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A Real Best Practice for Best Practices
by Frank Monahan
Jack Welch takes a trip to India and the next thing you know
companies all over the U.S. are developing lists on flip charts about
which jobs they can outsource to India. And before the facilitator
can say “can you hand me some more masking tape,” Indians with
perfectly American sounding names are learning how to ask “have
you tried to reboot your computer?” in a perfect American accents.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Jack Welch or Indians or
even masking tape for that matter. To be perfectly candid though, I
do have a problem with those L&D types who arrive at the
conference room 45 minutes early to pre-rip 4.2 rolls of masking tape
for the brainstorming session but I digress…
I actually admire Jack Welch. And not just because he is a pretty
darn good golfer. I admire him because he brought an ability to
“think” to his leadership role at GE. What I don’t admire are those
who adopted the Six Sigma Black Belt program simply because Jack
Welch likes it. In the spirit of full disclosure I should note that
although I have graduated from a Six Sigma like program I did not get
a black belt. I am holding out for the mauve belt because I like to
inject the word mauve wherever I can. Once again, don’t get me
wrong. There is much about Six Sigma that I admire. And I realize
that Six Sigma grew out of Motorola, not GE and Jack just borrowed
a good idea. My problem is with the kind of zombie like mentality
that embraces an idea or program simply because a celebrity leader
touts it. My issue is the uncritical acceptance of an idea without a
second thought or in many cases a first thought.
This kind of zombie like pattern is particularly problematic in the
compensation space. One of the functions of the compensation
role is to keep tabs on what others are doing. So it follows that it
would be easy to blur the lines between knowing what others are
doing and simply copying what others are doing. Mindless imitation
is easy and relatively risk free. Find out what others are doing and
simply copy them. No one can accuse you of being different and so
you’re good, right?
Of course, who wants to be known as a copy cat? Imagine walking
into your CEO’s office to announce you’ve decided to adopt an
incentive program because, well, you’re just a copy cat. I suspect
that CEO might have a bit of a problem with that approach. But
walk into that same office to that same CEO and announce you’ve
decided to adopt an incentive program because it’s Best Practice
and voilà, you’re a hero. You’ve sold your new program and didn’t
have to give it a second thought.
I have a theory about how the “Best Practices” concept emerged
and became so popular. One guy* came up with an original idea at
work one day. Another guy asked the first guy if he could use his
idea in an article he was writing and offered to mention him by
name. A third guy read the article and offered the first two a free
trip to a conference to present the idea to a bunch of other guys.
He wanted to charge these guys lots of money to attend the
conference so he had to offer them a way to get out of work when
they got back to their offices. You know the rest. After a spirited
brainstorming session and the use of the full 4.2 rolls of masking tape
they decided to call it Best Practices thinking that Good Practices
or Better Practices just wouldn't cut it with the CEOs.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with good ideas or borrowing
good ideas. My problem is with the lazy and uncritical kinds of
thinking that ends up applying a very good idea in a very bad way.
So, what’s my best practice for best practices? Just call it what it
is: a good idea that may be worth adapting. Maybe.
* Please note that the use of the term “guy” is meant to be a generic not a gender
specific reference. In the world of comp, we are all comp guys.
© Frank Monahan 2009
by Frank Monahan
Jack Welch takes a trip to India and the next thing you know
companies all over the U.S. are developing lists on flip charts about
which jobs they can outsource to India. And before the facilitator
can say “can you hand me some more masking tape,” Indians with
perfectly American sounding names are learning how to ask “have
you tried to reboot your computer?” in a perfect American accents.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Jack Welch or Indians or
even masking tape for that matter. To be perfectly candid though, I
do have a problem with those L&D types who arrive at the
conference room 45 minutes early to pre-rip 4.2 rolls of masking tape
for the brainstorming session but I digress…
I actually admire Jack Welch. And not just because he is a pretty
darn good golfer. I admire him because he brought an ability to
“think” to his leadership role at GE. What I don’t admire are those
who adopted the Six Sigma Black Belt program simply because Jack
Welch likes it. In the spirit of full disclosure I should note that
although I have graduated from a Six Sigma like program I did not get
a black belt. I am holding out for the mauve belt because I like to
inject the word mauve wherever I can. Once again, don’t get me
wrong. There is much about Six Sigma that I admire. And I realize
that Six Sigma grew out of Motorola, not GE and Jack just borrowed
a good idea. My problem is with the kind of zombie like mentality
that embraces an idea or program simply because a celebrity leader
touts it. My issue is the uncritical acceptance of an idea without a
second thought or in many cases a first thought.
This kind of zombie like pattern is particularly problematic in the
compensation space. One of the functions of the compensation
role is to keep tabs on what others are doing. So it follows that it
would be easy to blur the lines between knowing what others are
doing and simply copying what others are doing. Mindless imitation
is easy and relatively risk free. Find out what others are doing and
simply copy them. No one can accuse you of being different and so
you’re good, right?
Of course, who wants to be known as a copy cat? Imagine walking
into your CEO’s office to announce you’ve decided to adopt an
incentive program because, well, you’re just a copy cat. I suspect
that CEO might have a bit of a problem with that approach. But
walk into that same office to that same CEO and announce you’ve
decided to adopt an incentive program because it’s Best Practice
and voilà, you’re a hero. You’ve sold your new program and didn’t
have to give it a second thought.
I have a theory about how the “Best Practices” concept emerged
and became so popular. One guy* came up with an original idea at
work one day. Another guy asked the first guy if he could use his
idea in an article he was writing and offered to mention him by
name. A third guy read the article and offered the first two a free
trip to a conference to present the idea to a bunch of other guys.
He wanted to charge these guys lots of money to attend the
conference so he had to offer them a way to get out of work when
they got back to their offices. You know the rest. After a spirited
brainstorming session and the use of the full 4.2 rolls of masking tape
they decided to call it Best Practices thinking that Good Practices
or Better Practices just wouldn't cut it with the CEOs.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with good ideas or borrowing
good ideas. My problem is with the lazy and uncritical kinds of
thinking that ends up applying a very good idea in a very bad way.
So, what’s my best practice for best practices? Just call it what it
is: a good idea that may be worth adapting. Maybe.
* Please note that the use of the term “guy” is meant to be a generic not a gender
specific reference. In the world of comp, we are all comp guys.
© Frank Monahan 2009
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