the definition of a best practice, I believe most people would agree that a best practice is a defined, standard practice which produces a desired result, is repeatable over time, and is accomplished as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Advantages of Adopting a Best Practice
If we use the definition above as our working definition, there appear to be several advantages of adopting a best practice from another source - be it industry, department or geography. Adopting a best practice should provide the following:
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A pre-defined practice or process for performing a task or operation, which works in the context of the functional area in which it was developed. For example, the best practice process for on-boarding a new employee can be pre-defined from another source and should be able to be used for employee on-boarding in another organization. These pre-defined processes can often be implemented without considerable organizational turmoil.
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The outcome of the process is predictable – both in terms of the outcome itself (the output produced from the process), the quality of the outcome, and the time and effort required to generate the outcome. In other words, a best practice for creating a purchase order, when implemented in another setting, should generally produce comparable results for quality, effort and timeliness for the organization adopting the best practice.
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Cost advantages are another potential benefit from adopting best practices, as the practice has been evolved to provide the most effective and efficient means of producing the outcome. For organizations with considerable variability in their process, simply standardizing on a best practice can provide significant cost savings.
Disadvantages of Best Practices
While there are advantages of adopting best practices – particularly those taken from similar organizations – there are disadvantages to consider when determining whether to adopt a best practice. Among those considerations are:
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One size does not fit all – just because an organization can leverage a best practice defined elsewhere, does not mean the practice will “fit” a different organization. Differences in the number of staff, the volume of transactions and other factors can significantly impact the effectiveness of a given best practice. In some cases, the practice could actually result in a worse outcome than that produced by the original process.
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Cultural differences between organizations can play a significant role in the execution of a best practice. Many practices adopted into organizations come from external organizations with significantly different cultural norms. Consider the level of communication between staff (and therefore required to execute a best practice process), levels of trust and cooperation, and focus on results versus process standardization. Each of these considerations, as well as others, can have a significant impact on how a best practice will fit into an organization.
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Strategic and operating goals and objectives in an organization have a strong influence on developing and defining a best practice. If the goals and objectives of the organization from which you adopt a practice are different than in your organization (and it is likely they are), you could be introducing conflicting practices within your own organization.
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Conflicts in end-to-end processes could result if implementing a particular practice in an organization does not elegantly align with both upstream and downstream business processes. Further, there could actually be policy conflicts within an organization which occur as a result of implementing a different practice.
Leveraging Best Practices for Success
There are ways to successfully integrate best practices into your existing organization without jeopardizing the organization or its current success. It does take some common sense, a willingness to try new things, and careful measurement and consideration of the output produced by the practice. Here are some keys to success when leveraging externally defined best practices:
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Identify the desired outcome produced by the best practice, and evaluate whether it is consistent with what you are trying to accomplish in your own organization. If the desired outcomes are different, you have two choices – abandon adoption of the best practice entirely, or modify the best practice to produce the outcome you desire in your process.
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Align the best practice with the strategic goals and objectives of your organization. If the outcome of the practice does not contribute to the achievement of the goals and/or objectives, consider whether the practice should be abandoned, or modified to produce a result directly related to the achievement of the strategic direction.
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Look outside your own industry and geography for examples of best practices. Leveraging best practices from your industry results in all organizations ultimately looking alike - that doesn’t make for great differentiation in the marketplace, or provide strategic advantage. Consider how vastly different industries perform similar processes, and leverage those ideas for creative ways to improve your own processes.
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Consider how a best practice can introduce additional differentiation and/or strategic advantage. When evaluating a practice for potential adoption, make a conscious effort to select those practices which add capabilities, as well as provide broader strategic benefits, rather than just cost savings or optimization. Perhaps there is an area for which you currently have no process, but adopting a practice provides another revenue stream, enhances your customer service perception, or otherwise provides additional visibility to the marketplace.
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Modify any best practice for the uniqueness of your own organization, management style, customers, products, and such. Best practices don’t have to be adopted as is – use them as a catalyst for creatively thinking about how you can improve your own practices.
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Don’t assume larger organizations are the only source for best practices. Many smaller organizations are great sources for best practice ideas, many of which have been developed out of necessity primarily because the organizations are small.
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Develop you own best practices – ask your employees what works, and how things can be improved. They are on the ‘front line” in the organization, and have many ideas which can be tapped and developed into an internally developed best practice.
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Don’t assume the adoption of a best practice is the “end of the road”. Business practices need to continually evolve to address new challenges and opportunities. There really is no such thing as “done”.
Best practices are a great starting point for improving processes within any organization. While there are advantages to adopting practices developed outside your organization, remember to modify them to your own unique culture and organizational structure. Further, don’t assume that bigger organizations have a monopoly on best practices – many small organizations have defined outstanding best practices which work for their organizations, and can be leveraged into larger organizations. Remember, best practices should offer only a framework or mechanism to think differently about your own organization. Even those organizations on the leading edge of defining best practices evolve them over time to fit new circumstances.
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