The Worst Reason for Doing Something

There are many reasons why we do what we do but the poorest of them has got to be, "Because that is the way we always do it."  If that was a good reason for doing things we would still be lighting fires by rubbing two sticks together!

Saying you are doing something because you always do it is the feeblest justification I can think of and yet it is the one I hear most often.  I was having a haircut the other day and I was in a hurry. I wash my hair every morning and therefore was a little irritated that time I didn’t really have was being wasted washing it again. I asked the hairdresser if was necessary to wash someone’s hair before cutting it. "I don't know," came the reply. "That's the way we always do it."

Even well qualified professionals are guilty of using this reasoning. I asked a professional engineer who quoted on doing some work for me why his quote was exclusive of GST when things sold to consumers always include GST. "I don't know," he said. "That's the way we always do it."

For more than two decades we have recognized we live in a rapidly changing world where change is the only constant. For many years it has become accepted wisdom that what worked for us yesterday might make little difference today and could be the cause of our downfall tomorrow.  Yet we persist on doing the things we have always done.  If that was not bad enough, we continue doing them without questioning why we are doing them.

What do you do because you have always done it? Is it still worth doing? If so, can we give the customer a better reason for doing it than: “That’s the way we always do it?”