The source is our desire to protect our egos from damage. Breaking from the status quo means acting, and when we act, we take responsibility, thus opening ourselves to criticism and may be to regret. We therefore, naturally look for reasons to do nothing. Sticking with the status quo means, in most cases, the safer course because it puts us at less psychological risk.
Many experiments have shown the magnetic attraction of the status quo. In one, a group of people were randomly given one of two gifts of approximately the same value—half received a mug, the other half a Swiss chocolate bar. They were then told that they could easily exchange the gift they received for the other gift. While you might expect that about half would have wanted to make the exchange, only one in ten did. The status quo exerted its power even though it had been arbitrarily established only minutes before.
Other experiments have shown that the more choices you are given, the more pull the status quo has. More people will, for instance, choose the status quo when there are two alternatives to it rather than one: A and B instead of just A. Why? Choosing between A and B requires additional effort; selecting the status quo avoids that effort.
In business, where doing something tends to be punished much more severely doing nothing, the status quo holds a particularly strong attraction. Many transitions, for example, flounder because taking swift action to impose a new, more appropriate structure / processes are avoided. “Let’s not rock the boat right now,” the typical reasoning goes. “Let’s wait until the situation stabilizes.” But as time passes, the existing structure becomes more entrenched, and altering it becomes harder, not easier. Having failed to seize the occasion when change would have been expected, leadership finds itself stuck with the status quo.
What life's experiences are we saying "No" to when we say "Yes" to status quo?
Excerpt from: Harvard Business Review, The Hidden Traps in Decision Making
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