The "Stick With What Works" Fallacy

How many times have we heard this before:

If things are going well, just stick with what works. Don't rock the boat.

Probably plenty. But I don't believe in this maxim anymore. Instead, I think: success can lead to complacency. Success hides problems. Just because it seems to be working doesn't mean that you know why it's working, or if it is at all.

At Kace, we had an unbelievable run of success... something like 27 quarters of consecutive revenue growth. And that was great -- everybody is extremely proud of the work we did. But the one big important thing we neglected to do over that timespan was parse out exactly where we were truly being effective, and where we were just riding a current propelled by our partners and the market. When that inevitable missed quarter appeared, we finally got around to the self-examination. And we found that there was a gap between what we thought we were good at, and what we were actually good at.

From Fred (this doesn't apply exactly to the Kace example, but the major point is the same):

One of the things I have observed over the years is that a hard charging sales oriented founder/CEO can often hide the defects in a product. Because the founder is so capable of convincing the market to adopt/purchase the product, the company can get revenue traction with a product that is not really right. And that can hide all sorts of problems.

Be skeptical of your accomplishments. Dissect them. Disprove your company myths. Figure out where you actually performed well, and where you were just lucky (or particularly persuasive). Only then should you begin to feel comfortable sticking with what works.