‘Best practice’ is one of those terms that, while not inherently bad, has become so overused as to be stretched beyond its rightful application. So it gets applied generically to any scenario where an understanding of the most effective methods to solve a problem is desired. Our wish to create certainty out of ambiguity, and to impose control over the unpredictable leads us to wish to standardize approaches and apply best practice to many distinct types of situation. But as we have shown there is a big difference between simple, complicated and complex challenges.
figure 5.2 Dave Snowden’s Cynefin model
Complicated Complex
Chaotic Obvious
Enabling constraints Loosely coupled probe-sense-respond
Emergent Practice
Lacking constraint De-coupled act-sense-respond
Novel Practice
Tightly constrained No degrees of freedom
sense-categorize-respond Best Practice Governing constraints
Tightly coupled sense-analyse-respond
Good Practice
An excellent way of framing the difference in our response to each of these types of challenge comes from Dave Snowden’s Cynefin model,23 a useful framework for decision-making (Figure 5.2).
Simple contexts, characterized by stable, clear cause-and-effect rela-tionships and ‘known knowns’ are the domain of best practice. Managers, says Dave, might appraise a situation and base a response on established processes. The hazards here come from complacency and entrained think-ing, which might blind us to new perspectives.
Complicated contexts may still have a clear relationship between cause and effect but can also contain many applicable answers, some of which are not immediately obvious (‘known unknowns’), and so this requires analysis of suitable options and is typically the domain of experts. Good practice is therefore more appropriate than best practice. The danger in this context comes from experts who are biased towards preferred solutions, over- analysis leading to paralysis, or from ignoring potentially innovative ideas from non-experts.
Complex contexts, however, are constantly shifting (‘unknown unknowns’).
As Dave Snowden notes, the temptation in the face of such unpredictability is to demand certainty in the form of foolproof plans with precise outcomes: to revert to a command-and-control leadership style; to become less patient. But in complex contexts we can only understand why things happen in retrospect and answers are emergent so we need to look for instructive patterns through experimentation. Encouraging the conducting of experiments that are as ‘safe to fail’ as possible enables informative patterns and a clearer direction to emerge. Imposing a desire for order or a rigidly defined course of action will preempt the opportunity for such instructive patterns to emerge.
In chaotic contexts no manageable patterns exist, the relationship between cause and effect is impossible to define, and so clear, concise and immediate action to establish as much order and stability as possible is what is required.
Leaders need to work to transform situations from chaos to complexity where emerging patterns might be identified and suitable responses determined.
If the world of business is increasingly characterized by uncertainty, continuous flux and complex contexts, then the bad side of best practice is that we seek to oversimplify and use it as a way of seeking certainty in situations that require a more emergent pattern of decision-making. As Dave notes, best practice is, by definition, past practice but hindsight no longer leads to foresight after a shift in context. While it may be appropriate in simple contexts, misappropriation of best practice in today’s ever-more complex world means that we are in danger of becoming the drunk search-ing for his keys in the streetlight.
notes
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