The two common pitfalls are failure to adopt and failure to adapt, writes Ron Ashkenas in the Harvard Business Review.

Organizations need to tailor best practices to their environment.

"This not only requires learning the tool or process, but truly understanding the principles behind it," according to the blog post.

Organizations also need people on staff to drive implementation of the best practices. In other words, senior managers have to make the decisions that make these practices work.

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