We tried that before!
There are so many good ideas in every organisation! Most you never get to hear about. Inertia, change weariness, and poor politics account for much of this waste. But there is another killer weapon: “We’ve tried that already! It doesn’t work!”
You’ve used, I’ve used it—such a showstopper. In one go, you’ve asserted your prescience, your historical rectitude, and just a smidgeon of arrogance. Not bad for seven words!
The CEO of the company I worked for had a rule: Every recruit for the first 100 days was required to ask questions and suggest ideas. During these first 100 days, new staff have new and excitingly different perspectives. Of course, they and you want them to integrate with the company, but this is when they also want to be seen to make a difference. Over time they become more and more part of the company, absorbing its culture and history. They adopt the company’s stories and beliefs. Once fully integrated, they become part of the narrative, and this window of opportunity is lost.
Of course, they do ask annoying questions like, “Why on earth do you do it that way?”; “Why haven’t you done it this way?”, “Have you tried doing this?” But the crucial part of the CEO’s rule was; “Every question and every idea had to be listened to and considered fully by everyone in the company”. The one response that was forbidden was, “Nah, we tried that before!”. Nothing kills creativity and innovation than that particular wet blanket, especially when it’s delivered, as it so often is, with a sigh and a pitiful look as if to say, “You don’t think we didn’t think of that!”
But the truth is that just because it didn’t work last time does not necessarily mean it’s not right now.
Why now? and the business case
All good business cases have a section that describes the current situation- the “as-is” in a non-evaluative way. Incidentally, this is why pictograms or graphic representations are helpful – it stops the use of pejorative descriptions. The “as-is” is usually followed by the “to-be” state, describing the future.
Great business cases have a third part: a “Why now?” analysis. This part is where the justification for investment in this initiative is set out. Two arguments need to be made. The first is: “Why was this not done before?” What reasons are there for this not already having been done? The second is: “Why does it need to be done now?” Why can it not wait until later?
Classic answers are usually phrased in terms of the changing landscape of stakeholder support and understanding, emergent technologies making possible what couldn’t be done before, and opportunity. Of the three, the commitment within the stakeholder community counts the most – the need has become clear and apparent, and the energy now exists for the change to be implemented and sustained.
Sometimes it’s just about the timing
Changes in our environment, sometimes violent, sometimes subtle, can fundamentally alter our attitudes to what is worth doing and what must now be done. A case in point is the past 18 months as the black swan of a worldwide pandemic shifted political, technical, and social norms.
Digitisation has been a growing phenomenon in many commercial sectors, with government showing varying amounts of commitment. A Caribbean government was offering one such lukewarm approach. They didn’t see the benefit for the government bureaucracy to be put online. People were happy to go into local offices and expected to be dealt with face to face.
Covid-19 changed that. Covid-19 was the “Why now?” moment. The civil servants and the public recognised that the “as-is” had to become the “as-was”, and the future would now include online self-service transactions. The nay-sayers, who had denied that there was a need to be satisfied, were now part of history.
Nurturing change in our organisations
The “Why now?” question is seen by change champions as a challenge, even an aggressive act. They regard it as a way to inhibit their preferred change. But it’s not. Even good new ideas are fragile and can wither quickly under scorn, indifference, and lack of nurture. They blossom when placed in the right environment, and the “Why now?” question does just that. By showing that the time and situation is appropriate, the nutrients for sustainability are prepared – it’s a little like when a caterpillar pupates, the innards are protected as they metamorphose from idea to reality.
Like the CEO who encouraged new ideas from new people, we may need to create protective spaces in our projects and programmes to explore vulnerable ideas in a safe and nurturing environment. By identifying what is different from a previous time, we can prevent premature death; by identifying why a delay is dangerous, we can re-organise priorities to strike while the opportunity exists.
So, the next time you feel the urge to dismiss an idea because we’ve done that before and it didn’t work, think of five red things, and ask yourself, “What’s changed since then?” I’ll bet the answer is: “Loads!”
More on business cases
Being the third of three articles around making business cases more valuable, please check out the related blogs here:
Managing Successful Projects 