Practice vs. Policy — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman & Fiza Rafique — Updated on March 31, 2024
Practice involves repetitive actions to improve skills, whereas policy is a set of guidelines or principles governing behavior or operations.
Difference Between Practice and Policy
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Practice is the act of repeatedly performing an activity or exercise to improve proficiency in a particular skill. It is often hands-on and requires active participation. On the other hand, policy refers to formally established decisions, rules, or guidelines designed to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters within an organization, community, or system.
While practice is focused on the development of skills and habits through repetition, policy serves as a framework for making decisions and provides a course of action on a given issue or set of issues. Policies are developed to address specific needs, manage behaviors, and achieve certain outcomes, whereas practices are developed through the consistent application of effort towards mastering a skill.
Practices can vary significantly across different fields, such as sports, music, or language learning, emphasizing the adaptive and personalized nature of skill development. Policies, however, are usually more static and are applied uniformly within an organization or system to ensure consistency and compliance.
The effectiveness of practice is often measured by the improvement in skill or performance over time, highlighting the importance of consistent and deliberate effort. Conversely, the effectiveness of a policy is usually assessed based on its ability to achieve its intended outcomes, ensure compliance, and guide behavior within its scope.
Practices are typically developed and refined through individual or collective experience, relying heavily on feedback and adaptation. Policies are formulated through a process that may involve research, analysis, stakeholder consultation, and formal approval processes, reflecting a more structured and deliberate approach to creating guidelines and rules.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Repetitive action aimed at improving a skill.
Set of guidelines or rules governing behavior or operations.
Focus
Skill development and habit formation.
Decision-making and behavior management.
Nature
Adaptive and often personalized.
Static and uniformly applied.
Measurement of Effectiveness
Improvement in skill or performance.
Achievement of intended outcomes and compliance.
Development
Through individual or collective experience.
Through research, analysis, and formal approval processes.
Compare with Definitions
Practice
The application of ideas or methods.
The doctor's practice emphasizes holistic health.
Policy
A written document detailing these guidelines or rules.
Employees must read the safety policy.
Practice
Repetition of an activity to maintain or improve proficiency.
Practice makes perfect when learning a new language.
Policy
Principles that guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes.
The government's economic policy aims to reduce inflation.
Practice
The customary, habitual, or expected procedure of something.
It's common practice to shake hands when meeting someone.
Policy
Written contract or certificate of insurance;
You should have read the small print on your policy
Practice
The active pursuit of a profession.
She built her medical practice over two decades.
Policy
A course or principle of action adopted by an organization.
The company’s policy on vacation days is very generous.
Practice
Continuous exercise to improve skills.
Daily practice is crucial for mastering the piano.
Policy
The act of managing affairs with a strategic approach.
Their foreign policy focuses on diplomacy.
Practice
The actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it
The principles and practice of teaching
The recommendations proved too expensive to put into practice
Policy
Policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol.
Practice
The customary, habitual, or expected procedure or way of doing of something
Modern child-rearing practices
Product placement is common practice in American movies
Policy
A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or individual
It is not company policy to dispense with our older workers
The government's controversial economic policies
Practice
Repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it
It must have taken a lot of practice to become so fluent
Policy
A contract of insurance
They took out a joint policy
Practice
US spelling of practise
Policy
An illegal lottery or numbers game
He swore that he had never played policy in his life
Practice
To do or perform habitually or customarily; make a habit of
Practices courtesy in social situations.
Policy
A plan or course of action, as of a government, political party, or business, intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters
American foreign policy.
The company's personnel policy.
Practice
To do or perform (something) repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill
Practice a dance step.
Policy
A course of action, guiding principle, or procedure considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous
Honesty is the best policy.
Practice
To give lessons or repeated instructions to; drill
Practiced the students in handwriting.
Policy
Prudence, shrewdness, or sagacity in practical matters
It is never good policy to speak rashly.
Practice
To work at, especially as a profession
Practice law.
Policy
A written contract or certificate of insurance.
Practice
To carry out in action; observe
Practices a religion piously.
Policy
A numbers game.
Practice
(Obsolete) To plot (something evil).
Policy
A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body.
