A man walks into a cigar bar in Chicago and buys three cigars. He then goes to a chair in the corner, lights all three and puffs on one, then the next, then the next and so on. Finally the manager gets curious and asks him why he is smoking like this. The man replies that he has two brothers and that one had moved to Europe and another to Australia to pursue careers. One of their favorite past times had been smoking cigars so before they left all three agreed to smoke like this from time to time so it was like they were all together again. The manager thought this was a neat idea and continued on with his duties.

One Day - There Were Only Two Cigars...

The man kept frequenting the bar until he became a regular and he and the manager became good friends. One day the man came in and ordered only 2 cigars. He went to his chair leaving a stunned silence in his wake. After a while the manager finally worked up the nerve to offer his condolences. He approached the man and said “I am sorry for the loss of your brother, if there is anything I can do just name it.” The man gave the manager a funny look and then with a stroke of realization said “Oh no, I didn’t lose one of my brothers, I just gave up smoking.”

Do You Cling to Old Habits?

This is a funny story but it can also illustrate something about how people cling to their old habits. In a world where you can have access to an entire case management database worth of information right in front of you - people still cling to the old ways of paper and filing, similar to the story.

Also similar to the story, sometimes people are resistant to new innovations simply because their friends and coworkers are still doing doing it "the old way".  I will be the first person to say that yes change is incredibly hard, however if the change can make your life easier and allow you to do your job more efficiently - why not embrace it?

A simple trick is to allow yourself to take a step back or UP --> to a 12 foot ceiling view of your situation.  When you do  - you quickly notice that clinging to old ways can cause a decrease in productivity, something that can ultimately reduce a company’s potential output.

Change is Hard

Adopting new systems and new ideas can be a long and hard process. I encourage you however to see the bigger picture and realize that certain change can:

• make you more productive
• increase your company worth
• save you a lot of time and focus.