We've Always Done It This Way
Few phrases reveal more about an organization than six simple words:
"We've always done it this way."
Sometimes those words reflect hard-earned experience, other times they reflect lessons learned through failure. Sometimes they represent institutional knowledge accumulated over decades, and sometimes they reveal something far more concerning:
A process that continues simply because nobody has questioned it in years.
The challenge isn't determining whether something has always been done a certain way, it's understanding why.
Experience Matters
In today's environment, there's often an eagerness to challenge established practices.
New leaders arrive, new technologies emerge, and new methodologies gain popularity making the temptation is to assume that older approaches are outdated simply because they're older.
-But that assumption can be dangerous. Many organizational processes exist because someone, somewhere, learned an expensive lesson:
- • A project failed.
- • An injury occurred.
- • A quality issue surfaced.
- • A regulatory violation happened.
- • A customer was lost.
In response, a process was developed to prevent the problem from recurring, and years later, the process remains, but the lesson that created it may not.
When that happens, well-intentioned people sometimes eliminate controls they don't fully understand.
The result is often predictable;
The organization ends up relearning an old lesson at a much higher cost than it would have taken to understand the original reasoning.
Experience deserves respect-But respect should never mean blind acceptance.
The Danger of Organizational Amnesia
A common risk I've observed throughout my career is something I call organizational amnesia.
The people who created a process leave, the people who understood the original problem retire, the documentation becomes incomplete, and the stories disappear.
..Yet the process remains.
Ultimately, someone asks:
"Why are we doing this?" But no one knows.
At that point, the organization faces a difficult decision;
Continue a process that nobody can explain? Or eliminate a process without understanding why it exists?
Neither option is ideal.
The real problem isn't the process itself, it's the loss of institutional knowledge.
Organizations often underestimate how much knowledge resides in experienced personnel rather than in procedures, manuals, or databases.
When that knowledge leaves without being captured, risk increases.
Not immediately….But eventually.
Strong Organizations Ask Questions
The healthiest organizations I've encountered share an important characteristic:
They respect experience while remaining curious, they don't assume every existing process is perfect, nor do they assume every existing process is obsolete.
Instead, they periodically ask questions such as:
- • Why do we do it this way?
- • What problem was this process originally designed to solve?
- • Is that problem still relevant today?
- • Have conditions changed?
- • Are there better tools available now?
- • Does the process still create value?
- • What risks would be introduced if we changed it?
These questions are not signs of disrespect; they're signs of organizational maturity.
Strong organizations understand that continuous improvement requires both historical understanding and forward thinking.
The Difference Between Change and Improvement
Many organizations talk about change, far fewer achieve genuine improvement.
The reason is simple:
Change and improvement are not the same thing.
It sounds simple, yet many don't grasp that change merely makes something different, but improvement makes something better.
Without understanding why a process exists, organizations risk making changes that reduce effectiveness while believing they are modernizing operations.
True improvement begins with understanding; Understanding the original problem, the current environment, the risks, and the intended outcome.
Only then can leaders make informed decisions about what should be preserved, modified, or eliminated.
Oversight's Role
This is one reason effective oversight is so important.
Oversight is not about protecting every existing process, nor is it about demanding change for the sake of change. Effective oversight helps organizations distinguish between:
- • Valuable institutional knowledge
- • Legacy practices that no longer provide value
- • Emerging risks created by changing conditions
Its purpose is to ensure decisions are made intentionally rather than accidentally.
When organizations stop asking questions, risk often grows unnoticed.
When organizations challenge everything without understanding history, risk can grow just as quickly.
The goal is balance.
Preserve What Matters. Improve What Doesn't.
The best organizations I've worked with understand that experience and curiosity are not competing values, they're complementary strengths.
Experience provides context - Curiosity drives improvement, and together, they create informed decision-making.
Every process, assumption, and practice should occasionally be examined. Not because it is wrong, or it's old, but because organizations that understand why they operate the way they do are far better equipped to determine what should remain, what should evolve, and what should be left behind.
After all, improvement rarely comes from rejecting the past - It comes from understanding it well enough to build something better.