The term might be new, but the condition has existed ever since people first teamed up to do work. It afflicts nearly every workplace to some degree. Even a low-grade case will cause high-grade misery over time, and sameolditis can be lethal for organizations that operate in fast-changing fields and industries.

Currently, there is no pill or injection that can prevent or cure sameolditis. But there are eight available treatments, to be used separately or in combination. They make use of three ingredients that are abundant yet rarely used in organizations: questions, exploration, and discovery.

All of these “treatments” can be self-administered. One approach is to gather one or two co-workers or your entire team. Select one of the eight categories below, and use the questions to seed the conversation. If you have regular meetings, perhaps that would be the right time. Otherwise, you might need to carve out some time elsewhere.

There are no right or wrong answers to the following questions, and you don’t need a long conversation. Even 15 minutes of dialogue will get people thinking — and that alone can have a positive impact on sameolditis. Just be sure this an ongoing conversation that leads to action.

Another approach is to use the following prompts on your own. You are your own first and foremost leader, right? You can get started right now.

Engaging your mind
When was the last time you got so caught up in interesting work that you lost track of time? What were you doing? What was it — about the work itself, how you were going about it, its connection to a greater good — that made this such an engaging activity?

Seeing results
When you want to see the results of your work, what do you look at? How do you know that your effort is having a positive impact? If you could wave a wand and instantly create a more meaningful system for tracking results, what would it look like?

Tackling problems
What is your biggest challenge at work? What makes it so tough to address, and what is the great opportunity that lies within? How would you go about pursuing this opportunity if you had none of the workplace barriers that seem to exist? What creative approaches might make the difference?

Serving customers
When your customers talk about your organization behind your back, what do you think they say? Who has the highest praise, who is most critical…and why? What are they really saying? If you were in your customers’ shoes commenting on the work you do for them, what would you say?

Achieving unity and diversity
What gets greater emphasis in your workplace, unity or diversity? If it’s unity, does the pursuit of oneness prompt people to downplay their differences? If it’s diversity, does the workplace ever feel like a loose collection of conflicting styles and agendas? How can unity and diversity gain strength from each other? What can be done to achieve both of these workplace imperatives in maximum measure?

Giving and getting respect
Johann von Goethe said, “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.” How does this play out in your workplace? What could be done right now to make respect one of the workplace’s greatest strengths?

Acknowledging the elephant
Is there an elephant in your workplace — a big problem or concern that no one ever talks about? Something that’s known to all and in desperate need of dialogue? If so, why is the elephant so unacknowledged? What are the risks of talking about it? What are the potential benefits?

Empowering yourself
“If I had just a bit more authority at work, I would _____.” Fill in the blank with several actions you’d like to take right now to be more effective in your job. Then explore why you can’t. What’s holding you back? What is the one action you can get started on right now?

In these times of change, it’s great to have some rock-solid beliefs relating to our jobs, our workplaces, and work in general. Beliefs help us make sense of things. They inform our decisions. They guide our actions. They’re all good, right?

Not always.

The fact is, our strongest beliefs and biggest assumptions can be completely without foundation. Just ask the legions of people who believed the Earth was flat. They were certain and wrong.

Other times — and this is more common — we can be certain and only partially correct. This can happen over time as things change around us, rendering our long-held beliefs a bit obsolete.

If you can handle a slightly sobering reality check, review the following. See if these five beliefs are in your own portfolio of certainty.

I know what my customers expect of me.
Actually, you know what your customers expected of you the last time you heard from them, which was…when? Unless you have some telepathic connection to the people you serve, this needs to be a proactive undertaking. Are you talking with some of your customers at least once in a while to see if you’re delivering what they need — and to find out how you can do better? Are you sitting down with the people you serve internally to get feedback from them?

I know my co-workers.
After working with anyone for a while, you’re going to know them pretty well — sometimes too well! But do you know the things that really matter? Right now, can you name the greatest strengths of each of the five people you work with the most? Do you know what they like and dislike about work? Do you know what motivates them? Do you know what they want to learn more about? Of course, you’re not obligated to have answers to any of these questions. But knowing this stuff is a great way to turn a loose collection of individuals into a unified team.

My job is secure.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you work, or what you do. In this unforgiving economy, job security is an oxymoron — right up there with jumbo shrimp and digital security. So tell the truth: Are you doing everything you can to be indispensable at work? Do you bring something to the table that no one else brings?

My boss will look out for me.
If your manager helps you succeed, that’s great. But what would happen if he or she moved on to another work area or organization? The fact is, only you will stay with you on a permanent basis, so you need to be your own best advocate. Are you thinking for yourself? Are you learning from your manager and others? Are you building a network of contacts beyond your boss?

