How transferable are best practices?

Last week, Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, visited Turin. One of my favorite moments was when he said, “Advice to young people: go work at a company where you can learn best practices.”

When I posted ​my notes from Bezos’ talk on Twitter​, a reader replied: “Some would argue that organizations are context-rich, and best practices transfer poorly, that the idea of a ‘best practice’ is itself largely a myth.”

I strongly disagree. The substance of best practices transfers well; it’s their superficial appearance that transfers poorly. Take Monday Morning Meetings as an example.

MMMs are a best practice used by many companies across industries. On the surface, it looks like this: the whole team meets, each member reports what they did last week and what they plan to do this week, and the leader announces new priorities or projects. While this appearance is similar across companies, its substance differs dramatically.

In mediocre companies, treat MMMs as a ritual they sleepwalk in, where people share updates without seeking or expecting help. Attendees leave with the same understanding they had when they entered.

Conversely, in excellent companies, MMMs are an active and deliberate practice. Participants do not just share what they did and will do, but rather what outcomes they achieved and what obstacles they face; moreover, they seek and expect assistance in the form of suggestions, introductions, feedback, or resources. As a result, they leave the meeting with projects and outlooks for the week in better shape than they were when they entered the meeting.

The million-dollar question is: how do you ensure participants learn the practice as in the second example, and not the first?

The answer, in short, is to always take a few seconds to explain the purpose before doing it. This does not require much time. It can be as simple as replacing “Let’s do a round of progress updates” with “Let’s each take a few seconds to share the main obstacles you face on your current tasks and projects, and seek progress on them.” And then, of course, to ensure that the discussion stays on track and delivers on the stated objective.

The principle and purpose behind a best practice usually transfer well across industries, and often across roles too. Its appearance, much less so. That is why it is crucial to define a best practice not by what it looks like, but by what it does and the principles it relies on.