I was wrong about best practices killing your company
Best Practices are actually great
Hello Overlap readers! Why am I posting here when I said I’d sunsetted the newsletter?
The org design neurons in my brain are firing off. Again. I started a full-time org design consulting project a month ago and it’s brought me back to some many things I’ve written about in this newsletter.
I recently wrote a post on LinkedIn that I wanted to elaborate into a newsletter here. So… here goes!
I’m also… ambivalent about just writing on LinkedIn. It feels performative? But necessary? Do others feel the same way?
Tim, are you going to be writing this newsletter again?!
I’m not committing to a regular writing cadence (yet?!). Right now, I just wanna write when inspiration strikes. So you may be receiving random emails from me when I strike while the iron is hot.
I know writing on a regular cadence is newsletter best practice. Which… ironically this post is going to be about why best practices are great. But for now, I’ll posting here randomly when inspired. Who knows. Maybe I’ll go back to writing regularly.
Back in 2018, I wrote this article titled Best Practices are Killing Your Company. But now, I think best practices are saving your company.
More pointedly, best practices ultimately help companies that have teams new to working cross-functionally, reflectively, and collaboratively. Say, a 5-person startup who’s just getting off the ground. Or a 1000-person organization that’s re-organized from functional siloes to cross-functional teals.
Last year, I coached high schoolers who were new to rope climbing. (I promise there’s a consulting/product lesson in here.) They wanted to learn how to belay another climber.
In climbing, belaying is the technique used to control your climbing partner’s fall when climbing on a rope. Not required, but if you’re interested:
There are plenty of ways to belay, each with their pros and cons. But with these kids, I didn't go into each of the different methods. That's overwhelming.
I taught them one method that is best practice. This one. Had them learn why it was a best practice. Then, I asked them to practice it!
After tons of practice, these kids are safely belaying each other and having fun.
As a consultant, I see a parallel to coaching newer teams. Give them one best practice to practice.
Early in my consulting career, I’d hesitate recommending one true way to run meetings with teams I'd coach. "There's no best way to run this meeting. Here are some principles for running a good meeting, but the structure of the meeting will depend on your current strategy, context, and environment."
Now, I have zero hesitation recommending to a new cross-functional team:
Are these the absolute best meetings? Maybe not. You, reader, might have better meetings to recommend than I do.
But will these get the team to start practicing? Absolutely.
I even wrote an article titled "best practices are killing your company" back in 2018.
The lesson here is that the most successful leaders and organizations deeply understand the most successful practices’ core principles, even over implementing the practice itself.
Instead of falling for another business fad, seek to understand the principles behind the practice (the why) even over figuring out how to implement the practice (the how). You can do this by asking questions like:
Why does this best practice exist? What makes it so popular?
What does this practice look like in similar companies facing similar challenges? What does this practice look like in different companies?
How else can the purpose of this practice be achieved in our company?
Yes, I still think it’s good to extrapolate why the best practice is good.
But with teams who are brand new to working in a different way, it’s best for them to start practicing a practice that’s… good enough. Call it a best practice for the packaging.
Examining why it’s a best practice is good work too. We’ll just do that… later when your team is humming. Right now I just need newer teams to start practicing.
As a more experienced climber, I know 3 different ways how to belay. And I can tell you the pros and cons of each way. But I really default to one best practice. And I really teach one practice. I trust that the climber who’s learning will discover other methods 1-2-3 years down the road. Today, we just need you to belay someone safely.
Of course, I’ll share the core principles behind the practice. The from → to. The mindset we’re trying to demonstrate, and the mindset we’re letting go.
But like the kids who learned how to belay, newer teams benefit from learning a best practice.
They get to practice! They’ll learn why it’s a best practice once they practice it.
What do you think? How do you think of the role of best practices in your work as a product person or consultant?
I used to be heavily against best practices and more principled-oriented in my work too, but then I realized it was too much cognitive load for most the people I was working with.
Through weightlifting I've come to appreciate the term "coaching cue": these are specific reminders on how to perform parts of a movement – For example, in kettlebell lifting you might have six or seven coaching cues in order to perform even a relatively simple movement like a clean.
Coaching cues allow people to become independent rather quickly, great coaches repeat them like a mantra before each movement, no matter how skilled they are: at some point you are able to coach yourself and coach others because you have internalized not only the coaching cues themselves, but the principles behind them — Complexity will add up over time because of entropy, but coaching cues are your building blocks.
With coaching cues you have always a quick "what-why" connection, it's never "do it this way because I say so" and I think that both as a consultant or a personal trainer, you are responsible for keeping most of the cognitive load for yourself.