Best practices are not the best : it’s those that work

Now that transfert of best pratices is at the center of companies’ concernes, old habits seem to be a real barrier.

How are things done ?

The best solution brought to a problem within the company (and sometimes at competitor’s) is identitied and implemented. Easy, isn’t it ?

But there’s a snag. Since activities are not as repeatable as they were, similar consequences may have totally different causes. Global solutions reach their limits and it’s obvious than a contextualizes issue needs a contextualized answer. Because of different social context, of different cultures, of differences in the relationship with one client, the same solution won’t apply in Paris, New York or Beijing.

Problem : if it’s impossible to find a one and only solution, how to implement a different solution for each issue ? At this time we realize that a best pratice is the best only when we consider the context.

The solution is to make a wide range of solutions available and chose the one which is the best in a specific situation. Better, to focus not only on the answer but on the way people thought to built it. And allow exchanges that will make the transfer possible, taking the context into account, which is the specific characteristic of peer to peer learning. That means identifying not only solutions but also the people who put it at work.

The end of “one size fits all” solutions may turn the often failing mechanism of best practices transfert into a social learning mechanism. And implementation into discussions.

Related posts:

1. Best Practices in Corporate Intranets
2. Switching from work to partnership