How great team leaders can avoid the hidden traps in best practices

Best practices. We all seek them but are we falling into a hidden trap? What could be wrong with following best practice?

The first inkling I got that there is a hidden pitfall to imitating best practices was at a management conference in the 1990s. The speaker was a gentleman from Motorola. He was explaining their practices, which were considered some of the best. In fact, they ran Motorola University where anybody, including competitors, could come and learn about what they did. This included courses like: Vice Presidents Institute, and Leadership Accelerated Program.

At the end of his talk, I asked him, “Aren’t you afraid that your competitors will get stronger by learning your secrets.” His answer, 30 years later, still sticks with me. He said, “No, it took us years to build these practices. Also, divulging them keeps us on our toes, it forces us to keep moving forward; to keep getting better. We can’t rest on our laurels.”

I didn’t fully comprehend the profound nature of what he said until many years later. To sum it up, he essentially said: “What makes us great is not our practices, it is the journey.” A friend of mine once asked me, “Can’t you look at what the best teams do, and imitate them?” I answered an emphatic, “No!”

Practices are executed inside a cultural container. Peter Drucker is attributed with saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I would argue, “Culture eats practices for breakfast.” Culture matters, a lot, and culture is only built by going on the journey. Can you get better by imitating best practices? Yes! Can you solve immediate dysfunctions? Yes, but the problems are likely to resurface. Practices do matter, but you will not be great; you will not be Inspired if all you do is imitate them. Paradoxically, you may fall into a trap; you may make things worse in the long run. How is that possible?

First, great team leaders understand that culture matters. I think of culture as the team’s state of Being. For individuals, the state of Being may be described as including where a person is coming from, their mindset, their values, etc. You can probably relate to the fact that the same behavior or the same words can have very different effects depending on a person’s state of Being. If a person gives you feedback from a loving, caring, state of Being, you may be rattled but you will probably listen and you won’t be offended; you know they have your best interest at heart. On the other hand, if another person gives you the exact same feedback from a critical, judgmental, state of Being, you are likely to react very differently; you may become angry and defensive. The same words, the same feedback, two very different outcomes. It is the same for teams. The team’s state of Being, its culture, determines the character of the practices implemented and their effect. Great team leaders don’t fall into the trap of implementing a practice without the supporting culture; they know doing so is not likely to produce the desired outcome. People are likely to feel something is being forced on them, which produces resistance in the long run.

Second, great team leaders know that culture is built during the journey. Culture emerges from the everyday interaction of team members. The reason Motorola’s practices worked was because they were the culmination of a long journey. When the practices are allowed to emerge from the journey, people understand them because they helped create them. They know why they were developed; a sense of ownership results. Great team leaders avoid the trap of short circuiting the journey. They know that when the journey is bypassed, people don’t own the practices; so, they are not invested in their success. In this case best practices will fail and get a bad name in the long run. In the future, people will argue, “we tried it and it doesn’t work here” and they will actively avoid them. They will become jaded. They will see an attempt to implement new practices as, “The change of the month” and wait for the initiative to die.

?So, what should you do? First focus on building a supporting culture that is purpose driven and values learning and innovation in the pursuit of the purpose. Second, let team members identify areas they can improve and encourage them to develop new practices to meet the challenge. As they do, they may learn from the best practices of others but they will take what they learn and make it their own. They will understand it; they will own it; they will put energy into making it work. They will avoid the hidden traps of importing best practices.

I recently published an article called Crossing the crocodile pit. In that article I argue that things don’t have to be as hard as we make them and provide 5 tips for making things easier. This article addresses Tip #2 of that article: Don’t be a copycat. The urge to import best practices just drives me crazy. I hope you now understand why doing so can make things harder than they have to be in the long term. Although you may make short-term gains, you build resistance and diminish the sense of ownership. Great team leaders cherish the journey because they know it builds a supporting culture from which the team’s practices will emerge. Team members will own the practices; thus, creating an Inspired team will be much easier.?

If you find this article helpful, I would greatly appreciate your likes, comments, and shares. If you don’t find it helpful, let me know what your team challenges are and what would be more helpful.

#teams #culture #emotionalintelligence #humanizingwork