PolyTheorem’s Post

Everyone wants “best practices” but here’s the paradox: The moment a practice becomes common, it stops creating advantage. Best practices are yesterday’s answers codified, packaged, and repeated long after the conditions that created them have changed. They feel safe because they’re familiar. They feel credible because others use them. But that’s exactly why they rarely move the needle. If everyone is following the same playbook, no one is gaining ground... they’re just maintaining parity. Real advantage comes from next practices: the experiments, insights, and working methods you develop before the industry catches up. Not the things everyone already knows, but the things only you have learned. We see it all the time: high performers aren’t following “best practices.” They’re discovering emergent practices designed from their context, their constraints, and their opportunities. Safe practices maintain the status quo. Next practices change it. What “best practice” in your organization is ready to be retired?