"We've always done it that way."

"We've always done it that way."  That phrase remains on my list of the top five worst things someone can say at my company.  It often indicates that the person didn't try and improve upon the past effort.  They were given an assignment, looked to see how it was handled in the past and repeated the effort without giving it much thought.  

"We've always done it that way" is the opposite of "continuous improvement."  We've always done it that way can indicate that people have stopped thinking.  They stopped thinking because it is far safer to simply follow what was done before.  How can you get in trouble or lose your job, if your defense is, "We've always done it that way"?  I just followed what everyone had done and approved before me.

To break from what was done in the past means you need to take risks and try something new.  Breaking from the past means you need to stand up and proclaim to the organization that you can improve upon the past effort.  And that involves risk as your new effort may fall short.  

Direct marketers have a unique way of looking at prior successful advertising efforts.  They call the past effort the "control."  And when they have a new advertising idea they think is better than the control they create a "test" and mail an appropriate number of pieces so they can statistically measure against the "control" and determine a winner.  It is against direct marketers set of unwritten rules to simply proclaim their new idea will be better and throw out the control and roll out the new idea, without first testing it.  I have seen new creative I'm certain will beat the control and it does not.  You most often never know until you test statistically.

But in day-to-day organizational operations, if you have a new idea and you think it is better, you go for it and implement the change.  Much like new Coke did with what eventually became new Coke.  Everybody agreed the new Coke tasted better so why wouldn't they change it?   As you can see the whole process becomes complicated.  As complicated as it can become, it is far better to keep trying to change and improve, then to simply put your head down and blindly follow what was done before.

Chances are you will never achieve greatness if you stay with the old way, especially if the old way didn't set the world on fire.  So take a chance and step outside of your comfort zone and when you are given an old project to run anew, ask how you can make it better.  And sometimes you need to be like direct marketers and test it before you change it.  And sometimes the change idea is so superior you simply need to do it.  It's complicated baby.  If it were easy it wouldn't be as much fun and we'd simply continue doing it the way we've always done it.