Best of Practices?

Warren is absolutely right. Words have not only lost their true meaning (have to sometimes look up the dictionary to know the exact meaning) but the edge to them. They all sound empty especially when one is actually implementing projects / programmes at the field level.

Best practice is for a context and this so called best practice has to be validated by some kind of an "expert" who then relates it to numerous others as if she/he is the one who actually thought about it in the first place!! This best practice then remains at the story telling level at meetings or workshops or informal chats - something to be "one up" on the other. This best practise then is buried. Its principles are never adapted but new wheels are invented as I mentioned to be "one up" on the other.

I have also experienced that best practices - what ever they are - are in a sense a process that communties have invented, developed, implemnted, thwarted pressures and have gained some level of success. The principles drawn from such processes are important and not the story telling that normally happens.

There are a number of other words that agitate and one of them that realyy gets my blood boiling is "community participation especially women" and this is mouthed by the he's and him's who do not even allow their own wives and sisters to even venture out in the world... but at times these he's and him's sadly or unfortunately are the decision makers and many a times there is no point in argueing with them lest the entire proposal gets shot down.... but there needs to get this displeasure across and I shall one of these days...

To All Those out There, I found the commentary of Warren Feek to be most insightful and very much in need of clarification within the minds, of those within the development community. For I too hold contention for the word best, when used out of context and relationship to that which it is applied. My own humble opinion about the word "Best", as used within any context, is that "Which Works"! For what is considered best, can only be clarified in conjuntion with that which it is used by those doing the labor of work, to manifest it with action in "Reality". "Right and Wrong" is in need of updating and strictly a matter of whom one is with and where in the world one is, as to what that is considered to be. In simple words, can not be defined outside of the culture which it is considered. Whether that be one's life, organization or government.

If something works within the context of which it is applied, then that is what must be considered best, for getting accomplished that which has need of doing. How can anyone argue in good conscious with common sense and what works, within the reality it is applied, if it accomplishes the task at hand? While at all time, being open to that which works better! To declare best practice, for everything in all circustances, is to go against both of these fundemental concepts and everything that has been learned by those within the development community doing the work.

A new concept needs to be grasped within the organizations which administer development around the world. That concept being, that to get accomplished what needs to be done, we must flow along with the organization and be open to that which is learned along the way. Filling in where the need is greatest, that which is within "Reality", what is needed to "Make It Work"! The age old concept of dictorial application of help, as seen by the solidifided ideas of the past, do not work within the "Reality" of "Now"! Have we not already spent considerable time, energy and resources needlessly, trying to force a generic application of development?


Can we really continue with what "Doesn't Work" and expect to make any progress in the future? Last I knew this was the defination of insanity - Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome! I personally thought the definition of development to be, "Progressive Change". If we are going to wallow around within history and talk and wonder why things do not improve, than I for one, do not have much hope for the future!

It is up to those forcing the restaints of solidified methodology toward a workable future, that must continue to be creative with our work, in order to accomplish change within real time. It is not the easiest thing to drag any portion of humanity, into the reality of the present, but those on the cutting edge of human evolution must stay the course. I have found this forum to be just such a tool and want to thank those involved for all of thier time and energy searching to find "What Works"! Now being the time, with our actions, to make it so!


Lawrence H. Robertson


www.thecontinuumproject.

Dear All,
I read about a meeting held in Nigeria last month.
One of the UNDP officials was quoted as offering the statement below. My question is to understand the implication of asking "asking all stakeholders TO BUY INTO the intervention" (capitals mine). Something just feels odd with the metaphor of buying into. Does it not reveal the division of sellers of ideas and buyers of the ideas? If words are the windows to the heart of the speaker, I'm afraid to think about this intervention.
Kole Ade Odutola, Africana studies department

"The need to improve on communications for purpose of getting all stakeholders to buy into the intervention strategies was also emphasized"

Warren hits again the nail with all his strength. I cannot agree more with him. “best practice� is a horrible bureaucratic term. It has no meaning anymore. Can’t we just learn from the experience, good or bad? Why this fake attempt to elevate some practices to the top? It is all part of the hypocritical jargon of development, or at least the jargon of those that mock development.

Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron

Dear Warren,

Best practice has always puzzled me. In fact we had some shoved down our throat by one of the IUCN specialist groups they objected that we had not followed those during pone of our complex conservation projects.. The practices were so general that, in my opinion could never be considered best. In any case they were not all appropriate for a small island stet such as the Seychelles.

The UNESCO coastal practitioners have an alternative: wise practice.

Regards

Nirmal Jivan Shah,

Chief Executive,

Nature Seychelles,

The Center for Environment and Education,

Mahe, Seychelles.

tel: +248 601100

email: nature@seychelles.net

web: www.nature.org.sc

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Your style is fresh and readable, and I always love an anti-establishment approach. Hoped you were going to suggest some brilliant strategy for dealing with cliched development phrases though...

Great stuff. Am a mass Comm student in the West Indies and you are right on!

I quite agree with Wareen's position on this so called "best practice". As a matter of fact what is best practice somewhere may be bad practice elsewhere if apply.

I quite agree with Wareen's position on this so called "best practice". As a matter of fact what is best practice somewhere may be bad practice elsewhere if apply.

I wholeheartedly agree with Warren in his distaste for overused organizational development terms. I personally hadn’t counted “best practices� among them, but definitely see your point. It does imply that there is one “best practice� for a certain kind of discipline or program, and it will work well everywhere, and it is simply not true.

What I do value, however, is hearing what others have to say about what works for them and why. A good example is talking to CARE about their tsunami communications strategy. I work for a reproductive health and rights agency, and I don’t think we’ll every have a crisis situation that calls for rapid communications like that. But I benefited a great deal from learning about how CARE trains it field staff to work with the media. Not a “practice� I’ll be able to duplicate, but good, ahem, “lessons learned,� nonetheless. ;-)

Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate for Media Relations
Ipas
www.ipas.org

Excellent well-written essay! And I think your commentary on the over/misused term is spot-on.

I had believed the idea behind a "best practice" is to identify those things which work in given situation(s) and that can be replicated in other situations. I believe there are some situations where practices can be replicated in vastly different settings. To think otherwise is to say we can not learn from others. However, I had not considered your viewpoint that people can become enamored with these best practices and seek to apply them everywhere, ignoring the differences in different settings. And that has certainly happened in a number of instances ultimately causing failure. I believe a best practice should not be applied as if it were a mold but can be a learning tool for some. Thank you for the insight.

Excellent views! The fact that different people have different concepts in mind when they use the same buzzwords is not mentioned but it also makes the issue of "scaling up best practices" ;) even more difficult, if ever useful indeed.
However, I think the idea of going to scale is not necessarily bad, provided there is a process that involves all interested parties, to indeed identify specific needs of the area where a concept/practice/method is scale up.
I work for IRC, an information and advisory centre on water, sanitation and hygiene in poor rural and semi-urban areas. We believe that some research we have carried out with our partners from the SOuth and the North has some value and ought to be shared in other contexts. In this respect, we have started setting up some 'learning alliances' which consist of a working group addressing a particular issue in a particular setting by involving all the relevant stakeholders (communities, civil society, local government, international NGO's, Universities etc.). Most of the work conducted in these learning alliances is about getting these stakeholders together, discussing their different views, identifying the issues of - for example - having communities manage their water and sanitation facilities in a responsible and sustainable way.
This approach takes lots of efforts but eventually, no 'best practice/one size fits all' is used. We introduce some of our ideas and elaborate them further with the issues that local municipalities are confronted with, the needs and problems encountered by communities, other evidence brought to light by a Research institute etc.
In the end, our goal is to scale up the body of research we started some years ago to other settings but in a group that covers most aspects. We believe this helps devising more sustainable solutions and so far, in spite of the struggle in the communication process mentioned above, results start to pay off.

So to get back to my initial point, I think that the work which was successful (leading to making best practices explicit) can be adapted and applied to other contexts if the actors of that context are part of the working group.

What are your views on this?

