Honesty Is the Best Policy





Getting Right Down To It

I remember the first time I heard the phrase “best practices.”  I was still working in sales and we were in our weekly meeting.  You could tell it was the hot new buzzword because our manager was using it about every third word.

All of a sudden it seemed to be everywhere.  There were best practices for our company.  Best practices for our industry.  Best practices for humanity!

And so it went. . . until one day when it hit me that “best practices” pretty much meant “do what seems to work.” Now I make it a best practice to avoid using “best practices.”  That is, unless I get to make a cartoon about it.

3 Comments ▼

Mark Anderson Mark Anderson's cartoons appear in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. His business cartoons are available for licensing at his website, Andertoons.com.

3 Reactions
  1. Martin Lindeskog

    Mark,

    You are good at picking out buzz words. Honesty is a virtue that is working as a best practice. Rational ideas should be put in practice.

  2. I’ve found that honesty is the virtue I consider to be most important above all others… both in my work life as well as my personal life. Thanks for the post!

  3. Hi Mark,

    I loved the concept behind your cartoon. No doubt the word best practices is commonly used and there may not be any set standard for them so saying that whatever works would be a good way of stating it. Thanks for sharing!

    Riya Sam