It’s just a job.
It is a job, but there’s nothing trivial about its impact on your life. Consider the time commitment. You wouldn’t say that it’s just 2,000 hours a year or just 80,000 hours during a lifetime or the equivalent of just 9 years working 24 hours a day (and those are minimums). True, we get a certain amount of emotional protection telling ourselves that it’s just a job. But wouldn’t it be better to seek out and stay connected to some purpose that’s bigger than the job itself?

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Knowledge is power.

He was knighted in 1603, so with all due respect, I humbly take issue with Sir Francis Bacon’s famous observation.

Knowledge is essential. But by itself, knowledge just sits there.

This is more accurate: Knowledge put to work is power.

Now for these:

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
There is no substitute for knowledge.
There is no substitute for hard work.

Wouldn’t it be great to get Albert Einstein (imagination), W. Edwards Deming (knowledge), and Thomas Edison (hard work) into a room together? Perhaps they’d invent a new quotation to connect all the ideas in their comments above.

There are countless quotations that pass for conventional wisdom. Many of these are in desperate need of a common-sense upgrade, so I’ve exercised my red pen on five favorites:

A little learning is a dangerous thing. Alexander Pope
True. But no learning is an even more dangerous thing.

Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today. Ben Franklin
True again. But one should not mistake mere motion for meaningful productivity. Here’s a revision: Never do today what doesn’t add value yesterday, today, or tomorrow.

The best way out is always through. Robert Frost
That might be good advice if you’re ambling through the woods on a snowy evening. But an always-through approach suggests a serious lack of imagination. Other ways out include going around, sneaking under, and leaping over. Or you might decide that you don’t need to get “through” after all.

He who hesitates is lost.
Certain situations call for instant action, so this proverb is sometimes true. But more often, you can think things through and then proceed. Know the difference and act accordingly.

Attitude is everything.
Success depends on all sorts of factors, including attitude and luck and hard work and support. But this negative twist of the old saying is true: A bad attitude can derail what could have been a good outcome.

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John is a turbocharged decision-maker. Whenever he chooses a course of action, he makes up his mind instantly.

Susan is the ultimate improviser. Whatever happens, she can adapt and adjust and say all the right things.

Mark is a great listener, and his door is always open.

Decisiveness, improvisation, emotional intelligence — they’re all good, right?

Sure they are. But when it comes to being a boss, too much of a good thing can produce some bad outcomes.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s painfully true: In an effort to do the right thing, managers often do just the opposite. Here are seven common traps:

Knowing the facts vs. closing your mind
Knowledge is a good thing, except when we know so much that we believe we just might know it all. Remember, you can be certain and be wrong. Keep your mind open to new ideas and information.

Being decisive vs. doing change to people
Decisiveness is a strength, but too much unilateral action by “the person in charge” is a sure way to get people to disengage. If you want them to think and care, involve them in decision-making and planning.

Improvising vs. acting rashly
Change is the only constant in today’s workplace, so it’s great to be good at improvising. But people who constantly make things up as they go along can get cavalier and end up causing problems. Know when to wing it and when to do your homework.

Showing empathy vs. losing objectivity
When it comes to emotional intelligence, a little listening can go a long way. But sometimes we try so hard to let people know we’re on their side that we get embroiled in the drama — and distracted from our work. By all means lend an ear, but not at the expense of your work role.

Nurturing a friendly atmosphere vs. ignoring the elephants in the room
We’d all like a workplace where people are nice to each other, but nice is not always good. Too many workgroups turn fake friendliness into an art form, covering up deep disagreements that produce long-term dysfunction. Instead of working extra hard to keep things pleasant, pursue civility and honesty.

Providing guidance vs. taking over
Every good manager wants people to succeed, but well-intended guidance can become a slippery slope. It starts when someone asks a question…and the boss begins to expound, explaining in detail what the person should do…and pretty soon the boss is doing it for them. When it comes to providing guidance that ensures learning, less is more.

Empowering vs. abandoning
Some managers are so determined to empower people that they turn up the trust and let people go about their work entirely on their own. The work usually gets done just fine, but people are left wondering why their boss shows so little interest. You don’t want to meddle, but you do want to show that you care.

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At this very moment in workplaces everywhere, people are coming up with millions of good ideas for improving how they go about their work.

That’s great news because innovation is desperately needed. But there’s bad news too: Most of these ideas will go nowhere.

And it gets worse: In most cases, the people who come up with these ideas will be the same people who keep the ideas from gaining any traction.

It sounds implausible. Why would you keep your own ideas from becoming reality? Let me answer by way of a confession.

A TRUE IMPROVEMENT: Many years ago, I was a newbie newsreader for a campus radio station. I’d read 10 minutes of breaking news four times a day three days a week.

The job was pretty straightforward, and there was a well-established way of doing it. This included the requirement that we type our news stories IN ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS ALL THE TIME. We’d read the news during live broadcasts using our freshly typed sheets of paper.

