Blog Brief:
- Best practices should not be confused with common practices.
- Consider the specific situational context of your institution.
- Avoid prioritizing operational effectiveness over strategy.
- Beware of blindly imitating practices from other institutions.
Full Blog:
In higher education, leaders are encountering more challenges to generating success. Best practices are often used as a guiding framework, but caution is necessary. This article explores the risks of relying too heavily on best practices and offers strategic advice for higher education leaders.
Don’t Confuse Common Practices with Best Practices
Just because others are doing it doesn’t mean it is the best way to achieve positive results. The higher education landscape is filled with experts, vendors, conference speakers, and others who often mistake the most common practices for the best ones. Have you ever attended a conference where a presenter shared insights on a particular topic, only to later discover the institution they represented hadn’t achieved sustained success? Best practices should come from the industry exemplars, not just from those who have the microphone.
Consider Situational Context
Best practices are derived from institutions operating in specific contexts. What works for one college may not necessarily work for another due to variations in institutional mission, student demographics, and market dynamics. College presidents must consider their own unique circumstances when evaluating the relevance of best practices. Implementing these practices without considering contextual fit can lead to suboptimal outcomes and missed opportunities.
The Risk of Conflating Efficiency with Strategy
Best practices are focused on improving operational effectiveness. Operational effectiveness is about efficiency and execution, while strategy involves making integrated choices to position the institution for sustained success. Prioritizing operational effectiveness without a clear strategy can lead to a lack of differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage. It’s crucial to understand that while operational effectiveness helps institutions improve consistently, it alone is not enough for long-term success.
The Dangers of Imitation
One of the primary risks associated with best practices, as highlighted by renowned strategist Michael Porter, is the inclination towards imitation rather than differentiation. Colleges, universities, and seminaries that focus solely on replicating successful practices from other institutions fail to establish a distinct position from counterparts. True competitive advantage arises from unique value propositions and differentiation, rather than mere replication. By blindly adopting best practices, institutions undermine their ability to stand out and excel.
The Risk of Commoditization
Widespread adoption of best practices without strategic thinking can lead to the commoditization of higher education. When every institution adopts the same practices, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate and offer unique educational experiences. This intensifies competition, diminishes value, and erodes competitive advantage. This is a “zero-sum game” according to Porter. Consequently, students end up making choices based primarily on price.
College leaders must prioritize strategy in addition to best practices to improve and become more unique for a particular set of students. The essence of strategy is choosing a differentiated position and coordinating your decisions and actions to serve specific students with unique needs at a specific price. This approach will help leaders effectively navigate a rapidly changing landscape and set their institutions up for long-term success.
–Ryan J. Dougherty is the Principal Partner at TG Three with over 20 years of experience building successful leaders, teams, and strategies. TG Three is a strategy company that helps Christian institutions get from where they are to where they want to be.
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