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Have you ever said, this release or content shouldn’t Work, but It Does

 

Have you ever said, this release or content shouldn’t Work, but It Does


Have you ever told yourself or to client that this release , or content, according to industry  norms, shouldn’t work – but somehow it works for you?


Then there’s the practice called percussive maintenance or thappad therapy where you give a quick smack to the back of an electronic device that’s acting up to bring it back to life. 


There’s absolutely no reason why this should work. But, somehow, it does. 


I call these “idiosyncratic practices.” In many cases, these practices not only work, they help us to be the best versions of ourselves and do our best work.  


I see versions of idiosyncratic communication  practices all the time. For example, there’s the organization where every single person on the 10-person content marketing team, including the CCO, reviews every piece of content that goes out the door. 


It should be a massive workflow bottleneck, but it’s not.


Then there’s the blog team at a B2B tech company that doesn't even have forms of organized SEO – and still achieves exponential growth in their subscribed audience organically.  


They should struggle to get organic traffic, but they don’t.


Many of us read about the best practices for approaching our narrative daily. But I’ve never heard of a company, successful or otherwise, that attempts to meet them all. 



That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever stress-test those idiosyncratic practices. The content marketing team with the extensive review process is growing – and they’ve decided having everyone review the content isn’t necessary. 


One of the best lessons about best practices is that they’re a starting point, not an endpoint. Your mileage for any approach may not be the same as your peers. 


The same goes for idiosyncratic practices. You should be willing to question “the way it’s always been done.”  But you also should realize you don’t always need to change the way it’s always been done.  


You might have hit on a great idiosyncratic practice.  It shouldn’t work. But it just does. 

Its your practice, follow it well. 
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