Just the other day, we were editing a Guest Column for this website (we won’t bother to mention the name of the author) and discovered that a whole handful of initiatives mentioned were called “best practices.”
As far as we could see. there was no evidence that these efforts were really the 100%, absolute, no-questions-about it, best. They were ways that had worked before to approach a particular set of problems.
In this case, we were able to edit the piece – with the author’s approval – and used the term “proven practices”. Sometimes when we’re quoting someone in a column (or citing a phrase from a study or a report) we’re stuck with the phrase “best practice,” as we don’t change direct quotes to suit ourselves.
There may be cases in which best practices can apply from city to city and state to state. Best budgeting practices, for example – such as those developed by the Government Finance Officers Association – can certainly be useful. It’s an accepted best practice in budgeting, for example, that entities should cover current year expenditures with current year revenues -- not revenues borrowed from the future.
Outside of budgeting, there are some other areas in which the phrase best practice is appropriate. And many of them. which may not have held true in the past, are now thankfully self-evident. In human resources, for example, it's certainly a best practice to make every effort to avoid explicit or implicit racism in hiring or recruiting. Or consider the realm of information technology, where no one can deny that sufficient training can be fairly called a best practice.
Before we go on, it seems worthwhile for us to provide our own definition of "best practice." Others may disagree, but it's the way the words sound to us. We believe that the ubiquitous phrase should be used to describe management policies that can be applied pretty much universally. Best practices, we'd argue, should be something like plug and play models that others can pick up and use with a solid assurance of success.
But that's often not the way the words are used. For example, the latest glittery idea that seems appealing (but has only been proven as worthwhile in a smattering of places) can often be dubbed as best. People writing reports for any number of significant organizations will take the study of a handful of cities or states and list approaches they’ve uncovered as “best.” Not to seem cynical, but we've noticed that often the words "best practice" are used in consulting firms to sell their own approaches.
For years, it was considered a best practice that states set aside exactly 5% of revenues in their rainy day funds. No more. No less. When we researched the topic, we discovered that precise number emanated from an off-the-cuff comment in a speech given by a leader in one of the ratings agencies. As years have passed, thinking on the topic has grown more sophisticated. The Volcker Alliance, for example, has thrown that 5% figure out the window and encourages states to tie their reserve funding to the volatility of revenues.
Here are five reasons we are concerned when a best practice is ballyhooed by a government official.
1) Ideas that work in rural areas often don't apply well to densely populated cities/
2) Approaches for homogeneous regions may leave out elements important in places with greater diversity.
3) Things that work well in healthy economic times may need to be forgotten in the depths of a recession.
4) Changing times generally require new solutions. For example, in the depths of the pandemic, it was a best practice not to shake hands. Nowadays, people even hug hello.
5) The label is too often applied before a notion has been properly evaluated and proven to be generally workable.
Fortunately, there are alternative phrases that can be somewhat more accurate. We prefer "promising," "leading," or "accepted" practice. None of these reflects a universally, unquestionably, absolutely superior way of doing government business.
We don’t think this is all a matter of semantics. When a practice is labeled as the “best,” that can easily stand in the way of the evolution of thinking that’s necessary for progress in states and localities. If we know the best way to do something, then why look for a better way? And the search for better functioning government is the core of what we do for a living.
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