Old and Unimproved

Old and Unimproved.

For those of you unfortunate enough to not be Scottish – this is Irn-Bru. It is more than a soft drink. It is more than an iconic brand. It is part of the national identity of Scotland.

Outselling Coke and Pepsi for over a century with a recipe known only to 3 members of the Barr family, Irn-Bru is as Scottish as whisky, kilts, and bagpipes. People actually get excited when Barr's drops a new (usually very cheeky) ad for Irn-Bru. One ad during the recent European Soccer championships was shared online over a million times in a country of only 5 million people. You can find the Irn-Bru ad discussing the merits of the German and Scottish soccer teams or their “mannschaft” (as it is in German) here.

In 2018 a new sugar tax led to a change in recipe of this national institution.

It did not go over well.

So Barr's released the “OLD AND UNIMPROVED” edition of Irn-Bru. The, almost as good, new formula is still available at regular prices and is fine to wash down a kebab and chips or for its almost mythical status as the greatest hangover cure on the planet.

But sometimes you need the good stuff.

Sometimes that 100+ years of perfecting the recipe is just worth it. Sometimes you want it to be just exactly right.

At work, I don’t think I have lived through a single year that was not “the year of change” or where a new tool or technology was about to “revolutionize everything”. Electronic medical charting, CRM systems, handheld charting, voice to text, telehealth, the Wii (really, we thought it would change PT rehab forever), and of course AI.

So what remains old and unimproved?

How we treat people for a start.

No amount of training, management speak in the newest and greatest vocabulary, or fancy technology will ever take the place of sincere compassion for others. New tools and new ideas are great – but without humans making them go they are not worth a lot. Those humans need to have some old and unimproved traits in how they treat others.

Less obviously, sometimes we did things a certain way for years without changing it because – it worked! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it – if you need to change something make sure you know why and not just that EVERYONE is doing it or the salesperson showed you the shiny new flashing lights. ?

When my grandad worked in the mines as an engineer he told me that he used to have to go to the old guys every day to ask how to solve a problem. Over the years he went to them less and less often. A young engineer came to him with a question he didn’t know the answer to and so off he set in search of one of the “old guys”. He quickly realized – he was now the oldest 'old guy'. So they went and figured it out together.

That experience that only comes from dealing with crazy once in a decade situations is invaluable. At worst the old guy is the “break glass in case of emergency” chap who isn’t going to let a silly thing like a pandemic fluster them. At best, those decades of figuring it out and seeing what works and what doesn’t give them the ability to improvise and create in ways that someone without their experience would never dream of.

We need the smart young people. No project team I lead will EVER neglect to include a diverse range of age, background, and position (You must have a frontline person on every team).

We need those new eyes.

We need the new and the brilliant.

We need the old and unimproved too.

People who can help you avoid the hole they fell in a few years ago.

People who can tell you three things that worked and three that didn’t the last time they encountered this.

People who have seen new and shiny come and go a dozen times and understand that what counts is how you treat people and how you keep learning. ?

Sometimes – that “old and unimproved” on the label?

Means that what is inside is EXACTLY what you need.