Enemies of Change

My 2 least favorite phrases in business

Phrase #1: 'We have always done it like that'

Phrase #2: 'We tried that before and it didn't work'

Let me opine on both phrases:

Phrase #1: Frankly anyone who utters these words in a business context should be fired immediately and blacklisted so they never hold a rank from junior management upwards. Period.

Phrase #2: This is a more interesting and more deadly mantra, seeming innocence shades its perniciousness. The idea that best efforts have been made to change something, that cannot be realistically changed. I hear this sentence in business much more than phrase #1. Those who utter these evil words span all hierarchies of an organization and unfortunately are often successful and influential.

It is the strongest form of resistance based on experience; it is not merely a theory, prejudice or ignorance that something won't work, you have rolled up your sleeves and got covered in the dirt and scars that simply prove this is the wrong approach.

Phrase #1 is the shield of the weak and powerless, Phrase #2 is the wrought iron intransigent defense of the powerful.

Yet phrase #2 is equally ridiculous. If the right thing has failed in the past, there is always a better way to implement it. Things move fast, what did not work a year or two ago may well work now.

Before you start the witch hunt to oust those who have uttered phrase #1, consider are you that even more dangerous enemy to change who has uttered phrase #2?