Ewen Le Borgne (leborgne@irc.nl)
Advisory and Training coordinator
IRC

Dear Warren,

Really enjoyed your dissection of words that so many in the field of communications hear all day long.
Marilyn Keegan
Communications Manager
Council For Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa

You have just spoken my mind. I think a lot of practitioners in this development business are guilty of intellectual laziness. People just hear someone use a new phrase or word in some meeting they attended and in the next meeting, they are repeating the same word or phrase without bothering to reflect on its meaning. I think we attend too many meetings in this business- majority of them talk shops that make us feel good. The real work is out in the field- where you wont even have the time to think about "best practices"

You have just spoken my mind. I think a lot of practitioners in this development business are guilty of intellectual laziness. People just hear someone use a new phrase or word in some meeting they attended and in the next meeting, they are repeating the same word or phrase without bothering to reflect on its meaning. I think we attend too many meetings in this business- majority of them talk shops that make us feel good. The real work is out in the field- where you wont even have the time to think about "best practices"

Thomas Ofem
Senior BCC Advisor
FHI/GHAIN Project, Nigeria

I agree about "best practice." It usually means what someone wants others to do that they don't. It also tends to supress other's ideas and is used as a hammer to bludgeon noyone with a different viewpoint. As a rehabilitation professional, I see this used too often.

My "instant shudder" word is "feedback." Feedback is the high pitch squeeling sound that isproduced when amicrophone is placed too near a speaker. It is unpleasant to say the least. Unfortunately, most verbal feedback is as useless and unpleasant. What the person requesting feedback wants is his own voice or his own ideas fed back to him. Or, the word is used for information that nobody wants to hear or is in the form of information that issimilar to a bovine waste product. I don't give feedback to my clients, I tell them how they did or give results of their assessments. I don't ask for feedback, I say, "What do you think?" That's really what i want to know.

The article was well written and brings up some good points.

I think this article was using since I myself have been having some difficulties coming to terms with the concept of best practice. I think that practitioners need to understand that all projects and interventions are or should be implemented within the context of the culture and the soico-economic situation which may exist. Hence the concept of best cannot/should not be applied. This page was excellent in fleshing out some of the real issues which need to be addressed and the real concepts which need to be used when persons maybe looking for interventions to rate or replicate.

Great article...about time someone questions the NGO speak one so often hears in development circles

Shane Petzer - Ashoka Fellow

I liked your piece on terms that set us on edge. I remember when Sun Microsystems was just starting to push a concept in 1995 called the 'network computer.'
They had a full page ad in a trade pub. I was working at Apple Computer at that time, and I remember chuckling because at the bottom of the explanation of the concept, they stated that the network computer was 'buzzword compliant' and by poking fun at their own ad copy I did have a better reaction to the concept--thought it has never really taken off.

When I was writing an evaluation of a group of computer tech centers in Uganda for USAID I would not use the heading 'lessons learned' because I thought nobody had really learned much (or at least changed their views) on how the project should proceed.

Fully agree with your thinking. We keep borrowing ideas and experiences but lose originality in adApting these to the local and/or present situation

My very sentiments, however the author expressed them much more eloquently than I ever could!

My very sentiments, however the author expressed them much more eloquently than I ever could!

We are all in such a frantic search for ANYTHING that works in the HIV prevention firld, that when CDC gives us "best practices" we eat them up, often without question. Your piece has turned the "question it" switch back on in my head. thanks.

I always want to ask "best practice for who?" when I hear that phrase (and I do hear it often). It is said with such certainty, that I also wonder who has defined it as "best". I suspect it is not the communities where the intervention has taken place. I guess there is a continuing search for the "magic bullet" - because people want answers, they want things to work, and to work quickly. Best practices has become a "magic bullet - phrase" - but in reality we all know there is no magic bullet--don't we? Realistically are there "best practices" that will address the systemic problems that many countries face - such as a poor health infrastructure, poverty, lack of water, unequal access to education, political instability, conflict, gender based violence,and HIV/AIDS? Will one set of "best practices" succeed across the globe. It seems quite unlikely. The road forward is long - and perhaps we would be wise to step away from bringing "best practices" to the work before us - rather we might strive to build stronger bridges to the communities and local people for whom we are working to improve quality of life. Hey they might even have some of there own "best practices" that work.

Warren, thanks for sharing your thoughts, they certainly resonated for me.

