Comments on: The Road to Mediocrity is Paved with Best Practices. http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices internet professional Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:10:03 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Bob Marshall http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-1079 Bob Marshall Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:03:01 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-1079 Sadly, this does not account for the #Rightshifting message: that some 80% of organisations are "behind the curve" in terms of effectiveness. Or maybe it does... - Bob Sadly, this does not account for the #Rightshifting message: that some 80% of organisations are “behind the curve” in terms of effectiveness. Or maybe it does…

- Bob

]]> By: Dustin Dettmer http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-763 Dustin Dettmer Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:36:00 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-763 While the idea is very funny and I agree with the idea behind it, I believe the term 'best practices' still has merit. It depends on if you measure worst to best by number of people doing it or number of options. A crude example of the first would be "Being the market leader is the best practice" -- only one company can really be it. An example of the second would be "Using tool A instead of B, C, D, or E is the best practice." This is so regardless of how many people are using tool A. While the idea is very funny and I agree with the idea behind it, I believe the term ‘best practices’ still has merit.

It depends on if you measure worst to best by number of people doing it or number of options.

A crude example of the first would be “Being the market leader is the best practice” — only one company can really be it.

An example of the second would be “Using tool A instead of B, C, D, or E is the best practice.” This is so regardless of how many people are using tool A.

]]> By: links for 2009-04-20 « My Weblog http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-173 links for 2009-04-20 « My Weblog Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:07:08 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-173 [...] adam.breckler » The Road to Mediocrity is Paved with Best Practices. (tags: management) [...] [...] adam.breckler » The Road to Mediocrity is Paved with Best Practices. (tags: management) [...]

]]> By: John Fuller http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-169 John Fuller Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:00:40 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-169 Nice post. This made me think a little differently about the idea of best practices. Adopting best practices means sitting still while others (possibly your competitors) are pushing the edge forward. I see reference to this term often in the world of web development, but now that I think about it, this term may be the bar for inexperienced developers to reach. In some cases, even mediocre might be an improvement. ;) Nice post. This made me think a little differently about the idea of best practices. Adopting best practices means sitting still while others (possibly your competitors) are pushing the edge forward.

I see reference to this term often in the world of web development, but now that I think about it, this term may be the bar for inexperienced developers to reach. In some cases, even mediocre might be an improvement. ;)

]]> By: Bill the Lizard http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-168 Bill the Lizard Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:59:38 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-168 From the first panel in the Dilbert cartoon, it's the "just like everyone else" assumption that I'm not comfortable with. In programming, there's a minority who read books and blogs to continually improve their skills. These are the people who are actually aware of best practices and use them. It's isnt "everyone else". It isn't even a majority. Where I work we have a set of coding standards that are used as a guideline. All interns and new hires are told to follow them, but experienced programmers who know what they are doing are told to break the rules in situations where the rules don't make sense. Organized code reviews keep everyone from straying too far away from the guidelines. From the first panel in the Dilbert cartoon, it’s the “just like everyone else” assumption that I’m not comfortable with. In programming, there’s a minority who read books and blogs to continually improve their skills. These are the people who are actually aware of best practices and use them. It’s isnt “everyone else”. It isn’t even a majority.

Where I work we have a set of coding standards that are used as a guideline. All interns and new hires are told to follow them, but experienced programmers who know what they are doing are told to break the rules in situations where the rules don’t make sense. Organized code reviews keep everyone from straying too far away from the guidelines.

