The Status Quo

Today I went and saw the movie Moneyball. It's the story of how the Oakland Athletics took a different approach to choosing players and put together a very successful team with a very small payroll. Besides being interesting because the movie was about sports it spoke to another key idea of challenging the status quo.

Most things are the way they are because somebody has found a level of success doing it that way. Others see the success and try to emulate it. Eventually, it becomes the accepted norm.

Now here's the interesting part. Once everyone adapts the methodology, it's benefit is neutralized. The systematic advantage has disappeared and the determining factor is once again how well everyone does their job. So, to obtain an advantage based on how you do something instead of how well you do something you need to challenge the status quo and do it differently.

This is most important if you are under-resourced and can't compete directly on a level playing field. To be able to tilt the game in your favour, you have to do it differently. You have to approach the problem in a different way. You have to change what you believe to be important and move towards that goal.

The hard part of challenging the status quo is it requires change. It requires you to take a risk and do things differently from what is generally accepted as the best way to do it. If you try to change the game and doesn't work the consequences can be significant. Much more than if you do it the accepted way and fail. That doesn't mean you should just go with the accepted norm. If you can't get the job done by following the rules, you must work to change the game.

I know it's not as easy as it looks in a Hollywood but if you are not getting it done, change what you are doing. You may be surprised how well it can work.