What is Best Practice?

So what is Best Practice and Good Practice? Is there a difference, and do we care?

Introduction

Often in business, we hear about Best Practice and Good Practice, but what does it mean? Where and when should we use it?

To help us out, let us look at some definitions:

• Definitions – Practice
  To do or perform habitually or customarily; make a habit of practices courtesy in social situations.
  To do or perform (something) repeatedly to acquire or polish a skill: practice a dance step.
  To give lessons or repeated instructions to; drill: practised the students in handwriting.
  To carry out in action; observe

• Definition – Good

Being positive or desirable; not bad or poor: a good experience;
Having the qualities that are desirable or distinguishing in a particular thing
Serving the desired purpose or end;
Superior to the average

• Definition – Best
  Surpassing all others in excellence, achievement, or quality; most excellent: the best performer,
  Most satisfactory, suitable, or useful; most desirable: the best solution
  Most highly skilled

• Definitions – Best Practice

A technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to lead to the desired result reliably
A technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward that is believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technology, method, process, etc. when applied to a specific condition or circumstance.

What is Best Practice?

Using the phrase “Best Practice” suggests that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other.

The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, the desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications.

In addition, they can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

The term is considered by some as a business buzzword used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organisations can use for management, policy, and especially software systems. Furthermore, this is often true within the public and NGO/ not-for-profit sectors.

What are the benefits?

A best practice strategy is one where the organisation strives to copy those deemed to be proficient in a given activity. This can help your organisation to:

• Respond more quickly to changes or innovations in your market space
• Become more competitive
• Increase sales and development in new markets
• Manage and reduce costs and become more efficient
• Improve the skills of your people
• Use appropriate technology more effectively
• Reduce waste and improve quality

Tools to improve Best Practice

There are several business tools that you can use to achieve management best practice, including:

• Networking
• External benchmarking
• Quality and other external awards
• Strategic planning
• Performance management

Achieving Best Practice

We know that Best Practice means finding – and using – the best ways of working to achieve your organisations’ objectives. It involves keeping up to date with the ways that successful organisations operate and measuring your ways of working against those used by the market leaders.

Methods include:

• Benchmarking – learning from and through the experience of others
• Standards – Best practice through the achievement of standards

But does this really stack up?

Does “BEST PRACTICE” actually exist?

In business, HR and consulting we through around the term “Best Practice” without considering the context or the goals required. What is “Best” in one situation is not “Best” in another.

And then there is “Good” practice – or more what is expected of people in a given situation. How can we measure the difference between “Good” and “Best” practice? If we cannot then do either actually exist?

What makes the situation even more confusing is when organisations say that something is “best practice” when all they are doing is confirming with the rules of the sector or profession – sorry folks, but that is not Best Practice just “Practice!”.

Often what is quoted as “Best Practice” is in fact “current thinking”, which may or may not actually be “Best”.

Domains of Best Practice

Often the term “Best Practice” is used in Change management, Transformation, HR, HRD,  Government/ Public sector, not-for-profit, Professions – accounting, consultancy, health-care etc.

Summary

The sooner we as professionals start saying what something is, rather than justifying why we do something in a particular way as “Best Practice” the sooner we can move away from meaningless jargon and say “This is the best way for us…”

“Best” implies that research has been carried out and a full investigation and analysis has taken place – if this is true let us start seeing academic references in all documents that claim to espouse “Current Thinking”, “Good” or “Best” practice

References

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/best-practice

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585190050177184