As an innovation keynote speaker I always say that learning best practices is great. You need to learn from others who are in your industry about what works and what doesn’t work. But it’s not innovation. Innovation the process of turning a new idea into a valuable product, service or method. It’s about moving from an initial concept to real-world impact, creating value for customers and society through implementation, not just invention. So is innovation or best practices better?
“Just follow best practices.” It sounds responsible. Safe. Proven. The smart thing to do. And sometimes it is.
But “best practices” can also be a way of saying: Do what everyone else is doing. Which is fine—until the world changes, your customer changes, your competition changes, or your category changes. Then best practices don’t protect you. They quietly turn you into a commodity. That’s why innovation vs best practices is important.
This is why I warn people not to follow trends, which is what a lot of people tend to do. Once it’s out there there is no competitive advantage. You’re just like everyone else.
Innovation vs best practices
Innovation and best practices aren’t enemies. But they do pull in different directions. Best practices optimize what’s known. Innovation explores what’s possible. One reduces variance. The other creates advantage.
If you’re trying to build competitive advantage, create growth, or stand out in a crowded market, the question isn’t “Which one is better?” The question is: When should you follow best practices—and when should you break them on purpose?
What “Best Practices” Really Means
Best practices are repeatable methods that have produced good results across multiple organizations or situations. They’re the playbook. The proven checklist. The “do this and you’ll probably be fine” approach.
Best practices are valuable because they:
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Prevent unnecessary mistakes
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Speed up execution
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Create consistency across teams
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Provide a baseline level of quality
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Reduce the learning curve for new hires
But the moment a best practice becomes widely adopted, it stops being a differentiator.
What Innovation Really Is (And What It Isn’t)
Innovation is not “being creative.” Creativity is the raw material—ideas, imagination, possibility. Innovation is when an idea becomes valuable: new revenue, new loyalty, new efficiency, new experiences, new outcomes.
Innovation can be:
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A new product or service
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A new business model
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New customer experience
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A new process that cuts cost or increases speed
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New way to package, position, or deliver something old
A lot of innovation is simply recombination: taking elements that already exist and putting them together in a new way, in a new context, for a new audience.
Here’s the key difference:
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Best practices = answers.
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Innovation = questions.
Best practices say, “Here’s what works.”
Innovation says, “What if the rules are wrong?”
Why Best Practices Can Be Dangerous
Best practices become dangerous when they turn into assumptions. And assumptions are invisible. You stop questioning them. You just… operate inside them.
That’s when you get stuck.
Here are the most common “best practice” traps:
1) Best practices create sameness
If everyone follows the same playbook, everyone looks the same. Same website layouts. Same marketing funnels. And the same loyalty programs and corporate phrases that say nothing.
Your customer can’t tell you apart because you’ve built something designed to look like everything else. And I always warn people not to follow trends. By the time you get it up and running it’s too late. The trend will be over.
2) Best practices are backward-looking
A best practice is usually based on what worked in the past. But the past is not where your next advantage lives. Especially during disruption.
If your industry is shifting—technology, labor, consumer behavior, distribution channels—then copying yesterday’s winners won’t make you tomorrow’s leader. Even if it’s literally yesterday.
3) Best practices can block experimentation
They encourage “compliance thinking.” People begin to believe their job is to follow the process instead of improve the process. That’s how organizations get efficient… and irrelevant.
4) Best practices are often “average practices”
Let’s say a tactic works across a broad group. Great. But what if your customers are different? What if your positioning is different? What if your constraints are different or if you’re trying to be premium while the “best practice” was built for mass market?
Sometimes the “best practice” is simply the most common practice, not the best one for you.
When Best Practices Are Exactly What You Should Do
Let’s be fair. There are times best practices are absolutely the right move.
Use best practices when:
You’re building the foundation
If something is broken, inconsistent, or chaotic, you don’t need innovation yet—you need fundamentals. A leaky bucket doesn’t need a new faucet.
You’re dealing with safety, compliance, or mission-critical operations
Don’t “innovate” your way into a lawsuit, a security breach, or a crisis.
