Innovation Is Not “Best Practice”

While innovation is still seen as important in corporations, there is growing evidence that it may not be the solution to all of our problems. CEOs are becoming disillusioned with the return on investment for innovation, and certain fields are not seeing the development of radical new innovations as expected. This is due to a reliance on best practices - standardization of thinking that limits us by focusing on our history and knowledge. Innovation is about breaking with these old frameworks and embracing radical creativity. Best practices can be useful for mapping a current mindset, but we need to explore ways of doing something completely different. Alf Rehn, Chair of Management and Organization at Åbo Akademi University, suggests that in order to save innovation, we need to go beyond best practices and realize the manifold ways in which innovation and best practice relate to each other. Innovations start out as best practices, but a Best Before-date exists for all best practices. Best practices can also blind us to other fruitful forms of thinking and negotiate dogma for group orthodoxy. The notion of best practice today tries to add complexity, but innovation needs to be about simplifying things and breaking with the past.