This article is about businesses' - probably inadvertent - resistance to change, even when faced with clear evidence that change is necessary. I should say that this tendency is very human, but that doesn't mean it is always best.

Far from it.

Would you agree that most companies you come across would happily describe themselves as customer-focused, agile, innovative and nimble?

Yet, I find that many are anything but.

In my experience, many tend to abide by the 7 most dangerous words in business: "We have always done it this way."

Many tend to abide by the 7 most dangerous words in business: "We have always done it this way."

Let's face it, there is clearly comfort in doing what feels familiar, while there is always inherent risk (whether it is just perceived risk or real risk) in trying something new and different. Yet, as a matter of fact, there is real risk in not changing. As evidence, just consider the now classic textbook case of Kodak.

This is short-term thinking.

Are you guilty of it?

So, how do you spot this bias towards maintaining the status quo in yourself, in your business, or in your customers' organizations?

The Six Biases

Here are 6 biases that influence leaders towards making a decision toward no change, or - even worse - to make no decision, and to to just keep doing the same thing:

1. Availability Heuristic: “We just got an order last week, so things must be turning around.”

2. Anchoring Error: “This feels just like the last downturn. I'm sure we’ll come back eventually.”

3. Bandwagon Effect: “My team agrees this will resolve itself.”

4. Confirmation Bias: “I found three different studies that support my view that this is just a temporary downturn.”

5. Information Bias: “We need to study this more before we act irrationally.”

6. Optimism Bias: “If we do the things we usually do in a downturn, everything will be OK.”

There you have them. The six excuses to keep doing the same thing without changing anything. Some of them may even sound reasonable at first, but be aware that they may also lead you down a dead-end road from which it may be difficult to turn around.

Conclusion

So, next time someone introduces you to something new, perhaps a new way of doing things, or a new idea, what will you do?

Will you be like the stone-age people in the picture above, too busy for innovation?

Or, will you keep an open mind and open ears, and accept that you don't always know what you don't know?

Or, will you accept that you don't always know what you don't know?

This article was inspired by McKinsey & Co

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