Best Practices Suck

Like every good business heretic, I look at the world of commerce with the eyes of an outsider. That means that I question everything I see, every habit of the business world that most others take for granted. "The way we've always done it" is a phrase that makes me throw up in my mouth a little every time I hear it. Unfortunately, I hear it a lot.

Best practices are great and all - if your current practices are sub-par. After all, you have to start somewhere. But catching up with the Joneses is a fool's errand. The best you can ever hope for is to catch up, but that would assume that the Joneses, and all your other neighbors, don't improve. And I think we should all be quite comfortable by now with the notion that standing still is falling behind. After all, isn't that what the firing squad asks prisoners to do? Stand still against that wall, so they can have a clear shot?

When you go to work today, or next week, take the blinders off and really look around. What do we do that is merely "fine?" Why do we do it this way, or that way? Think less about how to squeeze one percent more efficiency out of your systems this year, and more about how you can double your revenue, this year, by blazing a brand new trail.

Want to know a little secret to innovation? What the heck, here are a couple:

* Hire people from outside the world of big business - teachers, actors, small business owners, bartenders, history majors just out of school - to work on your staff. Don't just teach them how you do things. Much more importantly, ask them to tell you what their fresh eyes think of your systems. Every time they ask Why (as in "Why do we do it like this?"), give them a sign of your thanks - a crisp $100 bill, an afternoon off, a long lunch with you someplace special.

* At that lunch, make sure you take plenty of notes. Bring a pad and pen along. Use them.

* Look at everything you do as if you were the owner of your business. Not a stockholder, which I hope you already are. The owner. And here's how owners think of every dime their business spends: "That's one more dime of my money going out the door." I can say this from experience. When you own 100% of a company, as I did, then every dollar that comes in is yours. Spending money hurts.

* ...But investing money is awesome! Savvy business owners may shudder at the thought of buying a ream of paper for $10, but if an additional $10,000 in salary is what it takes to woo a talented sales pro from her current employer, we're happy to pay it! We see the first as an expense and the second as an investment, a way to bring in even more money. Woo-hoo!

* Put some white space on your calendar, and honor it. White space means no appointments, no email, no phone calls. White space is your time to walk around and talk to people, sans agenda. Just talk. It means read a book, or a magazine. It means take a walk in the parking lot. Respect your white space above all else. This is where your truly great breakthroughs will come - when you aren't looking for them!

In all you do, try to clear the business-cobwebs from your eyes, and see your company from a fresh perspective. It isn't just a nice idea - it's essential to the prosperity of your company, and your career!