Here’s how you can know when and how to implement or even remove these from your process
A common phrase in business is “best practices.” It’s a term that invokes a sense of doing the right thing for your company or practice. It also comes with the idea that the difficult part of figuring out the solution to a problem has already been completed by someone else! For those reasons, it can seem like a no-brainer to implement.
At Peak Direction, we believe that there should be a good deal of discernment when considering these ideas. The very idea of following best practice assumes that the majority of the industry has the same approach. If that’s true, then in actuality, that best practice produces average competitive performance for all. By implementing it, you are participating in average performance and disregarding potential innovation, your own strategy and competitive advantages, as well as the very systems and processes you’ve built. This is so important that Harvard Business Review wrote this article asking “Which Best Practice is Ruining Your Business.” It’s important to filter these establishment ideas through the following filters.
Does it fit with my strategic plan
At Peak Direction, we help you build a cohesive strategic plan that includes your long-term vision, mission, and your competitive advantages. It would be wrong to implement an industry best practice that conflicts with this plan.
Does it fit with my team culture
This is very much related to your strategy as your team culture is derived from that holistic plan we spoke about above. For instance, if your team prides itself in a personalized patient experience, where patients feel at home when they contact the office and visit the office, then a chatbot on your website may not be the best decision for your practice.
Is “best practice” the only reason you’re doing it
Every business has at least a few processes that are established only because “that’s how it’s always been done.” The same happens with best practices. This is never a good reason, especially when it’s the only reason. A great example is with consult fees for your practice or medical spa. “Best Practice” or “industry standard” would suggest that returning patients shouldn’t be charged a consult fee. But why? Do those patients typically cancel less often? Have those returning patients earned something in their first visit to reward them with booking an appointment for free? When consult fees are actually deposits that count toward their eventual service, it makes little sense to allow returning patients the opportunity to book without a consult fee IF they are cancelling their appointments frequently.
Does the “best practice” fit within your team’s process?
This one is a common issue caused by leadership. From the top down, leadership hears of a competitor, colleague, or a consultant that has a turnkey solution that’s “best practice” and then leadership requires the team to implement it. We won’t go down this leadership mistake “rabbit hole” here. The common mistake is that this best practice isn’t fitting in your process, nor does it fit with your team’s implementation of it. If this is not carefully done, you could burden your team and cause further mistakes. You’ve now fallen in this “short-term trap.” It’s a quick fix that causes longer-term issues.
Conclusion
It’s important to question your systems and processes to ensure you’re not falling into this trap of best practice. Also, when hearing of a new idea, run it by your team for full review. Harvard Business Review states that what you “do not know is that some of these practices are bad habits masquerading as efficiency boosters, their real consequences lying hidden. Questioning and uncovering such practices may significantly boost your competitive advantage, to the benefit of your [practice] and, eventually, us all.”