Why are we doing this?

First off, let’s briefly examine why we are doing this. Here, please meet our old friends: risk aversion and the sunk cost fallacy. As humans, we tend to be risk-averse, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, this was exactly what helped us survive and develop as a species.

If you will, you can imagine our entire development as a kind of balancing act: on the one hand, hawkishly guarding what we have, and on the other, cautiously venturing into something new and trying to integrate it into our lives (if we succeed and survive). Once it’s integrated, it becomes part of our new modus operandi, our routines, and even ourselves – and we don’t cut parts of ourselves easily, do we?

This is where risk aversion almost seamlessly shifts from being opposed to something new to being opposed to abandoning it. On top of that, if we’ve gone to the trouble of trying something out, testing it, and integrating it – whether it’s a new way of extracting fire or a new dashboard – we’ve invested so much! Why abandon it now when we’ve come so far? This is where the sunk cost fallacy kicks in.

What can we do about it?

To tackle this challenge, we first need to understand, acknowledge, and respect it for what it is. We need to rationally categorize and explain why a report – or any other activity or routine – has temporarily lost its value or permanently outlived its usefulness.

"But what if we need it again?" – a panicky inner voice might cautiously ask. To appease this inner monster, we must have a solid plan for reestablishing or reinstalling the report (or process, or activity) should we need it again. This way, we achieve the best of both worlds: we can plan to discontinue something while already having a plan for how to reintroduce it if necessary.

Ultimately, this is a question of mindset. And even more to the point, it’s a question of questioning – challenging the status quo and asking noisy questions. This topic is vast, and we will certainly come back to it later. For now, let’s focus on one particular strategy: planned abandonment.

What is it?

Planned abandonment was introduced by Peter Drucker and is rooted in challenging the status quo. Aside from focusing on opportunity cost, this approach urges you to ask one fundamental question:

"If we were not already doing this, would we start now?"

This question helps review and evaluate established practices, routines, and rituals in the context of current needs.

How to practice it?

The biggest challenges will come from the “soft side” of things: people. We’ve already discussed the sunk cost fallacy and general risk aversion. To cut through the layers of cultural resistance and emotional attachments, leadership courage alone won’t be enough.

This is why it’s a good idea to frame the process as an experiment. For instance, set aside one month to test how operations perform without the report, then reevaluate the decision afterward.

Another, more cheeky method, is to try the Canary in a Coal Mine strategy (not to be tested on mission-critical or load-bearing processes!). Like a canary sent into a coal mine to test whether it’s safe for people to enter, you can test whether a report is still in use by lowering its frequency without prior notice and observing the reaction. Monitor what happens within an hour, a week, or a month. Be prepared for some fruity language and heated discussions, as this might be attributed to a lack of communication rather than your keen interest in human behavior and zeal to foster the organisational change. This is why it’s crucial to make it apparent that the abandonment was, indeed, planned.

Closing Note

The first and second laws of dialectics still apply here. The second law – the transfer of quantity into quality – describes the gradual adoption of planned abandonment. As changing this attitude is a matter of mindset, it will progressively become easier the more often you practice it. Thus, quantity will eventually transfer into quality.

However, don’t expect this to happen overnight. One day, though, you’ll be amazed at how differently you approach the same issue.

This brings us to the first law – the unity and conflict of opposites. To get rid of the habit and routine of generating and revising unnecessary reports, you must build a habit of discontinuing them. I find these opposing vectors within habits and routines truly fascinating, and we’ll certainly explore them more in future posts. Stay tuned!

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn: Identify one report or process to evaluate using planned abandonment. Ask yourself: If we weren’t already doing this, would we start today? Let me know how it goes!