Somewhere along the way, “standard processes and tools” became synonymous with “mature and strategic.” But the truth is—standardized best practices kill more strategies than they save.
Everyone loves a framework.
Not long ago, I saw a consulting firm on LinkedIn proudly tout their “Proven System™” to improve lead conversations 92%. It was all over their website. Like, everywhere.
I see the same thing in my space—consultants selling expensive assessments of your company’s PMO against a proprietary maturity model representing “best practices.”
And I can’t help but think two things:
- I wonder if those companies know they are buying a really expensive PowerPoint.
- I bet those consulting companies are swimming in money.
Leaders love to buy models and frameworks.
You end up with a tidy, 242-slide list of what you need to do. And—surprise!—the consulting firm is more than happy to help you implement them. One expensive engagement at a time. For years.
Why? No one gets fired for implementing “best practices.”
Why do leaders continue to hire these firms? Because no one gets fired for implementing standard, textbook processes—especially if they’re recommended by experts.
And—remarkably—few people will ever question whether those processes work.
If (when) these processes cause execution to slow to a crawl, leaders rarely question the practice, tool, or template. After all, they’re proven!
That only leaves one thing to blame. The team. And that’s the beginning of the end.
Now, you either need to get rid of “under-performers” or train the problem away. (More money for the consultant).
Rinse. Repeat. Retire.
Standardization is good for only two things.
Here’s what everyone loses sight of:
You only want to standardize the things you know work—or the things you’re willing to experiment with in a structured way.
Standardizing What Works
If you know something works, it makes sense to implement it everywhere that’s applicable. So how do you know it works? (Hint: Not because a consultant told you it’s “best practice.”)
Here are the questions I explore with clients to decide if something is worth building and standardizing:
- What problem(s) are we solving?
- What have you tried that hasn’t worked?
- When you’ve solved other problems, what have you noticed about successful solutions?
- What does your team say they want? (Yes, what they think matters.)
- What factors suggest this might work?
- What factors might cause this to fail?
- What pilots or experiments could we run before rolling this out to everyone?
And here’s my favorite question—one I asked someone just last week:
If we could solve this problem without standardizing anything, would that still be considered a success? And if not, what business benefits are you getting from standardization that you won’t get from allowing autonomy?
You have to take the time to collect evidence that something will work—for you—before putting your organization through the pain of change. Otherwise, you’re just building up sludge in the pipes.
Experimental Standardization
The second reason to standardize is to establish “clean lab conditions” to determine whether something works. Not sure if chartering your fast-moving projects is worth the time? Let’s design a lightweight Charter, try it for the next six months, collect feedback, and either ditch the tool or build a better one.
And for goodness sake, let’s experiment with one or two things at a time. Otherwise, we won’t know what thing moved the needle—and sheer overwhelm will keep the team from fully implementing the solution.
Crawl, Walk, Run – An Iterative Philosophy
Thank you, but no one needs that 242-slide list of “recommendations.” A good consultant will boil down:
- What you want to achieve
- What’s in your way
- What to do next
And “what to do next” should take into account where you are today. Based on where you are and what is likely to work, what should you do first? Second? Third?
If your goal is to get highly accurate data on resource allocation—but you only use milestone schedules with no true forecasting—let’s not try to turn your team into master schedulers overnight.
Let’s figure out what you need right now (Crawl) and what a good near-term goal is (Walk). Then we’ll keep developing the building blocks you need to actually get something out of that fancy PPM system.
All along the way, we’ll be learning together about what works for you… and what doesn’t.
At the end, we’ve saved time, money, goodwill—no incomprehensible slide decks required.
If You Only Do One Thing
If a consultant starts talking about their products and services before they’ve asked a single question about your business—run. Fast.