The 7 Growth Killers
Growth Killer #4: Decision By Tradition
by Tim Kinney, Strategic Growth Planner I
n this month’s article, we’re going to look at what may be the most difficult growth killer to beat: decision by
tradition. Why is decision by tradition so nature.
Beating it
tough? Well, it comes down to basic human
requires
people to change – change the way we think and the way we behave. This may not come as a surprise, but most people don’t like change, especially if it that means changing their own behavior.
Have you ever failed at a New
Year’s Resolution? Have you ever tried to break a bad habit? Or, have you ever tried to start a new, good habit (going to the gym, eating healthy, meditation) only to let the new thing drop off after a few weeks? How about giving up coffee? (You’ll have to pry the cup from my cold, dead hands before I break that habit.)
Our habits are powerful forces in
our daily lives. Within an organization, our collective habits are powerful, too, perhaps even more so than our personal habits. Our collective, organizational habits
have an incredibly strong
influence on our lives and the life of our companies. They impact things both big and small. How we dress, the hours we keep, the way we talk to each other and others, how we work (especially in standard process driven organizations), our values, how we feel and even how we think. Over longer and longer periods of time, these habits become traditions. And these traditions form the basis of a company’s culture. New employees who join your team will either adapt or assimilate into that culture or leave.
Don’t get me wrong, tradition isn’t inherently bad. Many traditions are great.
22 ❘ July 2019 ®
Our traditions and culture enable us to align the workforce, find our groove and get things done. That’s very good. Often, however, long standing traditions leave little room for innovation and the well- worn tracks of habitual thinking miss a new, better idea. So, when traditions and your culture impede your ability to grow, they become a problem. Have you ever pitched a new idea to a customer or supervisor and heard this old chestnut:
“That’s really interesting. But, that’s
just not how we do things here.” “Our business is different. That will
never work here.” When confronted with those
objections, you are facing an uphill battle. Those types of objections are not grounded in rational, strategic thinking. Those objections are put up as a defense to a company’s culture. They are a block to change. Why? Perhaps because it feels like an existential threat. If we do this thing that we’ve never done, then we’ll have to change. And, we’ll likely fail at it because we’ve never done it. So, not only will we fail, we’ll lose who we are.
Competing Priorities Create Obstacles to Growth
Three years ago, I began working with a multi-line reinsurance company. After learning that I had experience building websites, the senior management asked me to lead their website redesign project. Their existing website was completely outdated with an organization structure that made it incredibly difficult to find answers to the most common questions. For instance, the old website failed to provide
the contact information for production underwriters, the gateway
Over the past 28 years, Tim Kinney has helped companies generate hundreds of millions in new growth. He is the Vice President of Accident & Health Marketing for Sirius Group, a global reinsurance company. Tim is also a writer, trainer and consultant specializing in strategic growth planning. He is the editor of the blog Growth Monitor Weekly and recently produced an online course, “How To Build Your Growth Strategy.” His book, the Growth Strategist’s Guidebook, is available on
Amazon.com.
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