"We've Always Done It This Way"
Ants are among the oldest living animals on earth. With over 12,000 classified species and another 10,000 unclassified, it has been said that ants make up 10-15% of living, land dwelling life forms. In 1966, Harvard biologist, Edward Wilson, found fossils of an ant that lived around 92 million years ago, and other ant fossils have been found around Myanmar dating 99 million years old. Their group behaviors have been studied extensively, from small predatory groups, to colonies that number in the millions. What is most fascinating to scientists is their cooperation and problem solving abilities. Professor Wilson conducted a study on the behavior of ants that is particularly relevant to workplace behavior in humans. Not long after an ant dies, another ant will pick that ant up and carry it to the heap of other dead ants and toss it in. Professor Wilson wanted to study how it was decided that an ant needed to be taken to the heap so he studied fecal matter, fatty acids, and decomposition creating a nearly intolerable smell in his lab. Finally, it was determined that oleic acid is what a dead ant emits that other ants smell indicating that the source needs to be taken to the heap. In a cruel twist, Professor Wilson put a drop of oleic acid on a live ant and within minutes, an ant carried the live ant kicking and screaming to the heap and tossed it in. Every time the ant managed to escape and rejoin the colony, another ant carried it back to the heap until the ant was able to clean itself of the odor of death.
Ants don’t have the active senses of humans and don’t bother with checking for any other indicators before carrying out the task of disposing of the source of oleic acid. It is the way things have been done for centuries and no amount of evidence, even a live ant, can change this behavior. In the human workspace, the way things have always been done is just as automatic and resistant to change. Old, established ways of doing things are the way they are because they usually work, and people are comfortable with the process. Just as with anything else, times and challenges change, and so do skills, tools, and people. The way things are done may need to be updated from time to time to remain relevant, be more efficient with resources, and grow as an organization. Teams and organizations that refuse to change are usually, like that live ant, carried kicking and screaming to the heap. Commitment to outdated and inefficient practices will ensure one thing, failure.
We all remember Blockbuster video but for the uninitiated, in the 1980s if you wanted to watch a movie you had to go to a video rental store, pick one out, and return it in three days or pay a late fee. Blockbuster, founded in 1985, would dominate the video rental market. By 1987, Wayne Huizenga purchased it for $18.7 million and began to expand, opening a new store every day by 1988. In the early 1990s, Blockbuster added music and other ventures while planning on a Blockbuster theme park in Florida. In 1994, Viacom bought Blockbuster for $8 billion. Blockbuster was so focused on its own model that it ignored technology that was changing the video market led by Netflix and Redbox. Further, its late fees were sending customers running to these new vendors. Blockbuster dismissed Netflix and Redbox as passing fads, even refusing to purchase Netflix when the opportunity was presented by Netflix founder Reed Hastings. Eventually, the success at Netflix was undeniable but by the time Blockbuster launched its online website, it was losing millions annually and stores began to close. Its fall was so rapid that Blockbuster was making $5 billion a year including $800 million in late fees one year, and were $900 million in debt the next. Today there is only one store remaining, in Bend, Oregon, a store that keeps its doors open so travelers can ‘reminisce’ about old times.
“We’ve always done it this way” is an effort to lean into comfort, we all do it in one area or another. The only way to grow is to lean into discomfort from time to time. Remaining focused on your own comfort will cost your team and the organization in the long run. Staying in tune with the customer is a better investment. A popular business meme goes like this, “Not being customer centric is the biggest threat to any organization.” All the one ant had to do was look at the other ant to see that it was not dead and should not be placed on the heap. Netflix was founded because Reed Hastings did not want to pay a $40 late fee he owed to Blockbuster. Multiply that until you get to $800 million to get the number of frustrated and ignored customers who walked away from Blockbuster. Ultimately, Netflix endured, Blockbuster is irrelevant. When things need to be changed don’t be blinded by habit or money, make the change.
Culture eats structure for breakfast, if change isn’t managed correctly, you could find yourself carried kicking and screaming to the heap. Evaluate what needs to be changed, base your recommendations on objective information such as data, laws, or other information that people understand. Most people know that the way we do things need to change and they will be willing to pivot as long as it can be done without offending what they’ve been doing. Unhappy customers, ineffective procedures, newer technology make solid foundations for change. Some people may operate without regard for other information but they shouldn’t be made to feel like an ant because they don’t see it yet. Yes, that means changing what is obvious to you may take longer than you'd like it to. Change is an opportunity to teach and learn, approach it as if their growth makes all the difference. It does. People carry out the processes and procedures, the better they do their work, the better the team and organization does. Confront the way things have been done, develop your team, and SOAR!
William A. Brown
January 10, 2020
'Hey I'm Dead!' The Story Of The Very Lively Ant : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR
Council Post: The Most Dangerous Phrase In Business: We've Always Done It This Way (forbes.com)
How Blockbuster went from dominating the video business to bankruptcy - Business Insider
A Look Back At Why Blockbuster Really Failed And Why It Didn't Have To (forbes.com)