The power of asking "Why do we do it this way?"

Our agency is going through some changes. Small changes, but ones that will really help us to get our message out and to differentiate our work from other marketing companies (because our work really is fantastic! )

This wasn’t even a difficult process to begin. All it took was the senior management sitting together for a day, eating pizza, and asking “what should we be doing differently?”

If you look around your organization, you will find many processes that carry on, almost like clockwork. Why? Because that’s the way they’ve always been done.

Some of these processes probably work well. Ritualising them saves mental effort and reduces the need for people to ask “what should I do next?”.

Other processes are probably irrelevant. On a sub-conscious level, they even annoy the people carrying them out. But we just carry on and tell ourselves – this is how we always do it.

There are almost certainly processes that are holding you back, that are actively hampering your success. The thing is, no one realizes it until someone asks the question, “Why do we do it this way?”

Be the question asker. When a process that your company follows irritates you, ask the question. Maybe there is a great answer. Maybe it is the fastest way to do the task. Maybe there is a regulation that has to be followed. Maybe this is what makes your client the happiest.

But maybe, it’s just the way you’ve always done it, and nobody thought to change it up.

Start from scratch permalink

Sometimes you need to take a big step back, look at your organization and think – if we were starting from scratch today:

• How would we structure our teams?
• How would we measure performance?
• How would we reward performance?
• How would we arrange our seating plan?
• How would we track attendance?
• How would we assign work?
• How would we manage projects?
• How would we manage data?
• How would we describe ourselves?
• How would we market our organization?

Diverse minds permalink

To make this process most effective, you need a diverse group of thinkers. A group with both different backgrounds, and varying amounts of time with your company can produce the best results.