SettingStandards
By Jorge Fragoso and Illia Marin
During our life sciences careers, one common request is to “share best practices.” It’s common at many events, meetings, conferences and training sessions.
What, exactly, is a best practice?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes best practice as “a procedure that has been shown by research and experience to produce optimal results and that is established or proposed as a standard suitable for widespread adoption.”
On the survey, it sounds like a great opportunity to learn from others and identify ideas to implement. However, the reality — based on our experience — is that many of those sessions are just presentations of launched initiatives, often without clear impact metrics or demonstrated impact. Those sessions become presentations simply sharing implemented initiatives.
Sharing best practices rarely shares what failed and what costs. If we really want to share knowledge, we must share the full picture: the combination of success and failures.
We should also see the balance between courage and humility. Innovation requires courage and the willingness to challenge the status quo, to test new approaches. Humility is equally essential, the openness to learn from others, to recognize that someone might have solved a problem you are facing and that adopting the learning could be a strategic advantage.
In our view, a best practice must meet several criteria and go far beyond being just another implemented initiative. These 10 fundamental criteria can raise any implemented initiative to a best practice:
Strategic alignment. Before trying to replicate any implemented initiative, the whole team must ensure the proposed initiative is well aligned to the business strategic priorities and will bring value to the local business.
Consistent replication. An initiative must be replicated — with the corresponding localization and adjustments — in more than one market, country or region with similar conditions. Being implemented in only one ecosystem — even if it was successful — should not be considered as best practice. We must consider whether a practice working well in one ecosystem will function the same in others.
Clear metrics. The proposed initiative must have clear metrics to demonstrate the value or impact to the business. More importantly, those metrics must measure the outcome, rather than just activity “vanity metrics,” such as number of likes, attendance, clicks, opened emails, questions received or coffees served.
Impact measurability. A clear results orientation is required. Proposed initiatives must focus on delivering the best outcomes, pushing for innovation and new ways of working. Sharing recently launched initiatives with no clear positive outcome demonstrated could be a trap.
Adequate timing. An adequate timeline — in alignment with the corresponding metrics — must be considered to really evaluate the impact of the implemented practice. Being just launched and immediately shared as an example could bring a false promise of proven results, another short-term trap to be avoided.
Learning transfer. Be sure to have a strong commitment to ensure the right initiative replication. Stakeholders and the training team must closely collaborate to ensure implementation of the initiative in the new ecosystem. An adequate follow-up is required to track the implementation.
Complete documentation. A true best practices process must include an honest account of what worked well and what did not work – and why. Teams must be encouraged to register obstacles and unexpected results with the same rigor as the measuring outcomes. A failure documented with clarity becomes a gift for the next team or person that attempts something similar.
Organizational adoption. Most of the initiatives involve participation from several areas. To increase the successful implementation and adoption of the practice, top leaders must be involved and share a clear message on the value.
Corporate communication. An efficient communication campaign into the organization must be implemented to clearly transmit all relevant initiative information. This helps ensure clear receptivity and willingness to adapt the initiative, which drives alignment and execution.
Cultural environment. Replicating the initiative in a different ecosystem requires careful localization of several aspects of the initiative. A liaison in the team must be identified to take care of local cultural aspects, ensuring a full adaptation and adoption.
Before adopting or sharing a best practice, reflect on the following questions:
Do you truly understand the context that made this practice work, or are you only replicating the form?
What would you change in your organization if failures were shared as openly as best practices?
The “best practice” concept is more than just an implemented initiative. If we fulfill these minimal criteria, we can then consider it as a true best practice.
Jorge Fragoso is global field based medical excellence lead, Global Medical Affairs, Sanofi. Email Jorge at jorge.fragoso@sanofi.com or connect through linkedin.com/in/jorge-fragoso-14327ba.
Illia Marin is a learning partner, Latin America, for Sanofi. Email Illia at illia.marin2@sanofi.com or connect through linkedin.com/in/illia-marin-sanchez.
