The head nods were universal. We – as a firm of reformers – advocate this practice ourselves, especially inside processes such as Budgeting for Outcomes. But we are not alone. Daily in the media, outside “accountability” advocates cry out for best practice use and data-driven decisions. Best practices are researched by universities, showcased and reported by federal agencies and others, and used more and more to ‘prove the case’ for any grant or budget request.
This national trend is unmistakable. And, this trend represents both an opportunity – and a threat - to the public sector.
The Opportunity. Most of us would automatically consider use of best practices to be a good thing, particularly when considering The Center for Creative Leadership formula for what it takes to bring about lasting change –
Opportunities to Advance Reform = “D x V x K x B > R”
That is, the demand for change, a vision of a preferred future, knowledge of the next steps to be taken, and a belief that the vision can become reality must be greater than the forces of resistance.
Certainly, best practice examples provide leverage for multiple elements -- providing credible examples that can spark aspects of vision, shore up belief that change for the better is possible, and inform knowledge of next steps.
We also know that resistance is a force to be reckoned with – starting with the non-trivial force of inertia, followed by its close cousin “not invented here.” All of us have encountered and bemoaned the unbelievable ability of a system to ‘spit out’ a foreign body such as a best practice.
The Threat. Yet some part of that resistance might need to be better understood, even embraced. Why ever, for example, would I call best practice use a threat? My sense of this threat for the public sector emanates from three places, stated here from weakest to strongest -
Threat 1: Looking in the rear view mirror. Most of us view best practices as representing “the latest” in thinking, but are they? In order to become best practices, they have already been done, and measured over time. This does not make them worse than the status quo, but by definition, they are from “the past.”
Threat 2: Top-down or outside imposition. Sometimes either top leaders or outside advocates find best practices and want to force them onto whatever public system or program they wish to reform. This is not an imaginary scenario; it is occurring real-time, right now. As one example, a city council person in my home state firmly believes that the best way to reform a public school system is to “hold it accountable” via a thorough study of best practices elsewhere, choosing a subset as community recommendations, requiring the school board to vote them up or down en masse, and then publicly monitoring whether they use them via a project management schedule that “rolls out” the 100 or so recommendations in six-week increments.
Threat 3: Replication of best practice on top of rigidity. Last, replication of best practices today would occur inside public sectors that are still too often defined by vestiges of bureaucracy. Common traits of bureaucracy leave customers with very little voice, and choices that fit the Henry Ford model (“You can have any color as long as it is black.”) Further, people on the inside of public systems are still struggling against rigid budgets (e.g. complement control and line item restricted funds) and rigid systems where rules rule the day.
When considering the three threats together, my underlying fear of replicating best practices from jurisdiction to jurisdiction is further standardization of public offerings. As Bob Behn warns in a recent article, “The search for “best practice” is the early twenty-first century’s equivalent of the early twentieth century’s search for the “one best way.” (See: www.ksg.harvard.edu/TheBehnReport)
So, the challenge is... How can the public sector take best advantage of the opportunity of best practices, while mitigating the risks? What are the ways we can help to reframe this trend of best practices, stimulating use in new ways for even greater transformation?
In the spirit of brainstorming, here are some ideas to get us started…
- Keep the focus on outcomes desired by the public, not best practices. We need to help leaders and accountability advocates urge and help set a rigorous bar, while not stipulating the ways to get there. In fact, minimizing bureaucracy needs to precede best practice work to prepare a culture that is willing and able to innovate.
- Best practices serving as springboards, not planks. My dream is to help clients develop, explore, and share a rich repository of best practices – but for the purposes of exciting and informing what just might be possible, not for prescription.
- Seek best and better practice. Promising practice and invention of new ways must be considered equally important with consideration of proven best practice.
- Local relevance. Processes that engage people in their own data – performance records, customer-desired results, and local trends – are needed, so that best practice choice and use has meaning on the ground.
This is just a start on an important topic and is unfinished. What are your ideas and thoughts? Do you see best practices both as an opportunity and a threat? Going forward, how would you find the “sweet spot” at the center of this creative tension?
connie@psg.us
