Is the Alure of the Status Quo Holding You Back?

by Dave Kahle

I am in the middle of a sales manager’s training class. Inevitably, as we methodically examine the best practices of effective sales managers, someone is going to comment, “We do it like this……” and then dismiss everything we’ve just discussed.

     It doesn’t matter if the process we are discussing has been proven to be more effective, or that it is the result of some dedicated people studying the issue.  “We do it like this….” ends the conversation.

           That knee-jerk reaction is understandable.  While, in my case, the issue is a best practice for a sales manager, the issue is larger and more common than this narrow application.

     Whenever we confront a process, tactic, strategy or tool that is more effective — whether it is our personal life or our business structure – our knee jerk reaction is often the same: Find a reason to dismiss the change and thus absolve yourself of the responsibility to do it better. 

     The status quo is comfortable. When we consider changing it, our hearts pump harder, our palms become a bit sweatier while our heads search for multiple reasons why it will never work and shouldn’t be considered.

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           Is the status quo automatically better than a well-researched, well thought-out, proven process that will cause you to change your behavior in order to get better results?  Just because something is, doesn’t mean that it should be.

           How did that current process or practice come to be?  I have worked with hundreds of businesses and found that very few processes and practices were put in place by a team of the best people strategically defining a process to get the best results. 

           The reality is that the current position was probably put in place sometime in the undefined past, by people unknown, probably to address a crises situation.  It got repeated and eventually codified into routines that eventually manifest as “We do it this way….”  Most of the practices and procedures are there because they are there, not because they were strategically designed.

           So, why then is it so common to out-of-hand reject a change in routines without even considering the consequences? I suspect that the majority of humankind fears change and shuns the investment of energy and ego... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE