How I cope with my “best practice” allergy

I’ve been working on digital transformation for well over 20 years. Fundamentally, I’m pretty relaxed when it comes to change. But there are certain buzzwords that still get my blood boiling.

“Joachim, what do you consider to be best practice when it comes to…?” There it is again:** best practice.** I can feel my** adrenaline rising** and I get an internal rash. What does the person I’m talking to expect now? That I’ll pull out the ultimate, super-effective, one-size-fits-all hyper solution that works everywhere, all the time, and sends the metrics skyrocketing?

Alright. I’ll come down from my tree and ask myself: Why am I constantly being asked about “best practice”? And what might actually be the positive side of best practice?

Best practice itself probably stems from the desire not to repeat mistakes that others have already made elsewhere. That’s a perfectly legitimate stance. After all, mistakes cost time, money, and motivation. And, ultimately, humanity’s success is based on the fact that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel with each generation but can build on the knowledge of our forebears.

However, this only applies to transformation processes to a limited extent. Mistakes are not just unavoidable—they are a vital resource for learning. Transformation is, above all, about learning.

Nevertheless, there is something to be said for best practice. To successfully learn how to transform, we need hypotheses—ideas about what might prove useful in our specific context, with our target audiences, within our organisational culture and strategy. Then we test. And we learn. And we develop a new hypothesis (aka “best practice”). And we continue to learn.

Perhaps my allergy to best practice isn’t down to best practice itself, but rather about my mistaken assumption: When someone asks me about “best practice”, they’re probably not looking for some amazing, foolproof solution that always works. They just want a suggestion for something to try out. And then everything is fine. My inner peace included.

Joachim Dreykluft is Head of Data & AI Strategies at Upscore.