Make Breakthroughs By Creating A Culture Of Helpful Traditions
Topics: corporate culture, culture, performance, habits, stalls, stallbusting, profit, breakthrough
Making breakthroughs requires you to stop doing things that waste time and resources. Tradition often binds us into keeping harmful habits. Check to see if you or your organization are following any of these practices.
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
A newly wed couple are making their first roast beef dinner. The wife quickly cuts off both ends of the roast beef and prepares to throw them away. Her husband complains: The ends are his favorite part.
The wife explains that her mother always cut off the ends. Why? She doesn’t know.
They call the wife’s mother and ask her why she cut off the ends. The mother explains that her mother always did that, but she doesn’t know why.
The couple then call the grandmother. She laughs and explains that her pot was too small to put a whole roast beef into, and she made a beef salad with the ends.
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?
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.
List Your Harmful Traditions
It’s not enough to laugh at others who make large mistakes. You need to identify which traditions hold back you and your organization. If you jot those down now, you’ll have taken a helpful first step in eliminating those harmful traditions.
Donald Mitchell is coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions by registering for free at
Previous Articles Highlighter:
Who Is In Control? The Dog Or The Owner? (1)
Play games with your dog that encourage cooperative behavior. Fetch is a great example. When you throw a ball or stick for your dog to retrieve, the game can only continue if the dog brings the object back to you.
The Economics Of Vice Tax (2)
It is a bizarre phenomenon that products can have such an artificially high value and yet survive in the marketplace, although the economic explanation for this is clear. One major problem with vice taxes is that they are indirectly regressive, that is to say they affect poorer segments of the population more than the richer segments.
Why Leasing Your Next Car Makes Better Sense Than Buying One! (3)
Or finally they can just choose to hand the car back to the dealer and start again. So hopefully over the coming years more and more private individuals will keep the majority of their hard earned savings in the bank or invest in property, but never should they look to 'Buy' their next new car.
Success In Wholesale General Merchandise Markets - Boom! (4)
There are also specialized niches that have devoted followers. Some specialize niches include dog breeders, postcards, designer handbags, rock climbers, movie memorabilia and extreme sports. Check out niche magazines and you will discover the spending habits of the loyal niche buyers.
How To Choose The Right Golf Wedge (5)
This is the reason why golf wedges are offered in degrees that vary from 47 to 64 degrees in order to better cater to surface conditions, as well as the distance and angle required to reach that distance.
A Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Reorganizes Debt, Stuctures Payments (6)
It is best to have a bankruptcy attorney reviews the various guidelines and requirements before trying to make any type of changes to a Chapter 13 plan. Any type of change to a filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy means that the debtor must return to the court and this step can be both stressful and expensive.
Online High School: The Benefits Of Earning Your Diploma From Home (7)
Is there any solution to this problem then? How can you earn your diploma in a more convenient, more flexible way? Yes, the online programs have made it possible.
5 Simple Steps To Join The EBay Affiliate Program (8)
For success with the eBay affiliate program, we recommend that you grow your affiliate websites empire by creating as many websites as you can. And since eBay offers every imaginable product, this allows you to easily choose your niche or products to promote.
How To Find The Best Cell Phone Choices For Today's Kids (9)
The Cingular Firefly has been a best-selling kids' phone for awhile now. It is a simple phone for kids to use. It has been designed with kids aged five years and up in mind.
Surf And Turf: Products For Your Pool And Patio (10)
Charcoal, like wood, imparts the flavor from the smoke it produces. Charcoal and wood are often combined in the grill to do this. It's debatable what type of smoke create the flavor, white smoke or the thin blue smoke, but some will use water to create a thicker smoke or use a smoker separately for a deeper taste.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Golf Driving Tips To Help You Hit The Ball Farther (1)
This will help to get the club on the right plane for the downswing and will also help to create more lag. It is important to be effective with your wedges and short irons first before you try to master the driver.
Why Oprah Came To Town And Cried (2)
Tears streaming down her face, she congratulated him on his mlm success. She thanked him for so much positive change in the community. She also thanked him for helping to bring the world's other problems to light.
Why Using Business Invoice Software Is A Great Investment (3)
You can also set proper remainders by basing on your requirements. These remainders will normally be set by the users of the business invoice software as requested by the top management.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (4)
Yep, for every $0.60 spent advertising elsewhere on any other medium by any company, $0.40 is being spent online through Pay-Per-Click. No prizes for figuring that this is big business.
6 Steps To An "Altitude Adjustment" (5)
If however your attitude was different, you might get the cheapest education of your life. By being curious about how people achieve their success, you might discover how their choices, decisions and strategies determine their success.
Out Of Pocket - Collecting Pocket Knives (6)
Caution and skepticism should be your tools when beginning and maintaining your collection of pocket knives, but they should not ruin your enjoyment of this fascinating hobby. William "Cole" Doggett is a knife expert and owns an Internet knife shop, Knife & Supply Company, LLC at www.KnifeSupplyCompany.com.
Transportation Used For Going Back To School (7)
In the suburban areas of the cities, the transportation used for going back to school could be as elaborate as a huge off the road vehicle or the old truck that the father has driven for many years back and forth to work.
Top 7 Mistakes Network Marketers Make (8)
If the prospect thinks that he is a rare gem, and the distributor is in dire need of them, it will make it seem as though it is difficult to sponsor others.
Making Your Business More Profitable (9)
Just as building your business took effort and focus, maintaining business performance and solid profits takes just as much effort throughout your venture. Whatever is necessary must be done to succeed.
The Top 8 Time Management Tips For Home Business Success (10)
#7 - Clean Your Act Up: While you don't need to vacuum and dust your office everyday it is important that you keep your desk clean and your papers filled before you call it a day.
Permalink to Make Breakthroughs By Creating A Culture Of Helpful Traditions