A colleague asked me to review a client proposal and, at first glance, it looked like a winner. The proposal was short, and it laid out the client's problem in clear, crisp language. Plus, the team was a great match for the project. I thought, "how refreshing – a jargon-free, informative proposal."

Then I read the section describing how the team planned to complete the work and groaned inwardly: the project approach was to rely on the use of "best practices."

"You don't really mean this, do you?" I asked. "Look, the client says it right here in the request for proposal," my colleague said. "They asked us to bring best practices to the project. We won't win the work without them." I resisted the urge to scream.

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