Best Practice

Best Practice is a management idea which asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices 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 notion of a best practice is not new. Frederick Taylor (1919) said as much nearly 100 years ago: “among the various methods and implements used in each element of each trade there is always one method and one implement which is quicker and better than any of the rest”. This viewpoint came to be known as the "one best way”.

History, however, is filled with examples of people who were unwilling to accept the industry standard as the best way to do anything. The enormous technological changes since the Industrial Revolutions in England and the United States bear witness to this fact. For example, at one time horses were considered the 'best' form of transportation, even after 'horse-less carriages' were invented. Today, most people drive a gasoline, diesel, or bio-fuel vehicle—itself an improvement on the horse-less carriage.

A more recent example can be found in the 1968 Summer Olympics where a young man named Dick Fosbury revolutionized high-jumping technique. Using an approach that became known as the Fosbury Flop, he won the gold medal (in a new Olympic record height of 2.24m or 7 ft 4 1/4 in), by going over the bar back-first instead of head-first. Had he relied on 'best practice,' as did all of his fellow competitors, he probably would not have won the event. Instead, by ignoring 'Best Practice', he raised the performance bar—literally—for everyone. At the same time, however, he inadvertently created the new 'Best Practice', which has become the only high jump technique ever since.

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