Continuous improvement. Every leader wants it, yet most businesses believe they’re improving when they’re just doing business the way they’ve always done them. And this is where decay starts. Innovation has many enemies. One of them is an aversion to change. This plays out in an organization when people say “That’s the way we’ve always done it”.

Late last year I helped a food processing business improve their processes to be more efficient; they were losing between $5 – $10k per day because of inefficiencies. This is a small operation (+100 people), but losing that amount of money per day is an eyesore for any type of business.

There were various reasons for their inefficiencies, but two were critical: communication with personnel and doing things the way they’ve always done them.

To help solve their challenge, I mapped out their processes and questioned every single step in their process. Asking questions, such as:

• Why is this step necessary?
• How might we shorten this step?
• What if we remove this step?
• How might this step look like with one less person?
• How might we standardize repetitive tasks that take time to set up?
• Are there any steps in the process that you feel could be eliminated or combined without compromising quality or safety?
• Why do you do it this way?

And so on.

Of course, some people didn’t like an outsider coming in to challenge the way they do things. During these conversations, I heard “But we’ve always done it this way” more times than I can count. And, this is exactly where it starts. Practices that worked before won’t always work forever; to improve dramatically you have to change, you have to experiment.

People become numb when they keep doing the same thing they’ve always done, and act mindlessly.

I relayed a story similar to the one below to the management team:

Imagine you have a cool toy train that goes around a track the same way every time. You love making it zoom and whizz, but it gets a little boring after a while, right? You might see a new track in the toy store with tunnels and bridges, and it looks like SO much more fun! But maybe your friend says, “Nah, let’s just play with the old track, we know how it works.”

That’s kind of like what happens in workplaces sometimes. People get used to doing things the same way, even if it’s not the best way anymore. They say things like, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” like playing with the same boring train track every day.

This “always done it this way” feeling is an enemy of innovation, which is like discovering new and exciting ways to play with your train! New ideas and inventions might seem scary because they’re different, just like the new track with tunnels. But just like trying the new track can make playtime even more awesome, trying new things at work can make everything better and more efficient!

So, next time you hear someone say “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” remember the cool new train track and how much fun it could be to try something different!

This business could’ve solved its challenges if its leaders had developed a culture of continuous improvement that encouraged challenging the status quo, but they didn’t. And just like this business, many others operate the same way they always have which eventually leads to loss of time and money.

It’s difficult to make changes, to improve, when an organization has always operated the same way. People will fight for the status quo even when the changes will make work life better. But change is the only constant, and you either push for it or it will push you when it’s too late.

Bottom line: For things to change somebody has to start thinking and acting differently. You either drive improvement, or your business will start decaying before your eyes.