Replicated Routines Ruin Results

1990s hairstyles taught me about standardisation.

“Woah, awesome hair!” I gasped at Julius as he pounded his NES controller, gracefully guiding Mario through a myriad of Goombas and Koopa Troopers.

“Hey, thanks. My mum said curtains make me look like famous footballers”, responded Julius.

“Yeah, you’re David Beckham!” I exclaimed, pulling at my unkempt locks.

A week later I walked from the hairdresser into the classroom, my hair shawn into exquisite curtains. Laughs erupted. “Hey Simon, you look like a Goomba!”, screeched Julius.

It was then that I realised that not all haircuts suit all head shapes.

Something in my head clicked.

In organisations, standardisation (or copying) often feels a good solution to most problems. It becomes too easy to encourage teams to copy one another: adopt the same tools, conform to the same agile practices, work to the same budgeting or delivery cycles, or measure success using the same metrics.

Alas, no team has perfect processes - we’re all on a journey of continuous improvement. This means, if we copy processes indiscriminately from one team to another, we’re not just copying processes - we’re also copying problems.

Also, no two teams are the same. Each team has a unique purpose, context, team members, and knowledge. Indiscriminately copying a process to another team is akin to copying a haircut onto another person’s head: it’s unlikely to fit right.

By looking instead at the reason behind why a team chose a certain process - be it a tool, practice, delivery cycle, or metric - we can then understand if there’s something helpful to translate to our team. If I also wanted to look like a footballer, I’m sure there’d be other, more effective methods than curtains.

The takeaway? Every team and head shape is unique. Indiscriminate duplication is more likely to spread pain than solve problems.