Let me illustrate with a story from my recent past. I was in Philadelphia driving to a meeting and could not find a parking place anywhere. Finally, I found a lot that wasn’t full. So, I pulled in. When I did, the parking lot attendant ran up to my car yelling hysterically. He kept pointing to the “entrance” to the lot, and yelling at me that I had come in the wrong way and had just run over the spikes. (You know the ones; they are the in-ground “teeth” that keep people from stealing a car.)

Needless to say, all I could think was, “Great, not only am I late, but I’ll also have four flat tires when I return from the meeting.” I glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed that another car had followed me in the same “wrong” way. The parking lot attendant ran to the driver of the other car to alert him of the danger. The other driver pointed at me and yelled, “But I followed her!” To which the parking lot attendant yells right back “Yes, and she ran over the spikes as well!”

To me, this is a great story about the difference between following someone you know has mastered a best practice and someone whom is simply “feeling” his or her way through trial and error. (By the way, I had no damage to my tires; the man who pulled in behind me had four flats.)

So, be careful. Know when you need to benchmark (and how) and when a survey will serve you just fine. Don’t drive four hours for nothing, and please don’t fall over the edge of a cliff!