What's A WADITW Worth?

Abstract

In my own expe rience, "We Always Do It That Wa y" can wa ste
55,000 to 514,000 a year at lea st-on up to as mu ch as 5120,000. Th e
m in imum is ba sed on what I recently saved cus tomers by di ggin g up
WADITW s. They are pe sk y things that con tro l mu ch of w ha t is go ing on
and we usu ally d on 't recogni ze them unless we are looking for them .
Invest some tim e and you can realize significan t cost sa vi ngs .
You reall y don 't need an other acronym slip pin g in to the swe llin g
alph ab et so up yo u encoun ter t oday but I believe this on e reall y need s to
be used . You ha ve to realiz e that you ha ve ver y littl e rec our se wh en a
WADITW is used unl ess you stand forewarn ed and read y to c ount er it.
Wh en so me one uses it, and they alwa ys will , an imme d iate and
definit ive reaction mu st be pr epared . If not , yo u will sud de nly feel ver y
lon ely, sh u t ou t, and d efeat ed . Your pr esentation, plan, or pro gr ess will
be t ermin ated w he n some one says, "W e Alw ays Do It That Wa y."
The WA DITW is the mo st pervasive , per ver sive, pessimisti c, and
dow nr igh t ind efati gable implem ent ever wield ed . You co uld probabl y
recall an enco un ter with it within the past ten d ays. There app ear to be
no lim.its to its ap plica tion. It is so mu ch a part of our d ail y lives th at
d et ectin g its pr esenc e fr equ entl y evad es us. Co un tering the thru st of
WA DITWs is r equir ed to succeed and identifyin g them as leading to an
op por tuni ty can' t hurt.
Des pite a restri ction implicit in its form, it is a tool th at is used so
often that it ha s no p rivileged owne rship. Som etimes, new memb er s of
an orga ni zation em ploy it to successfully und ermin e effo rts of seasoned
indi vidu al s, The rul e seem s to be that who ever uses the WADITW fir st-
w ins . It serves as a closer. The implication is, " this di scu ssion is over. "
Th e fi rst pa rt o f thi s a rticle will re vi ew som e of th e ac tua l
" 'vVADITWs " whi ch I ha ve enco un tered, and successfully ove rco me.