“But that’s the way we’ve always done it,” the Boss said.
So I shut my mouth.
But I shouldn’t have. I should have pushed for the change I knew we needed.
You’ve probably had that exact same moment: someone on your team says “but it’s always been this way!” and argues that what worked before will work now, and we default to doing what we know, what’s easy, and what we’ve done before.
In our research, a whopping 68% of people agreed that it’s easier for an organization to stick to “the plan” than it is to change their plan. That means more than 2/3 of working Americans think that the organizations they’ve worked for aren’t very adaptable.
Why are companies so stuck?
Organizations tend to believe completing the strategic plan is their #1 priority no matter what. They pour their resources (time, money, employee talents) into completing initiatives that may have been set months or even years earlier!
But what if the landscape has changed since the strategic plan was written? What if the priorities set several years ago shouldn’t be the priorities anymore?
Chasing yesterday’s goals is a trap many companies (and people!) fall into.
By prioritizing perseverance over change, we’re keeping our organizations stuck. If your organization finds it easier to persevere in their plans than it does to pivot (and most of them do!), then it’s going to be hard to adapt to change.
Let’s stop working harder to reach our goals, and start working smarter. Let’s not keep doing things “the way we’ve always done it,” but innovate new ways to do the things that need to be done the most. THAT’S how we reach success!
Is your company one of the 68% that prefers persevering over pivoting?
