036: Status Quo Bias

Status Quo Bias is the tendency to stick with the status quo even when presented with a better option involving change.
 
Inertia is real! We all fall victim to it. The lack of motivation to make a change because what you are doing is working fine is natural.

When there isn’t an issue with the way things are working today, you don’t even think about how it could work better.

It takes action to break the status quo. But, first, you must recognize the need to take action.
 
There are processes in every company or organization that are a victim of status quo bias.
“we’ve always done it that way”
 
In the agile development methodology, there is a concept called the ‘retrospective’, sometimes called lessons learned. It is a process that serves to look at the activities of the last several weeks (called a sprint) and determine what worked well and what didn’t work well.
 
At it’s core, the concept is designed to challenge status quo bias.
The question is— within your process, what can be defined as a sprint?
 
How can you build in a process at the end of each sprint to challenge the status quo?
 
Ask yourself what worked and what didn't for each sprint. Then look for something that you can do differently to improve the process. At the next sprint, you’ll review again and find out if your change lead to improvement. 

Sign Up for our Free Newsletter