Success requires shamelessness. So too does failure. Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely. If you do what everyone else does, you’ll get the same results that everyone else gets.[*] Best practices aren’t always the best. By definition, they’re average.
Shane Parrish • Clear Thinking
Here’s the deal: Thinking for yourself is practical. It’s the most practical thing you can do, if only you’d spend half as much time investigating your context as you do searching for best practices. We need to change the narrative.
Jay Acunzo • Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work
And pushing so-called best practices kills a culture of learning, questioning, engagement, and continuous improvement. Why would people challenge best?
Bas Vodde • Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn))
Be skeptical of “best” practice. In his book The Power of Moments, Chip Heath cautions, “Beware of the soul-sucking force of ‘reasonableness.’” Conventional wisdom and industry best practices will homogenize, not differentiate.
When the world is changing and we seek to change it, best practices fail.