New Things Are Sometimes Old Things

A few days ago I decided to go to KFC and pick up a few pieces of chicken. While the young man behind the counter was explaining some of the things to me he said "Chicken Little."

I said "Chicken Little?"

He said "Yes, do you know what that is?"

I said "Yes, it's the story of a little boy chicken who thinks the sky is falling."

He says "Oh yeah, I saw that movie and liked it a lot."

I said "It was a story from a book from my childhood."

He said "It's a book?"

Loren Javier via Compfight

I've reached the age where I now understand what my dad used to go through with me. I'd hear a great new song on the radio and mention it to him, only to have him tell me what I was listening to was a remake. Sometimes the original was much better than what I was listening to now and I'd wonder why someone decided to do it again.

Why indeed? The reasons people do things that have already been done before are numerous. One reason is to pay tribute. Another reason is because there are a lot of people who don't know about the original. A third reason is because someone believes they can improve on what's come before.

In business, it goes the opposite just as often. Who's had to encounter "That won't work; we tried it already"? Who's dealt with "What's wrong with the way things are now?"

A week ago I wrote a post talking about what it takes to change habits. It takes that and more to change minds. It doesn't matter what the subject is; once people have their minds set on something, it might take the 4th coming of a world killing asteroid for anyone to believe something that goes against their grain of knowledge.

There's a guy in my consulting group who, at least once a year, tells this tale about a Harvard study and a group of successful former students who put together lists of what they wanted to accomplish when they graduated and how well it worked out for them. It turned out that 3% of the graduates had written down their goals and those 3% had made more money than the other 97% combined.

Only... it's not true! There was no study; there wasn't even a study done in 1979, when someone changed the date thinking they could push this one through as true. Yet, all you have to do is go to Google, type in Harvard written goals study, and you'll find way more articles telling this tale as if it's true than the reverse.

What does this have to do with leadership? Actually, there are three big lessons here.

The first is that, unfortunately, leaders can and will often get away with lying to employees. They do it for their own purposes. When they're exposed, they often lie about that as well, saying they were given bad information. Sometimes they say they were only giving employees what they said they wanted; please tell me you haven't fallen for the myth about how wonderful merit raises are... talk about a quick way to lose credibility and trust!

The second is that sometimes harmless lies seem to have unintended positive consequences. Parents lie to children all the time while trying to teach them lessons or get them motivated. Knute Rockne's speech to his team about winning one for the "Gipper"... myth! Not only was it false but it was a story that came 8 years after he passed away and didn't become famous until it showed up in the movie Knute Rockne - All American, when Reagan portrayed Gipp... without realizing he was playing a guy who was actually more trouble than he was worth.

The third is that sometimes leaders are going to have to "pull rank" and do something no one else wants to do anyway. A new leader might need to see what happens when something has been tried before to come up with a new solution. Sometimes a leader might have a twist on what's been done before that actually makes things work. Sometimes people have to be pulled into something kicking and scratching when it's the right thing to do because they're comfortable with what they're already doing.

Almost everything new is old. You can bet that whether it's technology or processes, it's been done before. There might be deviations here and there, but what's new is old.

Luckily, like Chicken Little, the sky isn't always falling... oh wait, in the movie it was! I did give a caveat for changes right? 🙂