World's Best Practice

In the light of recent events - namely airliners dropping out of the sky like flies in an insecticide commercial - my previous post might look a bit precious; whinging about minor annoyances on an airline that has an unrivalled reputation for safety. First World Problems indeed.

In fact, I believe my complaints are all the more relevant, because they show that Qantas is continuing to embrace a "Worlds Best Practice" philosophy.

"Worlds Best Practice" seems like a good thing. How can it mean anything other than that you are the best in the world?

In reality it's a deceptive piece of corporate jargon. You need to ask "best for whom?".

For instance; some other airlines might be able to get away with half the ground crew of Qantas. Clearly (at least to the short-sighted bean-counters in charge) it would be better for the company to match this level of "efficiency". Half of the ground crew staff are then sacked. This is what "Worlds Best Practice" means.

It reminds me a bit of the rhyme: "Good, better, best / Never let it rest / 'till your good is better / and your better best." It can be twisted to mean the opposite of what it was intended to say. Consider this:

When something is good, it is good in comparison to some relatively objective standard. You can always argue about exactly what constitutes a "good" apple, but a blackened and bruised apple with worms in it would not be described as "good" by any honest person.

When something is better, it is only more good in comparison to something else. Thus the blackened and bruised apple above may be described as "better" when compared to an apple that has deliquesced into a pool of rottenness, teeming with maggots.

When something is best, it the most good out of a group. Unfortunately, that group may have no other members in it. The deliquescent apple above might be the "best" apple in the kitchen of a particularly piggish bachelor, if it's the only apple they have.

That is to say, "best" can be worse than "better" which can in turn be worse than "good"; it all depends on what you are comparing things to.

"Worlds Best Practice" means using the rest of the world as a reference point to aim at. We are now seeing what airlines are like in the rest of the world.

Do we want this here?