The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
It's company policy that all mobile phones are forbidden in meetings.
Practice
To do something repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill
With any musical instrument, you need to practice to get better.
Policy
Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.
Practice
To work at a profession
How long has that lawyer been practicing?.
Policy
Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.
Practice
To do or perform something habitually or repeatedly
Why not practice in the same manner that you preach?.
Policy
The grounds of a large country house.
Practice
(Archaic) To intrigue or plot.
Policy
(obsolete) The art of governance; political science.
Practice
A habitual or customary action or way of doing something
Makes a practice of being punctual.
Policy
(obsolete) A state; a polity.
Practice
Repeated performance of an activity in order to learn or perfect a skill
Practice will make you a good musician.
Policy
(obsolete) A set political system; civil administration.
Practice
A session of preparation or performance undertaken to acquire or polish a skill
Goes to piano practice weekly.
Scheduled a soccer practice for Saturday.
Policy
(obsolete) A trick; a stratagem.
Practice
(Archaic) The skill so learned or perfected.
Policy
(obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.
Practice
The condition of being skilled through repeated exercise
Out of practice.
Policy
(law)
Practice
The act or process of doing something; performance or action
A theory that is difficult to put into practice.
Policy
A contract of insurance.
Practice
Exercise of an occupation or profession
The practice of law.
Policy
A document containing or certifying this contract.
Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
Practice
The business of a professional person
An obstetrician with her own practice.
Policy
(obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
Practice
A habitual or customary action or act
That company engages in questionable business practices. Facial tattooing is a standard practice among certain peoples.
Policy
A number pool lottery
Practice
(Law) The procedure for trial of cases in a court of law, usually specified by rules.
Policy
(transitive) To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
Practice
The act of tricking or scheming, especially with malicious intent.
Policy
Civil polity.
Practice
A trick, scheme, or intrigue.
Policy
The settled method by which the government and affairs of a nation are, or may be, administered; a system of public or official administration, as designed to promote the external or internal prosperity of a state.
Practice
Repetition of an activity to improve a skill.
He will need lots of practice with the lines before he performs them.
Policy
The method by which any institution is administered; system of management; course.
Practice
An organized event for the purpose of performing such repetition.
Being on a team is hard: you're always having to go to practice while everyone else is taking it easy.
I have choir practice every Sunday after church.
Policy
Management or administration based on temporal or material interest, rather than on principles of equity or honor; hence, worldly wisdom; dexterity of management; cunning; stratagem.
Practice
The ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession, particularly in medicine or the fine arts.
Policy
Prudence or wisdom in the management of public and private affairs; wisdom; sagacity; wit.
The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him.
Practice
(countable) A place where a professional service is provided, such as a general practice.
She ran a thriving medical practice.
Policy
Motive; object; inducement.
What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury?
Practice
The observance of religious duties that a church requires of its members.
Policy
A ticket or warrant for money in the public funds.
Practice
A customary action, habit, or behaviour; a manner or routine.
It is the usual practice of employees there to wear neckties only when meeting with customers.
It is good practice to check each door and window before leaving.
Policy
The writing or instrument in which a contract of insurance is embodied; an instrument in writing containing the terms and conditions on which one party engages to indemnify another against loss arising from certain hazards, perils, or risks to which his person or property may be exposed. See Insurance.
Practice
Actual operation or experiment, in contrast to theory.
That may work in theory, but will it work in practice?
Policy
A method of gambling by betting as to what numbers will be drawn in a lottery; as, to play policy.
Practice
(legal) The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.
This firm of solicitors is involved in family law practice.
Policy
To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
Practice
Skilful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; stratagem; artifice.
Policy
A line of argument rationalizing the course of action of a government;
They debated the policy or impolicy of the proposed legislation
Practice
(math) A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.
Policy
A plan of action adopted by an individual or social group;
It was a policy of retribution
A politician keeps changing his policies
Practice
(US) practise
Practice
Frequently repeated or customary action; habitual performance; a succession of acts of a similar kind; usage; habit; custom; as, the practice of rising early; the practice of making regular entries of accounts; the practice of daily exercise.
A heart . . . exercised with covetous practices.
Practice
Customary or constant use; state of being used.
