There is something deeply seductive about the idea of “best practice”. The expression carries an implicit promise of security, efficiency and maturity. When something is labeled as best practice, it stops being just a possible solution and starts to occupy an almost moral place. Following him seems like a sign of competence. Question it, almost an act of recklessness.
Over time, I started to distrust this promise. Not because established practices have no value, but because the label of best tends to freeze thinking. It turns a contextual answer into dogma. E, when this happens, the possibility of the next practice begins to disappear.
Every best practice is born from a specific context. A well-defined problem, at a particular moment, with resources, own culture and restrictions. It works because it responds well to that set of conditions. The problem arises when this answer is moved to other contexts without its premises being revisited..
By becoming best practice, practice is no longer questioned. It starts to be applied almost automatically. Instead of asking why it works, just ask how to implement. Strategic reflection gives way to operationalization. Critical thinking weakens.
I see this happen frequently in organizations seeking maturity. In an effort to professionalize processes, adopt established practices as if they were checklists. governance, agile methods, innovation frameworks, management models. Everything comes packaged as best practice. There is little discussion about what makes sense in that specific context.
The trap is right there. Best practice offers a ready-made path, but requires little intellectual involvement. It solves the decision problem, not necessarily the real problem. By adopting it, the company feels it is doing the right thing, even if the results do not appear as expected.
Another side effect is the crystallization of solutions. When a practice is elevated to the status of best, it tends to persist beyond its expiration date. Questioning it becomes synonymous with rebellion or ignorance. The organization now defends the practice, instead of continually evaluating it.
This phenomenon is especially dangerous in dynamic environments. What was best yesterday may be inadequate today. The pace of change makes solutions that still carry prestige obsolete. A best practice, in this scenario, becomes an anchor.
There is also an important cultural aspect. Uncritical adoption of best practices signals that the company values compliance more than learning. Who prefers to get things right by following rules rather than exploring their own paths. This sign affects people's behavior. Ideas that deviate from the norm tend to be discarded before they are even formulated.
Innovation suffers directly from this. When everything already has a best practice associated with it, there is little room for experimentation. The question is no longer “how could we do things differently??” and becomes “how to correctly implement?”. Creativity shifts to execution, not for conception.
I realize that many organizations use best practices as a way to reduce complexity. Faced with difficult problems, turn to ready-made solutions. This is understandable. The error is in turning this feature into a permanent standard. Complexity does not disappear, it just stays hidden.
The next practice, one that does not yet have a name or validation seal, arises precisely from dissatisfaction with current best practices. It arises when someone realizes that what works well no longer answers new questions. If best practice is treated as untouchable, This perception never turns into action.
Creating the next practice requires questioning what today seems obvious. It requires dismantling established solutions and looking at their flaws, its limitations, its side effects. It requires courage to propose something that cannot yet be compared with anything existing.
This process is uncomfortable, because it removes the secure ground of external legitimacy. There is no benchmark, there is no case, there is no seal of approval. There is only one hypothesis and the willingness to test it. In cultures accustomed to operating under the umbrella of best practices, This emptiness generates resistance.
The paradox is that many of the practices that are considered best today were born precisely from this willingness to break with what was standard. They were, at some point, the next practice. They became a reference because someone decided to ignore what seemed correct at the time.
When forgetting that, We transform innovation into a ritual of repetition. We implement with excellence what has already been overcome conceptually. We become efficient in resolving old problems, while new ones accumulate.
It’s not about abandoning best practices, but to put them back in their rightful place. They should be treated as temporary solutions, not as permanent truths. They must be tested, adapted, questioned. They must live with the possibility of being replaced.
An organization that wants to innovate needs to create institutional space for the next practice. Space for experiments that do not follow manuals, for decisions that cannot be justified by external references, for mistakes that teach more than predictable successes.
As long as best practice is treated as the end of the conversation, innovation will continue to be limited to what has already been recognized. True transformation begins when the company accepts that today's best practice is, inevitably, tomorrow's obstacle. And that only by challenging what seems definitive is it possible to pave the way for something truly new..
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