“But That’s the Way We’ve Always Done It”

If you’ve ever worked with me, you know how much I hate that phrase.

Few words shut down progress faster than “that’s the way it’s always been done.” It’s the corporate equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling, “I don’t want to hear it!”

It’s also a missed opportunity—because everything you touch is an opportunity to rethink, improve, and evolve.

When I Had No Choice But to Rethink

I still remember one of my first assignments in my first actuarial job. I was working in small group pricing and was asked to create updated age/gender factors—including an option for groups that covered maternity benefits (this was pre-ACA).

Here’s the thing:

• Our organization had never made that distinction before.

• I had never created age/gender factors before.

• I had no prior version or documentation to follow.

Honestly? I was kind of hoping for a cheat sheet. A folder. Anything that would show me how it had been done before.

But nothing existed. So I just… started thinking about what made sense. I considered the data, the logic, the business needs, and maternity cost patterns. I drafted a method and modeled it. My boss and peers helped refine the approach, but that blank-slate experience was invaluable.

It taught me something early on:

Sometimes, the best guide is your own judgment.

The Danger of Defaulting to the Old Way

Yes, it’s comforting to reuse last year’s deck. Or rerun last quarter’s analysis with updated numbers.

But comfort can kill clarity.

Before you hit send, or copy last year’s file, pause and ask:

• Who is this for?

• What do they care about?

• What’s the real story I’m trying to tell here?

• If I were doing this for the first time, how would I approach it?

Even something routine—like a quarterly trends report or an annual planning deck—deserves a moment of reflection. Because things change. People change. Priorities change.

And if your work is going to land, it has to meet the moment, not the template.

Presentation Is a Signal

And it’s not just the analysis itself.

How you present something—the way you display the data, organize your slides, or format your message—signals whether you actually thought about it.

When a client or leader sees something that looks new, clear, and purposeful (instead of the same recycled charts with new numbers), it gets their attention. It shows initiative. It tells them you didn’t just blindly update last year’s work—you took the time to think critically and deliver something meaningful.

That’s one of the simplest ways to stand out.

And taking that step back to rethink the work might lead you to an even bigger insight: maybe the report or presentation doesn’t even need to be done anymore. Maybe there’s a better use of your time—something more strategic, more helpful, more aligned with your team’s goals.

That kind of thinking doesn’t just make your work better. It makes your impact bigger.

A Better Default

Instead of “that’s how we’ve always done it,” try asking:

🟢 “What would this look like if we started from scratch?”

🟢 “What problem are we really trying to solve?”

🟢 “Is this the clearest, most useful version of the work?”

You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. But at least ask yourself if the wheel is still going in the right direction.

It reminds me of The Good Place—yes, the show.

They kept people out of the Good Place for centuries because they were using a system that had “always worked.” But humanity had evolved, and the old way didn’t fit anymore. Once they re-evaluated and updated the process, it finally made sense again. All it took was someone asking: “Wait… should we be doing this differently?”

The same is true for your work. If the way you’ve “always done it” doesn’t fit anymore, it’s time to rethink. Because unlike the characters on the show, you don’t have to wait centuries to find your better way—you can start today. 

PS – If you're someone who does want to rethink how things are presented—especially in actuarial or analytical work—I’ve put together a few free tools to help:

👉 Free Resources for Communicating More Clearly