Sometimes Status Quo Is There For a Reason
Leaders are supposed to always challenge the status quo. However, it seems like more often than not, it is left alone.
What is “status quo?” It is the normal day-to-day state of affairs. These could include politically or socially influenced patterns that are followed by the population with which you are interacting that is presently practicing or following that specific pattern or repetition. Status quo would be similar to culture.
Often you will see it described as “status quo culture,” although it is accurately different words. It is almost to state it redundantly. Remember that culture reflects particular attitudes and behaviors that define the characteristics of business or social groups during a particular moment in time.
Status quo is the pressure to keep things the way they are. When investing in a change management culture, to use an aviation analogy, the status quo is the drag to your thrust. The more you try to force or drive change, the more resistance that status quo musters. Things are the way things are. The desire for change goes against the status quo.
For instance, my current status quo is to spend my Saturday mornings next to the pool while swim practice takes place. To challenge the status quo in my instance would be to stop sitting next to the pool and do something active. Or even stop taking the kids to practice at all on Saturday mornings. Both are met with a reasonable amount of resistance that would be akin to the status quo.
Say the business unit that you manage is often late in delivering products or services. They continue to miss deadlines. This practice has been allowed to fester for many years. Poor performance is the norm. Remarks like “we have always done it that way” or “it takes as long as it takes” are used as a shield to keep those wanting to instill change. It builds resistance to any desire to make the process more robust. Delivering on time is a change. Continually being late is the status quo.
The status quo can be through a very conservative business model, and anyone that challenges the status quo by doing something out of the ordinary, or is wanting to drive the business in a more rapid fashion or in a different direction, is pushed aside. “We do not think you are a good fit for this organization.” You have (been) quit.
These conservative businesses, for instance, like aerospace, make very minor step changes over the years that continue to maintain the status quo. It takes many years, and even decades sometimes, before a new aircraft platform is developed for the aviation industry. Or the software development needed to help control flight surfaces (autopilot), which takes many slow iterations before it is released to the market. In this case, the status quo revolves around safety. Safety would be a primary reason to allow the status quo to remain in existence.
However, not everyone is building aircraft or working with products or solutions that if they fail can be catastrophic. For those that are not working those critical systems, it is time to poke at the status quo.
Why?
Disruption drives change.
Disruptions wake up the stodgy. Disruption pokes the bear. It makes people wake up and realize what is happening around them and that their method of doing things is about to change — dramatically. They need to make changes in their business model because if they do not, they are going to die. Amazon versus brick-and-mortar stores. Vaping versus cigarettes. Polaroid film cameras versus digital cameras.
Look at the recent upheaval in the automotive market. There are two major changes that are on the cusp of significantly changing the entire automotive landscape. This is forcing a change in the status quo for both the automotive and petroleum industries.
- Electric vehicles
- Self-driving vehicles
Electric vehicles, these hybrid or fully-electric machines that are making a move to change the status quo versus traditional combustion engines are making headway. This is forcing the major car-makers to finally consider the need to build fully electric vehicles.
Tesla has made changes in the industry by forcing Volkswagen, GM, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, etc. are all finally moving forward — rapidly — to offer a fully electric vehicle. Within those organizations, there are those that are steadfast against the electric vehicle. They will fight tooth and nail to protect their fiefdom.
The petroleum industry will need to consider the impact that EVs will present to their market. Although electric is still a reasonable way off from dethroning internal combustion engines, many of the new engineers that are growing up in an EV market will begin to push the status quo when they move into design and engineering jobs at these major automotive manufacturing organizations.
Self-driving vehicles are even further off, however they are also going to force a change in the status quo. Self-driving cars will eventually make the road safer. It will also reduce traffic congestion. It will drive more car ownership. It will also even allow for more sex while driving.
However, the self-driving industry is fraught with the lack of standardization of our transportation infrastructure. Streets and roads are somewhat similar. Road signs are often put in places incorrectly or miss-route traffic that can cause a self-driving vehicle to stop, trying to use its AI to figure out a direction. Paralysis by analysis.
Yet the self-driving world is meeting resistance by automotive purists that believe, and enjoy, driving their own cars. Will Smith in iRobot? The same stalwarts (me included) bemoan the fact that automatic transmissions are becoming the primary offerings. It is rarer to find a standard transmission. Challenging the status quo is painful.
Do not fear the status quo. Do not fear to make a ruckus. Do not be afraid to make changes. But recognize, sometimes the status quo is there for a reason, and sometimes it works perfectly.
Continue to poke at the status quo.
Go forth and be brilliant.
