What Does “We’ve Always Done It This Way” Really Tell Us?
Field Notes | Freya + Co
February 2026
“Probably the most dangerous phrase that anyone could use in the world today is this one: But we’ve always done it that way.”
— Grace Hopper
This quote shows up a lot in conversations about change. Sometimes as a warning. Sometimes as a critique. Sometimes as a joke. The assumption is usually the same: if someone says “we’ve always done it this way,” they must be standing in the way of progress.
In my experience, that framing misses something important. Most of the time, when people say this, they are not resisting change for the sake of resisting. They are noting something about risk, identity, history, or care for what already exists. The phrase itself is not the problem. What matters is what it points to underneath.
Why This Phrase Shows Up
Every system develops habits. Those habits are not accidental. At some point, they worked.
They helped people coordinate.
They reduced uncertainty.
They protected something important during a particular moment in time.
So when someone says, “we’ve always done it this way,” what they are often really saying is:
this has kept us stable
this has protected something we value
this feels familiar when a lot else feels uncertain
In public health, human services, governance, and coalition work, I hear this phrase most often when the stakes are high. Funding is shifting. Accountability is increasing. Expectations are changing faster than capacity. In those moments, familiarity feels like safety. That does not make people wrong. It makes them human.
Stability and Change Are Not Opposites
One common misunderstanding in change efforts is the idea that stability and progress are enemies. In reality, systems need both. Stability allows people to function. Change allows systems to adapt.
Trouble starts when stability gets labeled as stubbornness or when change is treated as inherently virtuous. Conversations become adversarial. People dig in. Learning slows down. From a systems perspective, resistance is not a flaw. Systems exist to maintain equilibrium. They push back on rapid disruption because that is how they endure. If systems changed easily, they would not be able to support the people who rely on them. Seen this way, “we’ve always done it this way” becomes data, not defiance.
What Happens When We Dismiss It Too Quickly
When leaders or facilitators shut this phrase down right away, a few predictable things happen:
people feel unheard or disrespected
important history gets erased
real concerns go underground
resistance becomes more entrenched
When the phrase is treated as a starting point instead, something else becomes possible.
Instead of asking, How do we get past this person? We can ask:
What has this way of working protected?
What would be lost if it changed?
What is different now than when this practice began?
Those questions open space for shared understanding rather than power struggles.
From Habit to Choice
The goal of change work is not to discard the past. It is to help groups move from habit to choice. That requires slowing down long enough to examine long-standing practices honestly. Not everything needs to change. Some things are worth preserving. Others may need to evolve. Discernment starts with respect for what came before.
In facilitation settings, I have seen groups reach clarity not by arguing for innovation, but by naming what they are trying to protect. Once that is visible, new possibilities often emerge naturally. Change that grows out of understanding tends to last longer than change driven by urgency.
A Field Note on Leadership
Leadership in complex systems is rarely about convincing people to abandon tradition. It is about helping people decide together what still serves them and what no longer does. That work takes patience. It takes listening. It takes the ability to hold tension without rushing to resolution.
And it requires recognizing that phrases like “we’ve always done it this way” are not roadblocks. They are clues.
Closing Reflection
The danger is not that people say, “we’ve always done it this way.” The danger is when we stop being curious about why.
When leaders treat this phrase as a signal rather than a verdict, change becomes less about disruption and more about care. Less about speed and more about wisdom.
In complex systems, that shift makes all the difference.
