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The Tradition Stall Thinking Let’s look at the most powerful
cause of complacency: the unquestioning certainty that nothing will change or
should be changed, which is brought on by repetition over many years and
possibly even generations. You will learn how to understand when tradition
should be challenged and abandoned for the good of the organization. Tradition: The Way It Was If It
Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It A motorist asks a farmer for a glass
of water. The farmer obliges, using a hand pump to draw water from a well. The
pump handle is close to a board and the farmer curses as he scrapes his knuckles
on it. Motorist: "Why not move that
board? It serves no purpose." Farmer: "It's been there since
my father's time. If it was good enough for him, it is good enough for me."
This answer seemed ridiculous, of
course. But the motorist later realized he too had long ignored a similar,
senseless tradition. His house had a large knob on the outside door that was too
close to the doorjamb. He usually twisted the handle to the right and cleared
the jamb. Occasionally, though, he twisted the knob to the left and scraped his
knuckles on the molding. The Level Playing Field As stalls of tradition go,
“knucklebumping” is small potatoes. But serious tradition stalls are
sometimes allowed to exist for decades, even centuries. For generations,
sawyers' helpers were blinded by sawdust. Manning the end of a two-handled
lumberman's saw, the helper worked at a lower level than his boss. The sawdust
floated down into the helper's eyes. The sawyers' helpers could have used
Frederick Taylor, who leveled a different playing field. Taylor, a pioneer in
measuring work processes, might have extended and improved many lives had he
lived hundreds of years ago. In fact, he did his experiments only
a century ago. After watching bricklayers routinely heave heavy materials above
their heads, Taylor used scaffolding to put man, brick, and mortar at optimum
levels for minimum effort by the workers. Until Taylor defied tradition,
bricklayers became crippled or disabled after a few years. With his new
approach, an able-bodied man could work the job for a lifetime. In the business world today,
employers are, in many ways, more attuned to workplace hazards. Most make
serious attempts to limit obvious hazards to life and limb. More insidious than
such hazards are the stalls that occur because a harmless tradition becomes
subverted due to circumstances that have changed markedly. The resulting
tradition stall may be more nuisance than travesty, but, even so, the stall can
lead to low morale, reduced production, and lower earnings. Consider the next
anecdote. Aping Human Beings Imagine a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string
and put stairs under it. Before long, so the story goes, an ape will go to the
stairs and start to climb toward the banana. As soon as it touches the stairs,
spray all the apes with cold water. After a while, another ape makes an attempt
with the same result: All the apes are sprayed with cold water. Do this repeatedly and then just watch when another ape later tries to climb
the stairs. The other apes will try to prevent it even though no water sprays
them. Now, remove one ape from the cage and replace it 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 attempt and attack, it knows that if it tries
to climb the stairs, it will be assaulted. Next, 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 takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm 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 have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? "Because that's the way it's always been around here." Sound familiar? |
