If it aint broke...don't fix it

[Lonesomedave]

i would just like to get some opinions on this.

i have always been of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" persuasion.

my ex-boss, however, was decidedly not. in fact, he told me in no uncertain terms that that was a stupid philosophy. he always went for the newest fixes, computer/software upgrades, etc.

i just wondered what the consensus of the TB community is on this.

I still am of that opinion, and in fact, just today, told Itunes that i did not want their latest upgrade and not to ask me again. i have done this before, so am under no illusion that they really will NOT ASK ME AGAIN, but, there you go.

chime in with thoughts.

[Yerf Dog]

Depends on what you're fixing... or not fixing.

[DwaynieAD]

you could go the myspace/facebook route "if it ain't broke, fix it until it is"

[MatticusMania]

Yesterday in leadership training at my company our teacher recommended this book, saying if we were to read just one book on leadership, this is the one we should read:

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

I bought the Hardcover edition used on Amazon for 2¢

[bluesblaster]

let us know if it was worth it

[hdracer]

If we didn't fix what wasn't broken we would still be living in caves....

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by bluesblaster

let us know if it was worth it

Im sure it was worth the 2¢, at least

Here is a description:

The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide variety of situations. Some were in leadership positions. Others were front-line supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies; others were key players in small, entrepreneurial companies. Whatever their situations, the managers who ultimately became the focus of Gallup's research were invariably those who excelled at turning each employee's talent into performance.

In today's tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. The front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees. No matter how generous its pay or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer.


Buckingham and Coffman explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations for him or her -- they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps; how they motivate people -- they build on each person's unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses; and, finally, how great managers develop people -- they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. And perhaps most important, this research -- which initially generated thousands of different survey questions on the subject of employee opinion -- finally produced the twelve simple questions that work to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. This book is the first to present this essential measuring stick and to prove the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover.

There are vital performance and career lessons here for managers at every level, and, best of all, the book shows you how to apply them to your own situation.

Its got 215 five star reviews, 59 four star, and 45 that are 3 stars or lower (not that that means the book is any good).

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Lonesomedave

i would just like to get some opinions on this.

i have always been of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" persuasion.

my ex-boss, however, was decidedly not. in fact, he told me in no uncertain terms that that was a stupid philosophy. he always went for the newest fixes, computer/software upgrades, etc.

i just wondered what the consensus of the TB community is on this.

I still am of that opinion, and in fact, just today, told Itunes that i did not want their latest upgrade and not to ask me again. i have done this before, so am under no illusion that they really will NOT ASK ME AGAIN, but, there you go.

chime in with thoughts.

Most of the time I think that particular adage is bunk because It's typically use to dismiss ideas that are either new or different and discourages free and progressive thought without basis. That isn't to say that you have to have the latest and greatest everything or that every change is good but make that evaluation before saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Or better yet, forgo the saying altogether and just explain yourself.

So I guess I'm with your boss. At least when it comes to his opinion on the saying itself.

[BawanaRik]

One word. PBass. I'll admit that they did get better with the humbucker but that's something that needed fixing. And the Rosewood board might also fit into that category.

[sloasdaylight]

In the business world, "don't fix it if it ain't broke" leaves you behind the times and trying to play catch up with the people who did fix what wasn't broke. That attitude helped to put my Grandfather's printing company out of business, and led my former employer to be nearly out of business for some time, barely scraping by. Meanwhile, companies who do fix things if they're not broke innovate ideas, streamline production, and increase profits and product quality, leading to more of a higher quality product being available, or at least one with more toys and appeal to a larger audience.

When it comes to business, your boss is absolutely right.

[6jase5]

A typical golf equipment company reinvents 60% or more of it's product line every year and employs the same percentage of aerospace engineers in design as aviation. It's still golf.

When it comes to IT related fields, especially software, "new" isn't always inherently better right off the bat. That's because no matter how much testing is done, no lab testing mimics the live use of 300+million users. Give us all the same PC on TB and in a month you'd have as many variables as PC's.

With most things physical and philosophical I think that you always have to be looking towards improvement. By the time "it's" usually broke, "it's" usually obsolete or misguided. Some features of design don't get improved, but the materials and methods to achieve those designs can be improved. Kind of like a plek'd neck on an old pbass or a teacher than can grade multiple choice tests with a PC scan versus by hand. Same concept, newer and improved for accuracy method.

[Lonesomedave]

i dig these answers!...

let me throw something else out for you.

"be not the last to cast the old aside, nor yet the first by whom the new is tried."

or is it...

"be not the first to cast the old aside, nor yet the last by whom the new is tried."

[colcifer]

Case by case. This is something you can't really create a rule-of-thumb for.

[UncleFluffy]

fix the broken stuff first ?

[LiquidMidnight]

As others have said, it really depends. Sometimes something works, but that doesn't negate the potential that it can be better. Innovation sometimes means taking an already existing good idea and making it better. On the other hand, sometimes something's so good that it doesn't need improvements. Case in point, I still hate Facebook's Timeline format.

Originally Posted by Matticus

Its got 215 five star reviews, 59 four star, and 45 that are 3 stars or lower (not that that means the book is any good).

Very true. Case in point, Stephen Covey made a career out of pushing pseudo-scholarship on leadership to people who easily followed management trends and had lexicons of all of the latest buzzwords. His stuff's a joke to anyone who's actually studied leadership or worked in organizational development or I/O psychology.

[bassinplace]

I guess if something can be genuinely improved upon, then yeah, by all means. If yer just gonna go at it with a monkey wrench because you think it could be better when it's already working perfectly fine I'd say back away, MacGyver.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by bassinplace

I guess if something can be genuinely improved upon, then yeah, by all means. If yer just gonna go at it with a monkey wrench because you think it could be better when it's already working perfectly fine I'd say back away, MacGyver.

But you can't always know if something can be genuinely improved upon until you try. Sometimes you have to think it can, and then find a way.

[MX21]

I think "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is good.

But there's a difference between "broke" and "enhancement".

It's good to continually try to improve things. But bad just to change something that isn't broken if it doesn't improve anything either.

[Roscoe East]

Originally Posted by 6jase5

A typical golf equipment company reinvents 60% or more of it's product line every year and employs the same percentage of aerospace engineers in design as aviation. It's still golf.

And that just goes right back to what Yerf Dog wrote:

Originally Posted by Yerf Dog

Depends on what you're fixing... or not fixing.

Can you imagine if they (someone, anyone) tried to fix golf? Not the equipment, I mean the actual game? How well do you think that would go over?

So yeah, ya picks yer battles. Saying that "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It" is a bad policy is just as stupid as saying it's a good policy. No generalization works here.

It all depends what "it" is.

[MJ5150]

I work in a department where everyone has this philosophy, and it drives me nuts.

-Mike