So what are these horrid four words that for this phrase I'm ranting about?

Well here they are: "We tried that before…" Ugh!

You're probably thinking, "What's the big deal with that?" Well here's my issue with that phrase. Those four words are almost always followed by "…and it didn't work."

I have heard this so many times in my career that I can almost feel them coming. It's usually right in the middle of a productive meeting and as soon as those words are out on the table - well… it's not pretty.

I want to say,"It didn't work because your execution was poor. You had no plan - no way to test, no way to measure. And, your creative looks like it was designed in 10 minutes!"

Of course, I just take a deep breath and explain how we can make this execution more successful.

So why do we jump to this line of thinking? Why do rational, intelligent people decide that for some reason a proven strategy can't work for them? Well, there are several reasons. One, ego often gets in the way. It's far easier to blame the tool than to blame the craftsmanship. And two, many people don't understand that success only comes from failure. It is persistence, that leads to greatness.

Did you know that James Dyson, inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner built 5,127 prototypes of his vacuum cleaner? And of that 5,126 were failures. The key is that he learned from each one and that's how he discovered the ultimate solution.

Now, I'm not sure I could handle the 5,126 failures, but I think this is an important lesson and certainly something to keep in mind when that little voice in the back of your mind starts to say, "We tried that before…"

Talk to someone who will never utter that phrase. Click here to contact Cisco Adler and learn how we can help you create a strategic communications plan that will work.