INTRODUCTION
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
A motorist asks a farmer for a glass of water. The farmer
obliges, using a hand pump to draw water from a well. The
pump handle turns close to a board, and the farmer curses
as he scrapes his knuckles against it.
Motorist: Why not move that board? It serves no purpose.
Farmer: It’s been there since my father’s time. If it was
good enough for him, it is good enough for me.
Aping Human Beings
Imagine a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a
banana on a string over some stairs. Before long, as the
story goes, an ape will decide to go up the stairs to grab
the banana. As soon as that ape touches the stairs, spray
all the apes with cold water. After awhile, another ape
will approach the stairs with the same result: All the apes
are sprayed with cold water. Do this repeatedly and then
just watch when another ape tries to climb the stairs. The
other apes will try to prevent the ape’s attempt, even
though no cold water is sprayed on them.
Next remove one ape from the cage and replace that ape with
a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb
the stairs. To its horror, all of the other apes attack.
After another thwarted attempt, the new ape knows that if
it tries to climb the stairs, it will be assaulted. Now
remove another of the original five apes and replace it
with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is
attacked. The previous newcomer enthusiastically takes part
in the punishment although it has no idea why it was not
permitted to climb the stairs.
After replacing the third, fourth, and fifth original apes,
all the apes that had been sprayed with cold water are gone
from the cage. Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches
the stairs.
Why not? ‘Because that the way it’s always been around
here.’ Sound familiar?
TRADITIONAL WAYS TO TOE THE LINE
The Pecking-Order Tradition: ‘ After You, Alphonse ‘
In most organizations, decisions have to follow a certain
pathway. Someone who needs a decision begins the process by
asking his or her boss. The boss asks her or his boss. This
process continues until someone has the authority and wants
to decide. When the decision is finally made, communicating
the answer has to follow the same path in reverse down
through the organizational pathway. Nothing has changed
about this process since the days of feudal kings and their
lords. But is this the fastest way to make progress? Hardly.
The Hazing Tradition: Get Down!
Organizations don’t like to allow newcomers to become part
of the group until the new people are put through some
ridiculous initiation that had humbled the organization’s
veterans. Having humiliating experiences in common makes
everyone feel more comfortable with one another. The apes
in the cage would recognize the process.
The Slow Walking Tradition: Take the Tour
Few people like it when pressure is put on them. To avoid
that pressure, many people will pretend to be at full
effectiveness ‘ while working well below their
self-perceived potential. When the big bosses arrive for an
inspection, those who host the visitors will take the big
brass on a long, slow tour designed to demonstrate that
everyone is fully and effectively engaged. Every stop will
have been rehearsed for weeks in advance, and everything
will be perfect.
This tradition has been around for a long time. During a
famine, Catherine the Great took a tour of Russia to see
how the peasants were doing. A prosperous-appearing village
was erected along the banks of the river just before her
arrival. That night, the village was disassembled and
transported down river to be erected again for viewing by
the Czarina the next day in a new location.
The Time-Is-Money Tradition: How Much Is This Conversation
Going to Cost Me?
Many organizations run themselves to be cost efficient.
With stop watches and clipboards in hand, cost analysts
ensure that activities not earning an adequate profit are
ruthlessly slashed. In this way, profits are increased. Or
are they? Sometimes the effects of the cost cutting
actually harm profits.
Here’s an example: There’s no profit in taking back
unsatisfactory products. Stores will put as few people as
possible working on this task. There may be 30 customers in
the store and 19 of them will be in line to return items
while a single clerk works as slowly as possible. But wait
in too many of these long lines and customers will buy
somewhere else ‘ where the return lines aren’t so long. A
lost customer can cost a company thousands in profits.
Sometimes that short-term cutting focus is the wrong way to
look at things.
The Isolation Tradition: Solitary Confinement for Learning
Development
Most organizations are reluctant to credit innovations and
ideas that have prospered in other organizations. Engineers
often like to refer skeptically to the sloppy work that
everyone else does. Ironically, this approach is more often
known as the ‘Not Invented Here’ Syndrome that almost
always means falling behind the competition because
everything ‘Not Invented Here’ is shunned.
The Inertia Tradition: Millwork Is My Trade
In 1848, gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in northern
California. There were literally large nuggets sitting in
the river beds that could be picked up by the handful. Five
minutes’ labor would pay for a week’s expenses. Sutter lost
his business as a result. He kept trying to earn money with
his sawmill while workers quit to carry off fortunes in
gold. Similarly, many organizations focus on their past
activities rather than grasping the great potential of the
present.
STALL ERASERS
Many people find it hard to challenge their old ways of
doing business, especially when stalled by tradition. Here
are some examples of how leaders have been able to erase
harmful traditions:
‘ Pretend to be a new management team that has been asked
to turn around the problems brought about by the prior
management’s complacency.
‘ Take the least productive tasks you do now and delegate
them to someone else who will do them well and appreciate
the opportunity. Encourage that person to delegate her or
his least productive tasks in the same way. And so on.
‘ If the methods you’ve been using don’t work, begin
controlled experiments to test all other ways even ways
that call for reversing your direction.
‘ Turn the best performer’s approach into a simple process
that those with no experience can duplicate through
automated promptings.
‘ Make it easy and quick for customers to solve the
problems they encounter. Assume customers will behave
honestly if that can help speed up and ease problems.
They’ll reward you with continual word-of-mouth praise and
increased loyalty.
STALLBUSTERS
Identify Your Organization’s Traditions and Their Original
Purposes
Most traditions start with a purpose, but others start by
accident. Before changing something, you should find out if
the tradition still serves some useful purpose by asking
the following questions:
‘ What traditions does the organization have that slow down
or increase the cost of accomplishing important results?
‘ What benefits do these traditions provide?
‘ What values were intended to be served by the traditions?
‘ What problems are created by the traditions?
Identify Empowering Traditions You Can Use to Improve
Performance
Traditions are powerful management tools for reinforcing
good habits. People are more willing to abandon their own
traditions when they learn that another organization’s
different traditions have led to high performance.
‘ What traditions do other organizations have that speed up
progress, improve the results, and effectively reduce
costs?
‘ Which of these traditions are consistent with your
organization’s values?
‘ How could the traditions be made more consistent with and
supportive of your organization’s values?
‘ Which aspects of these traditions are exciting and fun
for people in your organization?
Establish New or Amended Traditions
What aspects of your organization do you want to have
operating on automatic pilot for all employees? One of the
best examples of automatic response is a tradition at
Ritz-Carlton hotels. Whenever an employee notices or is
told by a guest about a problem, he or she has the
responsibility to fix the problem immediately. That
tradition ensures that guests receive quick, courteous
solutions while feeling encouraged to bring problems to the
staff’s attention. Higher guest satisfaction and loyalty
follow from that tradition.
To create or change traditions in your organization, ask
the following questions:
‘ What are the three most useful traditions your
organization could have?
‘ How can the new traditions be established so that
everyone will be delighted?
‘ How can you combine elements of existing traditions with
useful elements of these new traditions?
‘ What has been the best way that your organization has
previously launched traditions?
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
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Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Portable 2,000
Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook.
You can read about his work on improving effectiveness at:
http://www.2000percentsolution.com .
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