Talk about overused phrases in business . . . the phrase “best practice” is at the top of my list.  Annoyed by a word that can immediately shut down the brain.  While doing bank management consulting the Fortune 500 company I contracted with threw this word out consistently in discussions with customers.  “This is best practice to process applications this way” or “You really don’t want something different this is best practice”, and often I would stand in disbelief as the banking customer or prospect actually believed it.  Rarely was there any evidence to support the “best practice”, but even if there was, what purpose would it serve?

One thing drilled into my head through W. Edwards Deming, Taiichi Ohno and application is that organizations should never blindly copy.  The minute I heard that a bank was copying another bank I knew trouble would be found in time.  All systems/companies are as unique as each individual.  They have different structures, work design, management thinking, workers, skills, constraints, customers, demands, etc. And copying a process or idea from another company does not guarantee success and my experience is that either it flops or new ideas and thinking is stifled.

So What’s the Big Deal?
Simple, “best practice”, copying and standard work and the like don’t allow the absorption of the variety of demand offered by service.  I love the Olympia Restaurant skit from Saturday Night Live (click here to watch).  This to me is what I see in service organizations.  They have built systems with “best practices” that don’t allow the customer to pull value.  It’s much simpler to code software, have standard work and scripts as the bean counters will say, “we saved money!”  Customer demands have variety and they say, “I’ll go somewhere else to get my demands satisfied.” 

Taiichi Ohno built Toyota to handle variety of demand and in service the variety of demand is even greater.  Ohno understood that costs were not in “economies of scale” (another best practice), but that in a management paradox, costs were in demand and flow (economies of flow).  He understood that focus on flow reduced costs, focus on costs and costs will rise.  Further, by taking a systems thinking approach I have found that things like “best practices” inhibit flow.

Taking approaches such as “best practice” allow people to quit thinking and start doing.  But the approach Deming and Ohno pursued was that there was always a better way . . . so why stop thinking?  Each unique system has  everything you need to know to make it better.  There is no reason to seek a best practice, copying or benchmarking.

Our approach is to begin by getting knowledge in your system, but starting with “check.” Check allows an organization to understand the “what and why” of current performance or get knowledge about their own unique system.  It is a better way.

Leave me a comment. . . I can take it!  Click on comments below.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Download free from www.newsystemsthinking.com “Understanding Your Organization as a System” and gain knowledge of systems thinking or contact us about our intervention services at info@newsystemsthinking.com.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbitt or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.