Proven Practices vs Innovation
Use proven practices as the performance baseline and channel innovation specifically at capability gaps, managed through structured experimentation gates.
CyberTRIZ analysis · Benchmarking contradiction PGB016 · one of 8,235 worked contradictions published by CyberTRIZ.AI
Regulations
Business Context
Proven practices reduce uncertainty because they have demonstrated successful performance under actual operating conditions. Organizations can use them to avoid known mistakes and accelerate improvement. However, reliance on established practices can reinforce existing industry assumptions and discourage experimentation with fundamentally different methods. Innovation introduces the possibility of superior performance but also increases technical, operational, and economic uncertainty.
Benchmarking TRIZ Resolution
Proven practices should establish the current performance baseline rather than define the permanent solution. Organizations can retain established methods where they remain effective while using controlled experimentation to test alternative mechanisms in areas where benchmark performance has plateaued or strategic requirements exceed existing capabilities. Innovation becomes targeted at limitations in the proven practice rather than pursued indiscriminately.
Applicable TRIZ Principles
Principle 10 – Prior Action tests alternative methods before existing practices become inadequate.
Principle 13 – The Other Way Round challenges the operating logic embedded in established practices.
Principle 15 – Dynamics allows proven systems to evolve as new performance requirements emerge.
Expected Outcome
Continued reliability from proven methods
Greater innovation where performance limits exist
Reduced dependence on established industry assumptions
Lower innovation risk
Decision Indicators
Early indicators include:
Best practices remain unchanged despite diminishing performance gains.
Teams reject alternatives primarily because they lack industry precedent.
Innovation projects operate independently of identified performance limitations.
Benchmark leaders begin using mechanisms absent from established practice libraries.
Organizations equate conformity with proven methods with optimal performance.
These signals indicate that proven practice has begun to function as a constraint on innovation.