When I ask a client the question, “Why do we need to do this?”, sometimes their response is, “Well, it’s always been done”.
This is when I grin and ask them if they’d heard the story of the 5 monkeys.
Whether this story is true or not is not important. It’s an allegory.
Imagine 5 monkeys in a closed room. In the middle of the room is a painter’s ladder, and at the top of the ladder are fresh bananas.
Naturally, at least one of the monkeys is interested in eating the bananas, so when one of them starts to climb the ladder, the observing scientists spray the other 4 monkeys with water.
After a few repetitions, whenever a monkey begins their ascend, the other 4 monkeys hold back the aspiring adventurer, for fear of getting wet. An equilibrium is achieved and none of the monkeys go for the fruit.
Then the scientists remove one of the monkeys from the room and replace it with a new monkey. This new monkey doesn’t know what’s what, so it attempts to reach the bananas. And sure enough, the other 4 monkeys stop it. So the new monkey learns not to climb the ladder.
Equilibrium is achieved again.
Then another monkey is swapped, then another, until all 5 monkeys are none of the original.
At this point, none of the monkeys attempt to climb the ladder, but none of them know why.
The takeaway
When the answer is, “It’s always been done this way”, that’s probably a strong signal that it’s time to revisit the reason why that is.