Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: Dump the Status Quo

I've spent my entire life fighting against the status quo. I have to admit that this has led to times of great frustration in a world bound and determined to hold on to the status quo with the tenacity of Charlton Heston holding onto his MK80 and in an industry that keeps looking back to the "good old days," rather than looking to the future.

Take a deep breath and get ready for some serious self-examination. I want you to do this like your life depended on it because it does. I want you to ask yourself, “What kind of person am I? Am I the kind of person who wants things to stay the same or am I the kind person who is willing to make changes for the better? Am I the kind of person who wants to face the future full on, making it a better place than where we’ve already been?”

Have you done that? Have you come to a decision? Do you know the kind of person you are? Are you sure? I want you to read the following questions that come from Seth Godin’s new collection of blogs called  Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck and Other Provocations.

He calls these questions The Warning Signs of Defending the Status Quo. If you answer these questions honestly, you will be able to tell right away what side of the fence you’re on.

When confronted with a new idea, do you:

• Consider the cost of switching before you consider the benefits?
• Highlight the pain for a few instead of the benefits for the many?
• Exaggerate how good things are to reduce fear of change?
• Undercut the credulity, authority, or experience of the people behind the change?
• Grab onto the rare thing that could go wrong, instead of amplifying the likely thing that will go right?
• Focus on the short-term costs instead of long-term benefits, because the sort term is more vivid for you?
• Fight to retain benefits and status earned through tenure and longevity?
• Embrace an instinct to accept consistent ongoing costs instead of swallowing a one-time expense?
• Slow implementation and decision making down instead of speeding them up?
• Embrace sunk costs?
• Imagine that your competition is going to be as afraid of change as you are? Even the competition that hasn’t entered the market yet and has nothing to lose?
• Emphasize emergency preparation at the expense of handling a chronic and degenerative condition?
• Compare the best of what you have now with the possible worst of what change might bring you?

Did you see anything here that hit home particularly hard? Did you see anything here that you've said or felt or even heard before in your organization? If not, I congratulate you because if you are not already a success you will be someday.

On the other hand, if you saw yourself in some of these questions and some of them rang true, what are you going to do about it?

This could be a matter of life or death. Hell, it is a matter of life or death when it comes to our industry--there used to be well over 1,500 board shops in this country and now there are approximately 300. It’s a fact that all but a small handful of those remaining shops will spend more on office supplies this year than on promoting their business.

Most shop owners would rather buy a new piece of equipment for hundreds of thousands of dollars than hire one good salesperson, even though they will tell you that their biggest problem is lack of sales. Most board shop owners in this country blame the government, China, or their customers for their lack of success when the real reason is their lack of creativity and passion for perfection. Many board shops live by the mottos “good enough is good enough" or “we’re no worse than anyone else.” Many board shop owners look at innovative shops as cheaters. They feel nesting, for example, is cheating. Don’t believe me? Bring up the nesting concept (putting multiple part numbers on one panel) the next time you speak with a traditional board shop owner and see how many of Godin’s questions he will answer "yes" to and how he quickly and passionately comes up with 50 reasons why nesting does not work. Ask that same owner about "no touch" Internet sales and the same thing will happen. Talk about denial--these guys are on more denial steroids than Lance Armstrong in his prime.

But not all is lost. If you're a lover of the status quo you can still change no matter how old a dog you are (and I know that some of us are getting pretty old). Here’s an idea: Read Godin's book, or any other book that might put an idea in your head, and try that new idea out. It will be refreshing and rewarding.

When you rue where you are today, think about what you’ve done differently in the past 10, 20, or even 30 years. Have you grown during those years or have you just repeated the same actions year after year? Unless you make a change, something radically different right now, the next shop to go could be yours. It’s only common sense.