"Best practice", when I was young in the stone age, was called "cookbook engineering" -- a term that better describes the approach. Voltaire said it all: "The best is the enemy of the good."

Any article that makes me think and question what I believe is worthwhile. Surprisingly I found myself agreeing with everything Warren has said and believe me that is quite unusual for me. My initial reaction to the second last point was to disagree but after a couple of readings I finally understood it. I am sure we could have many wonderful discussions on public participation and the like. I once worked as a Public Participation Officer for a special Canadian NATO project. Thanks.

Any article that makes me think and question what I believe is worthwhile. Surprisingly I found myself agreeing with everything Warren has said and believe me that is quite unusual for me. My initial reaction to the second last point was to disagree but after a couple of readings I finally understood it. I am sure we could have many wonderful discussions on public participation and the like. I once worked as a Public Participation Officer for a special Canadian NATO project. Thanks.

You got it dead on there Warren.

The word that bugs me in group meetings is "Coalition". It bugs me because a coalition is really just a bunch of individuals, a bunch of individuals that will always have their own personal needs and political ambitions undermining real efforts towards consensus. There's a saying that goes through my head everytime I hear someone suggest a new "coalition" to deal with a problem - "All of us is as dumb as none of us". Individuals are the ones that do work, individuals want to claim credit for their work and ideas, so why are we always trying to act as if we're not alone. The obvious answers are for greater influence and political positioning. Aren't politicans individuals? Aren't there enough coalitions in the world?

Thank you Warren for this interesting piece!
I thought I was the only nut to object to this "best practice" businesS!
Another peeve I have with dev workers and community health workers is their use of abbreviations which no one else can understand!

Very inetersting reasoning regarding 'best practice'. However,the problem may not be with the phrase but rather its application. I look at 'best practice' in terms of underlying principle or methodology and that is what should inform my practice, adjusting where necessary and refining where appropriate. This way, I guess, will evolve into a local 'best practice'. To me, it is usually the how rather than the what about best practice that matters.

You express in nice words the basic critique towards using the expression "best practice". Many thanks!
Greetings
Manuel Flury
Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation
CH-3003 Berne

From best practice … to good practice … to living practice

Like Warren (ConunDRUM, 3 Mar 05), best practice drives me nuts!


Best practice is often seen as a set of guidelines drawn from experience that set out a ‘gold standard’ to be achieved. The difficulty with identifying something as a best practice is that it often makes people who are already doing very good practice feel undervalued and insecure. In the search for what is best, we can sometimes throw out what is good.


An interesting definition of best practice comes from UNAIDS: ‘the continuous process of learning, feedback, reflection and analysis of what works (or does not work) and why’. For the Exchange programme, this suggests not simply best practice, but living practice.


What is living practice? Living practice is a conceptual model for examining how people learn and communicate their learning. It is a process that underpins the work of the Exchange programme in exploring and promoting what works and what does not work in health communication.


Living practice is taking the learning from practice and feeding it back into the practice to modify and adapt the practice in a continuous process of improvement. It is a process or a journey towards regular and consistent improvement, regular and continual learning, regular and continual development. It moves away from fixed goals as the main focus and towards a more iterative and organic approach to learning and development that enables the goals themselves to be modified and changed in a flexible and sensitive manner.


Living practice is what we all do in our daily lives. It is how we adapt to changing circumstances. It is this adaptation that enables creative solutions to be found to the challenges we all face in development and communication.

Andrew Chetley, Director Exchange, London, UK.

Here's my list:

Empowerment (who is empowering who and if they are, aren't they more powerful anyway?)


Capacity building (do you mean training?)


Good governance (you just mean corruption, so just say it and don't base all aid on the lack of it as if you don't do it)


Implementation (do you mean, what do you mean?)


LDCs (least developed in what?)


Developing Countries (developing to what?)

Rasna Warah

I do agree with Warren, and will play the devil's advocate in justifying the position of those who use this Warren alienating term: "They" probably mean those interventions that "worked" at that place, in that time, under these particular circumstances, and not necessarily "best of all practices". The disagreement here is with the language, but who more than communicators should use the most descriptive language?
Now Warren, don't let your shoulders droop but how about: Evidence-Based Successful Practices…!!!

Great.