Working Smarter, Not Harder

How many times have you heard this management cliché? Way too many times, no doubt. This bromide is usually followed by ideas that are hard to implement, don't work even if implemented, or are too vague to be practical.

Despite this caveat, its message is sound in the proper context. So many businesses opt for "harder" when "smarter" is readily available. Why should this be so?

Harder is Easier

Harder is easier to implement. The easy way: Increase quotas. Reduce staff. Cut costs. Reduce quality. Cut service.

These are largely no-brainers. Purely reactive and mostly simplistic. Results are often limited, transient, or negative.

Working harder also gets around cultural and resistance-to-change issues, which can be major obstacles.

Smarter is Harder

Working smarter is not so easy in general but it nearly always delivers solid results. The "nearly" qualification reflects the uncertain success of execution.

Working smarter requires understanding of the operating context. If you don't truly understand the realities of your environment, then your chances of failure are high.

Working smarter requires careful and creative planning. Even if you have a perfect understanding of your business context, you can't take full advantage of this understanding without a well-conceived action plan. The "ready-fire-aim" approach rarely delivers good results.

Working smarter requires solid execution of action plans, including responsive course corrections as the winds shift.

Smarter = Best Practices

These are virtually equivalent terms. Who would try to implement weak or mediocre practices? Sadly, lots and lots of managers do so. Why? Generally because they do not recognize these practices as weak or mediocre.

They follow business-as-usual dictates, or the-way-we-have-always-done-things mandates. What worked in past has to work in the future. Of course.

Best practices — ways that truly deliver top performance — are nearly always dynamic. They reflect smart adaptations to changing conditions and new approaches. They emphasize top performance rather than established practices.

Using best practices as a business process foundation is the key to improved performance.

 

"Best" Practices?

This term is unfortunate because it is context-free. In fact, there is no such thing as a "best practice" absent a defining context.

Your business is the context.

A best practice outside of this context is generally not best. You can define a "best" practice only within your own business.

This means that the volumes of recommendations on best practices can be far off the mark for your organization.

If you take away nothing else from these notes, take this:

A best practice is only best within your unique business context.

 

Best Practices Notes

We have learned a few important things in trying to apply a best practices approach to the real world:

1. Defining "Best" 
The wrong definition can lead you very far astray.

2. Defining "Practices"
Another foundation piece vital to moving ahead productively.

3. Internal vs. External Best Practices
We make an important distinction between low-risk best practices within your organization and those from outside which often pose far greater risks.

4.  Platitudes Don't Work
We defend our use of the platitude "work smarter, not harder".