Obsolete words may be revived when they are more sounding or more significant than those in practice.
Practice
Skill or dexterity acquired by use; expertness.
Practice
Actual performance; application of knowledge; - opposed to theory.
There are two functions of the soul, - contemplation and practice.
There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice; each, to a certain extent, supposes the other; theory is dependent on practice; practice must have preceded theory.
Practice
Systematic exercise for instruction or discipline; as, the troops are called out for practice; she neglected practice in music.
Practice
Application of science to the wants of men; the exercise of any profession; professional business; as, the practice of medicine or law; a large or lucrative practice.
Practice is exercise of an art, or the application of a science in life, which application is itself an art.
Practice
Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; plot; - usually in a bad sense.
He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer.
Practice
A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.
Practice
The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.
Practice
To do or perform frequently, customarily, or habitually; to make a practice of; as, to practice gaming.
Practice
To exercise, or follow, as a profession, trade, art, etc., as, to practice law or medicine.
Practice
To exercise one's self in, for instruction or improvement, or to acquire discipline or dexterity; as, to practice gunnery; to practice music.
Practice
To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
As this advice ye practice or neglect.
Practice
To make use of; to employ.
In malice to this good knight's wife, I practiced Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.
Practice
To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practiced to love their neighbor.
Practice
To perform certain acts frequently or customarily, either for instruction, profit, or amusement; as, to practice with the broadsword or with the rifle; to practice on the piano.
Practice
To learn by practice; to form a habit.
They shall practice how to live secure.
Practice first over yourself to reign.
Practice
To try artifices or stratagems.
He will practice against thee by poison.
Practice
To apply theoretical science or knowledge, esp. by way of experiment; to exercise or pursue an employment or profession, esp. that of medicine or of law.
[I am] little inclined to practice on others, and as little that others should practice on me.
Practice
A customary way of operation or behavior;
It is their practice to give annual raises
They changed their dietary pattern
Practice
Systematic training by multiple repetitions;
Practice makes perfect
Practice
Translating an idea into action;
A hard theory to put into practice
Differences between theory and praxis of communism
Practice
The exercise of a profession;
The practice of the law
I took over his practice when he retired
Practice
Knowledge of how something is usually done;
It is not the local practice to wear shorts to dinner
Practice
Learn by repetition;
We drilled French verbs every day
Pianists practice scales
Practice
Avail oneself to;
Apply a principle
Practice a religion
Use care when going down the stairs
Use your common sense
Practice non-violent resistance
Practice
Carry out or practice; as of jobs and professions;
Practice law
Practice
Engage in a rehearsal (of)
Common Curiosities
What is practice?
Practice is the act of repeatedly performing an activity to improve or maintain one’s proficiency in a skill.
Can practices influence policy?
Yes, effective practices can inform and lead to the development of new policies.
What is a policy?
A policy is a set of guidelines or rules that governs the operations and decision-making processes within an organization or system.
How are policies developed?
Policies are developed through research, analysis, stakeholder consultation, and formal approval processes.
How do practices differ from policies?
Practices are focused on skill improvement through repetition, while policies are rules or guidelines designed to guide behavior and decision-making.
Why is practice important?
Practice is important for skill development, proficiency maintenance, and habit formation.
What role do policies play in an organization?
Policies provide a framework for consistent decision-making and behavior management within an organization.
How do organizations communicate policies?
Organizations communicate policies through official documents, training sessions, and internal communication channels.
Is practice always necessary for skill development?
Yes, consistent practice is essential for developing and improving skills.
Are policies applicable to everyone within an organization?
Yes, policies are generally applicable to all members of an organization to ensure fairness and consistency.
Can practices vary from person to person?
Yes, practices can vary widely based on individual goals, abilities, and preferences.
How do policies ensure compliance?
Policies ensure compliance through clear guidelines and the establishment of consequences for non-compliance.
Can policies change over time?
Yes, policies can be revised or updated based on new information, outcomes, or changes in context.
What is the impact of not following policies?
Not following policies can lead to disciplinary action, legal consequences, or other negative outcomes.
Can individual practices influence organizational policies?
Yes, individual or collective practices that prove effective can influence the development or revision of organizational policies.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
