Best Practices Q & A

Question: “Won’t the use of Best Practices stifle innovation within the company by requiring the use of what another company is using?”

Answer: If management decrees that a certain process is to be used, regardless of whether it originates from another company (one definition of Best Practice), without the meaningful ownership of those who perform the process, it will, indeed be stifling of innovation. But it is not the process itself that is stifling – it is the management by decree that stifles innovation. The “holy grail” of the Best Practice Path is ownership of processes by those performing them in a well-led culture of continuous improvements. When this is present, then innovation becomes possible, and even major changes such as implementation of a new system are accomplished without problems.