Management by cliché is dangerous, if not fatal. But it happens. I am not in favour and I think that it’s high time we ditched a particularly dangerous but well-worn business cliché and accept that routinely and regularly re-inventing the wheel is a healthy practice, not a waste of time.
After all, where would the world be if our ancestors had decided to sit pat, once the early wheel had been invented?
Presumably, if resistance to progress and change had prevailed, our transport and technology would still be like the world of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.
Thankfully, though, wiser counsel has driven the progress of technology so the wheel has been regularly refined and routinely re-invented, with widely recognised and appreciated benefits.
So why do we still use ‘re-inventing the wheel’ as a pejorative metaphor in our business dialogues?
Very often, in my experience, this has been a quick and dirty way of putting-down a potentially good idea before it has been properly expressed, let alone explored and properly evaluated.
Premature evaluation is a serious [but widespread] business risk, facilitated by the deliberate [but inappropriate] use of business clichés.
Instead of proscribing the re-invention of our business wheels, we should prescribe the regular and routine re-invention of every business process and system in our organisations.
Of course, to make sure this happens, we would not only have to build process reviews into our risk management regimes but also adopt quite a different mindset which genuinely values re-inventing the wheel.
What do you think?
Re-inventing the wheel should be a badge of honour for every forward-looking organisation, not a forbidden thought.
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It seems that more people are starting to take a serious interest in the future role of the CIO. This is something that has been very close to my own heart for the past five years or more.