You’re scaling something that already works
Once you’ve found product-market fit, best practices help you repeat success. Innovation found the signal; best practices amplify it.
You’re training teams and reducing cognitive load
A solid playbook creates speed and consistency. Then you can choose where to focus innovation energy strategically.
When Innovation Should Lead (Even If It Feels Risky)
Innovation should lead when best practices produce diminishing returns—when you’ve optimized enough and you still aren’t winning.
Here are situations where innovation is the smarter choice:
1) When you’re competing in a crowded market
If your customer has 10 options, “best practices” makes you option #11.
Competitive advantage comes from difference—something meaningful your customer can feel.
2) When your customer’s expectations are changing
Customers don’t compare you only to your competitors anymore. They compare you to the best experience they’ve had anywhere.
That means the “best practice” in your industry may already be behind.
3) When you’re stuck in incremental improvement
If you’re improving 3% a year and your category is changing 30% a year, you’re not improving—you’re falling behind at a more efficient pace.
4) When you need a story customers will repeat
Best practices don’t create stories. Innovation does. Innovation is about being special, unique and different.
People don’t tell their friends, “They followed standard operating procedure perfectly.”
They say, “You won’t believe what they did…”
This is when people start sharing your story on social media and the press comes calling. Advertising is expensive. Word of mouth and PR is free. This is how I sold around a million units of my wrist water bottle. By being unique and innovative.
A Practical Framework: Optimize vs. Differentiate
Here’s a simple way to decide where best practices belong and where innovation belongs.
Use best practices for:
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Compliance
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Safety
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Reliability
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Consistency
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Quality control
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Core operations that must not fail
Use innovation for:
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Differentiation
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Customer experience
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Revenue growth
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New offers
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New channels
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Loyalty and retention
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Brand story and buzz
In other words:
Best practices protect your baseline. Innovation creates your upside.
The “Two-Speed Company” Approach
The best organizations don’t pick one. They run both—on purpose. This is what I think should be done. As my improv teacher used to tell me “You have to know the rules to break them”.
Think of it like having two gears:
Gear 1: Operational Excellence
Run the business with best practices where stability matters.
Gear 2: Strategic Experimentation
Create a structured system to test new ideas without risking the whole machine.
This approach keeps you from swinging between extremes:
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“We never change anything.”
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“We change everything and break what works.”
Instead, you build an innovation engine that is disciplined—not chaotic.
How to Innovate Without Being Reckless
A lot of leaders avoid innovation because they imagine it’s expensive, risky, and unpredictable. It doesn’t have to be.
Here’s how to innovate intelligently:
1) Treat innovation as experiments, not rollouts
Don’t bet the company. Run small tests:
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Pilot with one segment
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Offer a “beta” experience
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Test in one location
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Run a limited-time offer
Innovation is safer when it’s contained.
2) Break one rule at a time
You don’t need to reinvent everything. Sometimes one bold change creates the story:
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A new guarantee
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A new pricing model
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A new loyalty perk
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A new packaging twist
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A new partnership
Ask: What’s one assumption we could challenge this quarter?
3) Measure learning, not just ROI
Early innovation often looks “inefficient” because the product is still in progress. If you measure only ROI too soon, you kill the very thing that could become your next growth engine.
Track:
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Adoption
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Engagement
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Repeat behavior
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Referrals
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Time saved
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Customer feedback patterns
4) Build a “best practices sandbox”
Give your team a protected space where they’re allowed to test ideas without needing perfection. Make it clear: in the sandbox, learning is the win.
The Real Point: You Don’t Want to Be the “Best.” You Want to Be Different.
“Best” is subjective and crowded. Everyone claims they’re the best. Different is defensible.
If your strategy is built entirely on best practices, you’re building a business that can be copied. The moment a competitor matches your execution, your edge disappears.
But if you create a signature approach—something that reflects your values, your customers, and your unique strengths—you stop being compared on price. You can buy a cheap water bottle that is simply a bottle. But a wrist water bottle is a unique and innovative product that no one else has.
That’s competitive advantage.