Abandoning How Things Have Always Been Done

“That’s how it’s always been done.”

Of all the things someone might say to me, this phrase has the potential to drive me over the metaphorical edge. This is especially true when “how it’s always been done” is used as justification for not entertaining change. In other words, I don’t mind hearing the phrase as a statement of fact; I do mind hearing it as a supposedly reasonable defense of the status quo. It’s not.

“That’s how it’s always been done” feels lazy to me. When someone uses this phrase, it tells me that the person doesn’t actually know the reason for a particular rule, process or circumstance. It also tells me that they’re not in any way invested in either finding the reason or changing the process. They’re content (if not happy) to just keep doing what’s always been done. The challenge for me lies in the well-known definition of insanity: doing what you’ve always done and expecting different results. 

Recently I’ve found myself working with a few groups where I’ve had to challenge the way things have always been done. Some would argue – and have – that if something isn’t broken there’s no need to fix it. Believe it or not, I agree. To a point. While it’s true that you don’t need to fix something that isn’t broken, it’s equally true that things can require attention and or tweaking before they actually break. Leaning on explanations like those of “we’ve always done it this way” gets in the way of such necessary and timely tweaking.

There’s a story I heard once of a person who was prepping a ham for dinner, and she sliced off each end before putting it in the pan. When their child asked why they cut off the ends, the answer was “I don’t know, that’s just how I was taught to do it; Mom always did it this way.” The child decided to find out why. 

Mom said, “I don’t know, I’ve always done it this way; that’s just how Grandpa did it.”

Grandpa said. “I don’t know, that’s just how I’ve always done it; my Aunt did it this way.”The Aunt said, I don’t know, I’ve always done it this way; that’s how my cousin did it.”

Finally, the cousin’s answer provided a more concrete rationale: “I always had to cut the ends to make the ham fit in the pan.”

In other words, the original rationale made sense. There was a practical, logical, meaningful reason for cutting off the ends of the ham. And, that reason no longer applied. Which meant that folks could actually leave the ends on the ham, or they could continue to cut them off knowing what the actual reason was. 

Changing a rule or process requires a couple of things. It requires folks to be open to the idea of “new”. It requires a willingness to understand the rationale for a new approach. It likely will require a bit of discomfort as folks adjust to doing things differently. But if the old way isn’t serving the desired outcome, then it’s imperative that change be implemented BEFORE things actually break, in spite of the discomfort. 

Any time you can address things in the “this needs tweaking” phase as opposed to waiting for things to actually break, you save yourself the experience of being in crisis mode. Staying with a flawed system just to avoid the discomfort of change doesn’t really serve you or anyone well. Stop doing things a certain way just because “it’s always been done this way”. Get curious about what needs to be changed, what might be possible with a different way. Sometimes, a break from “the way it’s always been” is actually what’s needed rather than maintaining the status quo.