Working in a community centre a few years ago, a facility typically perceived as servicing clients (don’t like that term, but what have you), I learned that some of the best work was actually achieved “by broken” people (translate: the folks who themselves were the neediest of the needy, assisting, working, engaging – dare I say – loving one another enough to effect change. Without the “normal” methods, skills or “expertise” to create this profoundly moving imparting of wellness in the guise that still looks like brokenness.
Best practices approach would have stunted – and creates the silos all the experts claim to want to break down, sometimes.
Healing isn’t what healing looks like.
I am a community engaged artist working in a variety of settings in Victoria British Columbia Canada.

And Mike, I love the idea of improvisation as inspired innovation (so many i’s!). I will look forward to your post and to exploring that thought more in my own head. Thank you so much for that!!
HG

Best Practices become are a weapon of choice in the management game. Because there can be only one Best, managers are inspired to compete with one another for supremacy, usually at the expense of people who are waiting for decisions and direction.

The quest to own ‘Best’ is at its most toxic when managers are pro bono (“If you don’t want my opinion, why did you ask?”) or justifying the difference between what they get paid and what their teams get paid (“I’m a genius and you’re not, okay?”).

Inspiration is a tricky thing to traffic in, because it comes and goes, and the most inspiring (emotionally uplifting) point of view can also be the most ephemeral and unachievable. I have a good friend who’s an inspirational character, so inspiring that Hollywood made a movie about him. I wouldn’t want him coaching my team, though, because he only knows one way to approach a problem, and that’s with a kind of relentless, sunny, never-say-die over-the-top cheerleading optimism that is unique to him. Most people don’t have his game, and most don’t want to. He’s great to have on the team, but day in and day out, he is far from its most valuable player.

Overuse of the phrase Best Practice is a symptom of an organizational illness, a telling twitch in the body politic. The illness itself, the battle by managers for control of the narrative, is what I call Scripting. The opposite of Scripting is Improvisation. The way I see it (as Hildy knows) the ability to improvise is the most important practice in the day to day life of a productive team. There are huge benefits to improvisation, and one of them is that it’s not necessarily a Best Practice. It can suck like the first day of violin lessons. It is, however, a practice that can, over time, turn into sweet music for everyone who plays along.

Geez, this started as a comment, and has turned into a blog post. I’ll wrap it up at http://www.gamechangers.com

Thanks, Hildy, great thoughts as always!

Yer awesomeness continues to astound!

Post Katrina/Rita New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have been swarmed by experts of all stripes & colors. I keep trying to explain that best practices cannot exist for a catastrophe of this magnitude and we therefore are compelled to innovate.

I Tweeted this column this morning and then, on Facebook said:

“If you work in the Community Benefit sector, please read this.

If you have a Masters Degree, please read this twice.

PhD, three times……”

Hugs,

Ramon
Evangelist
The New Orleans Institute

First, Dan, in my own experience, I have never found a group that does not have the wisdom to answer questions such as, “What do you want that this action to accomplish? For whom?” and “Why is that important?” Which makes the process generative rather than prescribing best practice.

Which brings me to questions for everyone so far – what have you found DOES work when folks insist on knowing what has been tried / wants a magic pill? Pam and Liz both noted circumstances that make it difficult to move forward.

How do we, as James suggests, move such groups from “THE” best practice to “OUR best practice?”

How do we create situations where, as Melinda notes, folks are “defining for themselves what is best and how to best pursue it?”

Wonderful food for thought, one and all!!!

HG

“We” can incorporate outside-generated practices (mindfully) and/or create our own (sometimes inspired by those outside practices–even in opposition to them).

But the final principles must be owned by us.