The thing I hate most to hear is: “that’s the way we have always done it.” Standard operating procedure. SOP for short.
Hey, if it has worked for us in the past, what could be wrong with it? Well….
I have been faced with a lot of defensive walls when I have moved into new situations with new people. I like change. Growth, after all, cannot occur without change. Change need not imply that what we have done in the past was wrong or that the people who implemented the procedures were less than effective. Quite the opposite. I trust that what has become SOP was once cutting edge. The problem with SOP is that stuff happens. Things change around us, and change does not consider our standard operating procedures.
I teach. I am a college professor. I teach exercise physiology. Human physiology really hasn’t changed over the millennia. True, our understanding has grown, but basic physiology hasn’t. So, I really shouldn’t have to change my course much from term-to-term, right? I wish! (Well, technically, I might get away with it. We have all, after all, had teachers who have used the same dated teaching tools.) The thing is, even though the material changes only minimally, the students change. I have to adapt to their needs. (Notice, I didn’t say “wants”.) And, personally, as I enter my 20th year of university teaching, I am still my worst critic. I don’t want to approach each term as I did the term before. SOP doesn’t work for me.
There are few things that I can’t do better. (O.K., everything I do can be done better.) I want to do better. I can’t admonish my children and my readers to “do your best today; do better tomorrow” and turn around and approach today the same as I did yesterday. If there should be any standard operating procedure it should be that today is an improvement on yesterday. Kaizen—constant improvement. Growth. Adaptation to the evolving circumstances in our world.
Every day is an opportunity to go better. We might have gotten it “right” yesterday, but today is different.
Don’t tell me that “this is the way we have always done it”. Tell me how I can help do it better today.
I love what Vince Lombardi said about perfection: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” If we pursue perfection, we come a little closer most days (with occasion setbacks, of course).
I enjoy being around high-level coaches and athletes. Why? Because they always talk in terms of PRs (i.e., personal records) and getting better. None of my strength and conditioning coaching friends are going to have their athletes train with the same weights session after session through the off-season. Heck, no! They are pushing the athletes to progress. Overload—more weight, faster, longer—every day. Push! Reach for perfection. Be better tomorrow than you were today.
Why, then, do we accept SOP in business, politics, education, etc.?? I would expect that we would want to keep bettering and bettering (to sound a bit like Dr. Suess).
The opportunity presents itself to be better today. It is a choice. The choice belongs to us.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow!
Carpe momento!