October 26, 2006

Chasing Best Practices

Part 5: From Best Practices to Next Practices

In Part 4, Dan Wooldridge suggested steps for pursuing best practices. In this final part, he challenges us to go beyond best practices and develop the next practices.

Today, I’m making a simple and sharp challenge to all of us in business who follow Christ. And it is this we can do better and that we must do better in our calling as business people.

Admiral Bill Owens, in Lifting the Fog of War, observes how the submarine service of the Navy had gone from being an innovative leader to a place where initiative was now considered a character defect. Owens reflects that the state of the submarine service seems to mirror the arc of the career of the legendary Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the “father” of the nuclear navy, now at the end of his career. A close observer of Rickover noted that he was “yesterday’s visionary, who is today’s conservative, and tomorrow’s reactionary.”

This statement struck me as a personal challenge to finish my life and career well, to not play it safe or to run from risk. It challenged me to press on in trying to create and innovate and raise the bar.

The statement also raised a flag of concern for me. I’ve seen far too many businesses, businesses led by followers of Christ, reacting to the world around them rather than innovating in a visionary way. Our calling demands that we take initiative in seeing and developing better ways of serving the world around us. This means better methods of running our organizations and better reasons and ways of engaging with the world around us. We have been placed in unique places at a unique time in history, not to react, but to act in ways that demonstrate the character and purposes of God. So where are the innovations inspired and informed by faith that are creating breathtaking new business models, practices and endeavors … innovations that stir people to amazement?

In the realm of business practices, I see three groups of companies. The first group of company is chasing common practices. They are just trying to get the basics right, and many (most?) never do. A second group is chasing best practices. These are doing a worthy thing by trying to improve and raise their standard of excellence. They are learners, but they are also laggards. The very fact that they are trying to imitate the excellence of others shows that, at least in the practices they imitate, they are following some other’s lead. The third, much smaller group, are the leaders, the pace-setters. They are creating the next practices. They are advancing our understanding of what can and should be done. They are not settling for how others do it, but are seeking to do business in ways that are uniquely valuable. I’m very thankful for these organizations.

My contention is that those who are followers of Christ should be numerous in the ranks of those who are developing the next practices. Historically the arts, sciences, and even business have advanced because there were such people. Think Bach or Newton. We need them more today than ever.

When we talk among ourselves do we hear things like “we’re good enough” or “we’re just as good as XYZ Corp”? Or do we long to be businesses that are setting the pace, leading the way in all dimensions of business. Do we long for a day when we are not looking exclusively to our secular counterparts for best practices? What about a day when we are the best practice that everyone would seek to imitate? But I’m afraid that for now the influence seems to flow more from our secular friends and counterparts back to us than the other way around.

So where can we begin in order to set the pace in developing next practices? I see innovation happening along three axes. It can happen along any one axis, but most powerfully when it takes into account all three.

The first axis is operational excellence. Most business thinking about best practices is along this axis. We can get better, become more effective within our organizations and toward our customers in what we do. There is certainly room to innovate here, but this seems to be the most obvious area.

The second axis is human excellence. This has to do with how we value and treat people inside and outside our organizations. We live in a time of massive organizational failure. Our organizations and institutions – business, religious, governmental, educational – have a long way to go in how people are served, employed, developed, and deployed. As people who understand the infinite value of people in God’s eyes imagine the innovations that could occur in creating organizations and practices that actually treat people as though they were made in the image of God.

The third axis is noble moral purpose. I believe that just as individual people have a God-given purpose, and function best when aligned with that purpose, that organizations can also have a clear and noble moral purpose. Businesses must see seen as instruments of noble moral purpose, to make a difference in this world. Research by men such as Jim Collins demonstrates that companies that have enduring success have clarity of purpose that is bigger than making a buck. Organizations without noble moral purpose will become self-centered and damaging to people, society, and itself in the long run.

And we need to pursue all three at once in order to generate the most powerful innovations. There are organizations that have pursued operational excellence, but have been human and moral failures. Nazi Germany comes to mind. There are organizations that have human and noble moral purpose, but lack operational excellence. I’ve observed many not-for-profits in this camp. And you can think of examples of other combinations.

Companies that begin with moral purpose will look at the world through a different set of lenses when thinking about opportunity. They see the needs and challenges that we face in this world at global and local levels as a call to serve. We must rise up to meet those challenges, not just “deal with them” or buffer ourselves against their effects. And as we set out to meet those challenges, we must care for people in fresh ways, to put some of the human touch back into a business world that seems to be squeezing all the humanity out of its heart. And then add to that an ability to do all this in an excellent way…now we can begin to see new standards being set.

Imagine the next practices of businesses that nobly serve to meet the challenges of our world, while enhancing the dignity, value and care of people, and done in ways of unparalleled effectiveness. Sound idealistic or naÏve? I don’t think that innovation ever came from cynics or those who felt things were good enough. And followers of Christ, fueled with a love for God and others, buoyed by an enduring hope, and passionate about serving to make a difference, should have all the motivation they need to be the next business thought leaders and practice builders.

Featured Book Review

Knowledge and the Wealth Of Nations

A Story of Economic Discovery

I think the secularists and religious folk tend to talk past each other too often. So perhaps an occasional excursion from one side over to the other side’s camp could be a beautiful thing! But who wants to read a book on economics? Really! It’s not called the dismal science for nothing.

Well, Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations might be as good a “day trip” over to the secular side as any. David Warsh has given us a non-technical survey of the theories of developmental economics from Adam Smith’s great work by a similar name down to the present day. Warsh’s sweeping narrative is an eminently readable tale (okay, readable as far as books about economics go) about the historical settings, personalities and unique contributions to economic growth theory, culminating with an in-depth discussion of Dr. Paul Romer’s revolutionary paper titled Endogenous Technological Change, first published in 1990.

From the Archives

"You're Not Good Enough" Marketing

We're Mad and Getting Used to It

Worthwhile Magazine columnist Curt Rosengren has a bone to pick with Big Advertising:

You know what really irritates me? "You're not good enough" marketing. The kind that uses the message, "You're not good enough as you are, but if you buy this product you will be." It tries to get into people's wallets by fanning the flames of insecurity.

Who can blame him? We're really grateful when marketers tell stories that help us find products and services that will really help us. But when the problems marketers solve aren't problems at all — your car isn't new enough; your hair is grey — aren't they just shills?

"Enjoy our beverage and you won't be thirsty for a while," is a fair message. "Our beverage makes you a better person," is a ridiculous promise.