You have to standardize before you can standardize

Here’s what not to do:

1. Be a fan of a tool or process that is unproven at your company/team
2. Make it the new standard for the team

Here’s what to do instead:

1. Be a fan of a tool or process that is unproven at your company/team
2. Ask the team to run an experiment with the tool with a specific end date
3. If the team wants to keep using it when the end date comes, make it the new standard for the team

I’ve gotten a “boy who cried wolf” feeling about new standards from some teams. When a manager says “the new standard for X is Y” enough times only to have Y be proven bad each time, people will develop a sense of deafness for new standards.

Don’t call something the standard until it’s already become the standard. You have to standardize before you can standardize.