]]> By: Diana http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-167 Diana Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:41:21 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-167 Hi Adam, There are two kinds of best practices: proven and declaired. Unfortunately, the latter is more frequent. Communism was an unproven utopia and it is inherent in human behavior to follow crowds whether they are right or wrong (examples: Nazism , communism, most things ending in ...ism). For more information on that check out a book called Nudge. Proven best practices are another story. Without them we wouldn't have medicine, science, math or any other field whir requires generations of research and standard protocol to benefit us today. A harvard professor has a great podcast online, talking about Evidence-Based management. His name is Jeffrey Pfeffer. Feel free to look him up. In the mean time, the next time you go to a doctor, make sure to ask him not to apply best practices on you, and tell us how that goes. Hi Adam,
There are two kinds of best practices: proven and declaired. Unfortunately, the latter is more frequent. Communism was an unproven utopia and it is inherent in human behavior to follow crowds whether they are right or wrong (examples: Nazism , communism, most things ending in …ism). For more information on that check out a book called Nudge.

Proven best practices are another story. Without them we wouldn’t have medicine, science, math or any other field whir requires generations of research and standard protocol to benefit us today.

A harvard professor has a great podcast online, talking about Evidence-Based management. His name is Jeffrey Pfeffer. Feel free to look him up.

In the mean time, the next time you go to a doctor, make sure to ask him not to apply best practices on you, and tell us how that goes.

]]> By: Mohammad Al-Ubaydli http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-162 Mohammad Al-Ubaydli Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:14:28 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-162 I think you've confused common practices with best practices. "Best" does not have to be common, and learning from the best is a good thing. Conversely, it is nice that it has been practiced, i.e. there is some proof that it works somewhere before you adopt it yourself. For example, best practices in building a web 2.0 web site should probably include copying the LAMP stack that got YouTube so far, rather than a Microsoft stack that is commonly practiced by most companies. And I would absolutely want my key processes and decisions to be around best practices. I think what you mean to say is that if you are trying to innovate then you are going to have to move away from best practices - but with that comes risks and you have to know how to deal with them rather than just be proud that you "not mediocre". Moving away from best practices is most likely to be a path into poor practices rather than it is to be an improvement. I think you’ve confused common practices with best practices. “Best” does not have to be common, and learning from the best is a good thing. Conversely, it is nice that it has been practiced, i.e. there is some proof that it works somewhere before you adopt it yourself. For example, best practices in building a web 2.0 web site should probably include copying the LAMP stack that got YouTube so far, rather than a Microsoft stack that is commonly practiced by most companies.

And I would absolutely want my key processes and decisions to be around best practices.

I think what you mean to say is that if you are trying to innovate then you are going to have to move away from best practices – but with that comes risks and you have to know how to deal with them rather than just be proud that you “not mediocre”. Moving away from best practices is most likely to be a path into poor practices rather than it is to be an improvement.

]]> By: Adam Breckler http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-161 Adam Breckler Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:17:54 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-161 Maksim, good point. There is no sense in re-inventing the wheel for each and every remedial task. In these cases adopting best practices allows for cheap improvement. Only when it comes to key processes and decisions am I advocating throwing best practices out the window. Maksim, good point. There is no sense in re-inventing the wheel for each and every remedial task. In these cases adopting best practices allows for cheap improvement. Only when it comes to key processes and decisions am I advocating throwing best practices out the window.

]]> By: Maksim http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-160 Maksim Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:12:48 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-160 Mostly agree. However making use of best practices in places that you don't see to be your core competencies could be quite effective as the are often a cheap way to get a decent level of competency. For example, following a "best practice" to achieve clean/neat work environment by hiring professional cleaners instead of experimenting with ways to get your employees to keep the office neat is what you want to do in most cases. Mostly agree.

However making use of best practices in places that you don’t see to be your core competencies could be quite effective as the are often a cheap way to get a decent level of competency.

For example, following a “best practice” to achieve clean/neat work environment by hiring professional cleaners instead of experimenting with ways to get your employees to keep the office neat is what you want to do in most cases.

]]> By: Albert http://www.adambreckler.com/the-road-to-mediocrity-is-paved-with-best-practices/comment-page-1#comment-159 Albert Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:26:55 +0000 http://www.adambreckler.com/?p=253#comment-159 Nice post...everytime I hear someone say "best practices" i want to punch them in the throat. Nice post…everytime I hear someone say “best practices” i want to punch them in the throat.

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