For nearly all of my life, I have been peeling bananas from the “stem side.” It’s the way I saw other people doing it, so I simply copied. Guess what, though – it’s actually much easier to peel from the other side of the banana (no lie, try it).
We are often creatures of habit. We do things in a certain way for a while, and then that becomes “the way that we do them. And then maybe even “the RIGHT way to do them.”
We take it as a given that it’s the way they should be. That’s called the “Is-Ought Fallacy.” It’s the assumption that just because a thing IS happening in one particular way, it should continue to do so.
An example that may or may not be from a real life story that I had heard: The broadcast campus of what eventually became a multi-site church had a stage surface that was glossy – actually strikingly beautiful when it was installed. However, over time, the stage surface became scratched and damaged from continual use, lifts moving on and off, risers being moved around, etc… It didn’t work – a different surface that could handle wear and tear and easily be repainted made much more sense. However, the multi-site campuses of the church all had glossy stages installed in their campuses because that’s “the way it was done.” No one had bothered to check to see if another option was a better idea because it was assumed that a great deal of thought and expertise had gone into the decision, when in reality it was simply the choice that had been made because that’s what someone at that point had decided.
The moral of the story? Continually evaluate “the way things are” – and adapt where needed.
creativeworshipideas 