We've Always done it that Way
AJ Jenkins FISM
Autodesk Sales Leader | Driving Growth with C Level Selling | Mentor | The Candid Seller
Sometimes there's a better way. If having children has taught me anything (and it's taught me a lot), it's to not get annoyed at all the questions from the inquisitive youngsters.
Preface: I’ve stolen this from another post I copied earlier but I cannot find the original post to go back and share or give credit. My apologies and thanks for sharing.
A military regiment had a new CO. On inspection he saw two soldiers guard a bench. He asked for the reason.
"We don't know, Sir. The last CO told us to do so. It is a regimental tradition."
The CO searched for the phone number of the last commander. He called him and got the reply.
"I don't know. The previous commander had the guards. I kept the tradition."
?He went back to another three COs until he located an 80 year old retired General.
"Excuse me, Sir, I'm now the CO of your regiment which you commanded 50 years ago. I find two men assigned to guard a bench. Could you please tell me about the bench?" ...
Retired General, "What? Is the paint still wet?"
Too often we hear “we’ve always done it that way”. And that’s fine. Asking why is it ‘done that way?’ will normally start to unpick the situation and open the door to change. Some of my best customer conversations have started by asking 'why?'.
Within your organisation though, those situations can be political and slightly more difficult. I’ve been in situations where challenging the status quo has seen people branded ‘difficult’ or not a 'team' player.
Some (not all) of these people are what Adam Grant might categorise as ‘disagreeable givers’. In Adam’s book ‘Give and Take’ (definitely worth a read) he states:
“Disagreeable givers are the most undervalued people in our organizations, because they're the ones who give the critical feedback that no one wants to hear but everyone needs to hear.”
So next time someone questions why we're doing it this way, best not to dismiss them. At the very least, they're seeking clarification, but if the answer is 'it's always been done that way', maybe we need to rethink how we're doing it?
Associate at Gebler Tooth Architects BA (hons) FRSA
4 年Einstien set a question to his students one year, the exact same question he set the year before. The students with incredulity asked why he would set a question that had already been answered. He said things have changed since then, so this same question may produce a different result. Not necessarily a contradiction of the opening statement on this post, but it is worth pondering that as things change and mutate it may be that doing the same thing is not the problem, it is in expecting the same result.