Corporate Déjà Vu: “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
By Alexander Lyon, Ph.D.
I worked at an organization that had a bad case of corporate déjà vu. Conversations went like this. “What training should we offer this year?” “Let’s look at last year’s training schedule and use that as a template.” “But, people didn’t really like last year’s training.” “Listen, time is short. We just have to get on with it.” We convinced ourselves that we were a state-of-the-art organization. Yet, we just did the same things over and over again without any reflection on our effectiveness.
Conversations like these signal the slow death of innovation and progress. Often, we do things simply because, “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
We adjust ourselves to inefficient, clumsy, or ineffective practices to the point where they seem normal and rational. When we were first hired, many of these practices seemed strange to us. Over time, however, we learned to see them as the only right way to do things.
The problem with this mindset should be self-evident. The things that worked yesterday may not solve today’s problems. We can develop mental blind spots and fail to see opportunities to improve. To move forward, innovate, and progress, we must get out of our rut and try genuinely new things.
Here are a few overlapping and simple ways to avoid “the way we’ve always done it.”
1) We can attempt to look at situations with fresh or “strange eyes.” We should deliberately try to see things as a new employee would. New hires have naturally strange eyes. They haven’t gotten used to our awkward processes. Better yet, we can just ask a new employee or two directly about processes that don’t make sense to them.
2) We can visualize that we’re not bound by the past at all. How would we change our work processes if we had to invent it from scratch?
3) Ask somebody outside of your department or entire organization how they would approach a situation. Tell them enough to get their help, but don’t tell them so much that you frame or restrict the way they see things. The point is to get a genuinely new perspective.
Of course, not all tradition is bad. To the contrary, remembering where we came from and how we got here can be very inspiring. Tradition is not the issue. The issue is a déjà vu mindset that repeats outdated practices as if they were still timely ideas.
Dr. Alexander Lyon is professional speaker and can be reached via www.alexanderlyon.com
By Alexander Lyon, Ph.D.
I worked at an organization that had a bad case of corporate déjà vu. Conversations went like this. “What training should we offer this year?” “Let’s look at last year’s training schedule and use that as a template.” “But, people didn’t really like last year’s training.” “Listen, time is short. We just have to get on with it.” We convinced ourselves that we were a state-of-the-art organization. Yet, we just did the same things over and over again without any reflection on our effectiveness.
Conversations like these signal the slow death of innovation and progress. Often, we do things simply because, “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
We adjust ourselves to inefficient, clumsy, or ineffective practices to the point where they seem normal and rational. When we were first hired, many of these practices seemed strange to us. Over time, however, we learned to see them as the only right way to do things.
The problem with this mindset should be self-evident. The things that worked yesterday may not solve today’s problems. We can develop mental blind spots and fail to see opportunities to improve. To move forward, innovate, and progress, we must get out of our rut and try genuinely new things.
Here are a few overlapping and simple ways to avoid “the way we’ve always done it.”
1) We can attempt to look at situations with fresh or “strange eyes.” We should deliberately try to see things as a new employee would. New hires have naturally strange eyes. They haven’t gotten used to our awkward processes. Better yet, we can just ask a new employee or two directly about processes that don’t make sense to them.
2) We can visualize that we’re not bound by the past at all. How would we change our work processes if we had to invent it from scratch?
3) Ask somebody outside of your department or entire organization how they would approach a situation. Tell them enough to get their help, but don’t tell them so much that you frame or restrict the way they see things. The point is to get a genuinely new perspective.
Of course, not all tradition is bad. To the contrary, remembering where we came from and how we got here can be very inspiring. Tradition is not the issue. The issue is a déjà vu mindset that repeats outdated practices as if they were still timely ideas.
Dr. Alexander Lyon is professional speaker and can be reached via www.alexanderlyon.com
