The Trouble with Habits

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss the issues we often have with ‘habits.’ Habits can be good for us. But ‘bad habits’ are just that. Ever heard the excuse ‘but that’s the way we have always done it?’

Key Points

Join Chris and Fred as they discuss how ‘habits’ dominate our lives … both for better for worse. So what does this mean?

Topics include:

• Decisions are about CONFIDENCE.  You can be ‘confident’ to make the right decision because you fundamentally know and understand all aspects of a problem, and know what will remedy it. Another form of ‘confidence’ occurs when you look for standards or procedures to comply with … which usually only happens when you don’t know and understand all aspects of a problem. You can get ‘confidence’ from having what appears to be a water-tight legal contract. You can also get ‘confidence’ from simply doing what has always been done.
• So not all CONFIDENCE is equal. And it comes down to culture. If you are a leader, and want to look for someone to blame when something goes wrong, then you are creating an organization that is based on ‘confidence’ from doing what has always been done. So no one risks anything. Nothing changes. You slowly drift toward mediocrity, and then to irrelevance.
• The best form of CONFIDENCE is the stuff you get from KNOWLEDGE. Which again comes down to leadership. If people make the right decision based on seeking information on hand and using it, AND you reward that decision even if the outcome is not optimal or desirable … great! This means you become an organization that fails fast, and fails your way to the top. You are actively pushing the boundaries of your organization’s knowledge by having this mindset. And this is what you tend to see in true industry leaders. So what organization is yours?
• But don’t get LAZY. If you used Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) for a component last year to great effect … that doesn’t mean that this is the right thing for all components moving forward.

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

Show Notes

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