I had a boss who used to declare his way of doing things, best practice.

He would say this about all sorts of things. He said it during HR situations. He said it about negotiations and product ideas. He told us about best practice for pricing and various other things. But I noticed something that irked me about it.

He only declared best practice when he had no other way to defend his idea. He used the idea of best practice to shut down the conversation. That was it. It always bothered me that this happened. I’d much prefer to talk it out. It’s better to explore many ideas than get stuck on one that we like. A good idea, should be something you can explain.

It soured me on the idea of best practice at all. There are best practices. I would not want my heart surgeon to be using a practice that’s untested. But at the same time there’s a lot of complexity in life and business. A lot of decisions depend on context. Best practice isn’t something you can copy and paste into every situation.

Unlike my old boss, I think that it’s important to use best principles instead of best practice. To me, a best principle is the “how” of a practice. It’s how or why that practice works so well. If we can understand the principles, then we can also understand how to change them and how to adapt them into a useful practice.

My recommendation to you is abandon the idea of best practice. Don’t worry about it at all.

Instead, try to understand the best principles for your situation. Recognize that your organization, your team, or even just yourself, are unique. Work within your context to apply the best principle to a wonderful practice.

It may be the “best” practice or it may be YOUR best practice. Either way, it should make sense in your context.