From Best Practice to Next Practice

1. There is a proliferation of "best practices" (BPM, Enterprise Architecture, Six Sigma, Lean, Project Management, ...) with the following characteristics

• single perspective or "lens" - single dimension of success
• community of practice - regular conferences and other tribal get-togethers where practitioners can share experience
• established "body of knowledge"
• industrialized practice - for example, armies of consultants from the large firms executing standard recipes

2. The generic problems with these "best practices" are becoming increasingly visible.

• the communities of practice don't talk to each other
• the bodies of knowledge are isolated knowledge silos
• the simple and obvious problems have already been tackled (so-called "low-hanging fruit"), the practices are getting more complicated and convoluted, and the original insights have got diluted or even lost

3. Meanwhile, the problems faced by business are getting more complex and difficult

• diminishing returns from "best practice" solutions
• increasing risk and reduced returns for "best practice" consultancy
• increasing disappointment and high failure rate of large complex change programs

4. Therefore we need to promote a different approach to solving large complex problems, which we are calling "next practice".

• system leadership - engaging boldly, reflectively and collaboratively
• lenscraft - combining multiple perspectives on complex system problems

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Related post: Are Best Practices Obsolete (September 2009)

See also Aidan's comment: Best Practice - A Philosophical Stance (September 2010)

Both this post and Aidan's comment were originally posted at https://next-practice-research-initiative.blogspot.com/2010/09/from-best-practice-to-next-practice.html