How Loss Aversion Keeps Us Stuck

I was deep in the domestic trenches, elbows deep in Tupperware that had given up on life. Lids without bowls. Bowls without lids. A few sad, stained veterans that had clearly seen better days, but nobody had the heart to toss. As I sorted through this chaos, I noticed how easy it was to justify keeping it anyway. Not because it worked, but because it used to.

And my mind wandered: Every organization has its own version of that drawer. (Yeah, I know. Household chores send my brain in strange directions. Anyway, back to the point.) That drawer has the legacy software that outlived its shelf life; the policy that has survived three reorganizations and now adds bureaucracy instead of value; the mandatory report that takes days to complete yet isn’t read by the people who asked for it.

Why We Keep What No Longer Works

Behavioral science has well documented this tendency. Humans are far more sensitive to losses than gains. Loss aversion pushes us to preserve what’s familiar even after it stops working. The good news is that you don’t need a reorg to fix this, just a willingness to look at what’s actually in the drawer. Here’s where to start.

1. Find the things that were built for a moment but never reconsidered. Start by locating the processes, tools or steps that made sense once, whether during a crisis, a transition or a staffing gap, but were never revisited. They tend to be the easiest items to spot once you go looking, because everyone depends on them now even though nobody can explain why they still exist.
2. Separate each one from its sunk cost. For everything on that list, remove how much time, budget or political capital went into building it, since none of that history changes what it’s worth going forward. Evaluate its value purely on what it costs and delivers from today onward, and treat the effort already spent as gone either way, whether you continue it or cut it.
3. Ask what you’d approve today, not what you approved once. With the sunk cost out of the picture, run a simple test on what’s left: Does the future cost and effort worth keeping it? If this didn’t already exist, would you build it now? If the honest answer is no, that’s your signal to cut it, regardless of how long it’s been running or who built it.

None of this requires a dramatic culling. Leaders just need to build the discipline of asking whether each piece still earns its place. Do that consistently, and the organization becomes lighter, clearer and far more capable of adapting to what comes next.

Adeline (Addy) Maissonet is a senior advisor on contracting policies and procedures within the Office of the Secretary of War, U.S. Department of War (DoW) and the agency’s representative on the Department’s views on proposed legislation to Congressional members, their staff, and committee staffers. She leads the development and implementation of Department-wide procurement policies for commodities and services, within her portfolio. Prior to her current role, Addy served as a Division Chief and Contracting Officer with unlimited warrant authority for the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) – Fort Eustis, Virginia. Prior to joining the MICC, Addy served as a Branch Head for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), Norfolk, Virginia, with unlimited warrant authority. She also held other procurement positions with the U.S. Navy. Addy holds an MBA in Management and Contracting Level III Certification under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act. She is a graduate from Cornell University’s Executive Leadership Certificate Program and Harvard University’s Business Analytics Certificate Program. In her free time, Addy enjoys hiking and overlanding with her family and friends.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of War.

Image by Frank Dilorenzo from Pixabay