How Are You Defying “Best Practice”?

My last post raised the question, “Why does management behavior often diverge from “broadly accepted” theory or best practice?” In response, you shared insights as to why best practices aren’t always practical or desirable and, instead, what should be done to (in your words) avoid “giving up on differentiation” and use best practices as “the basis for innovative practices.”

Here’s what I heard you say on the difficult realities you’ve experienced and how you’ve overcome them:

In reality, “best practice”…

1 …isn’t always the “best.” Best practices work for a particular company in a particular market at a particular time and what is best for one organization, or one situation, may not be best for others.

2 …often isn’t feasible in terms of time, money, effort, and incentives. We can rarely afford the best because the end customer doesn’t want to pay for the best product — they want to pay for a fairly good product. In addition, best practices are usually premised on getting consistently good results in the long-term but people are rewarded based on the results they got last quarter.

3 …is sometimes unachievable given that common sense isn’t all that common. People learn something in their early 20s and then apply what they have learned for the rest of their careers. And all too often they hammer it into what they know or what they can sell… and after that much pounding, the result has lost all of its key elements.

So instead, focus on…

Adapting best practices intelligently and innovatively to a given organization’s cultures and situations.

Defining quality processes so that you have the best likelihood to deliver quality products and services at the time and cost required.

Having experienced people who understand the fundamentals and know how to think critically, strategically, and creatively.

These realities pose significant challenges, and lead naturally to my next question:

What best practices do leaders sometimes have to forgo to react to a particular situation? For example:

• A recent article on The Blanchard Companies website exhorted leaders to coach their people and overcome the above realities by encouraging “managers to see coaching as a part of their job instead of a threat” and “senior leaders to be more coach-like” and provide “incentives for managers to develop their people.” But none of this advice will make a whit of difference if the coachee doesn’t want to be coached or the necessary chemistry doesn’t exist between the coach and coachee. Although I am a coach by nature and profession, a handful of my direct reports in my prior life were uncoachable, at least by me, at that particular point in time, and it made sense to wait until they wanted coaching or find a coach that “clicked” with the employee.
• Advice on how to influence others emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships, ensuring productive dialogue, and discovering interests to create opportunities for mutual gain. Nowhere in management research will you find the importance of, in the words of one of my clients, “going on strike.” “Going on strike” is a last ditch effort to restart a relationship by, paradoxically, stopping it. It’s necessary when the other party’s wins are always at your expense. By going on strike, you withhold valuable resources and prove that your colleague doesn’t have the political muscle to push you around and make you comply with their unreasonable requests and behavior. Needless to say, this is a risky approach and one that is effective only if used sparingly and with the support (or at least awareness) of the powers-that-be.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Take a moment to share how you are turning “best practice” on its head. What have you done that seemed to defy “best practice conventional wisdom” but turned out to be effective?