Best practices: apply with caution!

All the rage in the eighties, benchmarking is now common practice in business. Performance improvement programs systematically include the identification and institutionalization of “best practices.” Most multinationals also make efforts to organize discussion and sharing of management approaches that have been tried and tested locally.

Yet, most managers have observed that transposing the “solutions” thus identified is easier in theory than in practice. Implementation is often a delicate matter, and the results are frequently disappointing. Although many blame the famous “resistance to change,” there may well be deeper reasons for these failures:

– There are no universal “best practices”: management methods suitable to one culture may totally fail in another.

– Disappointing results in transferring “best practices” may be caused in part by the failure to recognize the cultural context.

– Companies must be more professional by trying to understand not only “how,” but also “why” practices work well.

– To do this, characterizing cultures with a few dominant psychological traits is not enough; the principles that guide the organization of collective life must also be understood.