The phrase “best practice” needs to be outlawed, at least at any level above the kitchen table.
For those of you lucky enough to have avoided the term, so far, a best practice is defined as “commercial or professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective.”
The assumption is that what works well in one place will work equally well in another. That might be true when it comes to questions like ‘is it better to cut my steak with a knife or a fork?’, but once we leave the dinner table, things invariably become more complicated. (Knife is the best practice, in case you weren’t sure.)
In real life, though, there are very few procedures or workflows that can — or should — be standardized to that degree.
The idea that there are best practices is sloppy thinking. What is best practice now may not be best practice in the future or under even slightly different circumstances. At one time, large single-family residences on large lots were best practice, but in times of increasingly expensive and less available land, it makes more sense to build smaller homes on smaller properties.
What is most efficient for me, may not be so for you. The same goes for organizations, businesses and governments.
Instead of best practices, let’s start talking about better practices, recognizing that solutions always need to be tailored for a range of factors: time, place, need and circumstance.
We are not saying that organizations and governments shouldn’t look around them for better ways to do things — that’s just good business. But to think there is a best practice to imitate sets aside myriad possibilities, including innovative homegrown solutions. We should be striving to be the community or organization everyone else is looking to for ideas.
It shouldn’t be about somebody else’s best practice, but a constant search for better practices for our community as it grows and evolves.
