Standard for improving Standards

Simon Baker suggests that standardisation does not have to supress innovation.

It's important to communicate the best ways of doing things, but standards are often enforced in a way that people are expected to accept without question. However, there are often many ways of doing something, and the best way will change over time with changes in technology and changes in people.

Perhaps standards should be seen as something that should be followed, but when its thought they cause a problem, judgement should be used as to the correct procedure should be followed. However, if people use judgement to deviate from the standard, any differences should be noted and their effect should be considered afterwards.

The differences can then be assessed to see if deviating from the standard was the right thing with hindsight and if so, the standard should be improved. if it was the wrong thing to do, we might need to explain the rationale behind the standard better.