When it came time for my first news broadcast, I felt fairly calm — yet I stumbled on my words several times. The same thing happened during the second and third broadcasts. Even after four or five broadcasts and lots of practice, I kept getting tongue-tied.

Speaking more slowly didn’t work. Nor did more time spent reading the text out loud before going on air. Nor did shorter sentences.

Then it struck me: Ditch the ALL-UPPERCASE. Use upper and lowercase letters, just like our brain is used to seeing them.

I tried it with my next broadcast. Sure enough, I read 10 minutes of news with no stumbles. It was the same on my second and third tries.

THE SMACKDOWN: Then the student news editor happened to see my typed-up script. “You’re supposed to type in all capital letters,” he said.

When I asked why, he froze for a few seconds. “Well, that’s just how it’s done,” he said.

I explained how a mere release of the shift key on the keyboard had improved my performance in a significant way. He didn’t care. The news had to be typed in all caps — end of story.

THE PROOF: As the years passed, this little experience faded from my memory. But it all came back to me a month ago, when I read about some recent study that looked into — surprise! — the relative ease of reading words that are all uppercase vs. uppercase and lowercase. The researchers found that upper and lower, as you’re seeing it here, is easier to process. When people have to deal with all capital letters, their speed goes down and their stumbles go up.

When I saw that, part of me wanted to track down my long-ago news editor and send him the findings. Look at this, I was right! But most of me was miffed at…me.

LESSONS LEARNED LATE: When the news chief gave me the emptiest of reasons to explain the standard way of doing things — “that’s just how it’s done” — I should have pressed further. Are you sure? Says who? How do you know?

If I had dug deeper, I would have discovered that this “standard” was due to our station’s teletype machine. This was in the early 1980s, and we had an Associated Press teletype machine that cranked out the news in an endless roll of paper. We’d tear off stories and work from those. Their text was all uppercase — and that’s probably why we typed in all caps. Someone bent on consistency must have done it that way early on. The practice grew into a tradition, the tradition became a standard, and the standard became a rule.

There’s one other reason I’m miffed at myself — and why I might be miffed at you.

I should have stuck with my new and improved way of doing things. The news editor didn’t come around all that much, and even when he did, I could have kept my ready-to-read sheets to myself. Instead, I followed the rule and dutifully went back to all uppercase letters — verbally tripping along the way and ultimately classifying myself as the lousiest newsreader on campus.

ABOUT YOU: But why might I be annoyed with you?

Well, if you have your own improvement idea — something small yet practical, like my example above — I sure hope you’re not sitting on it. Put it to work already so it can generate some benefit. If you’re not sure whether you need to ask for permission, don’t. Just do it.

And if you tried an improvement that produced results but was yanked by someone who told you to stick with the usual way of doing things, make a renewed push. See if there’s a credible reason for this approach. If you have to, ask questions to get people wondering. And if you can do so without putting your job in jeopardy, dust off your improvement and put it back to work.

Whatever you do, don’t wait 30 years to see some research paper that validates your initial idea. The time for innovation is now, and the person to do it is you.

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Do you work with some who likes to play games?

I’m not talking about Yahtzee, Scrabble, or Hi-Ho Cherry-O. I’m referring to games in the most figurative, un-fun way imaginable.

Picture a twisted version of “Dungeons & Dragons meets the workplace.” Now picture the “game” going on for at least eight hours a day, five days a week, month after month, year after year. That’s what I’m talking about.

If you work in the real world, there’s a chance you share space with someone who’s the worst kind of game player. They tend to pursue their own agendas. They seem convinced that the only outcome is win or lose, and they’re bent on winning. If it suits their plan, they’ll try to get on your good side. If they see you as a barrier, they’ll go over, around, or through you — and you might be the last one to find out.

There are several things you can and should do. But let’s start with what you shouldn’t do:

1. Game-players tend to pit people against one another. They also like to control information and put their own success ahead of everything else. In the process, they make it very tempting to play along. Think about it: If someone’s keeping information from you, don’t you want to hoard and hide your own precious info? Wanting to take them on is natural — and self-defeating. You’ll start a battle that drains your energy, upsets your colleagues, and potentially hurts your customers. And if that’s not enough, you’ll be labeled as part of the problem.

2. Many game-players get their way through subtle bribes. They put on a friendly air and vaguely promise to help at some point down the road — in exchange for an immediate favor. Their favorite phrase is “I owe you one.” But they rarely deliver on their promises. When they approach you to make a deal, take a pass.

3. When a game-player turns on you, the best response is a cool head and plenty of unassailable facts. For instance, if a scheming colleague is going behind your back to spread rumors that your project is way over budget, come to the next meeting with the latest figures proving otherwise. Don’t be confrontational — just present the facts, take questions, and let reality clear up any misunderstandings.

4. If the game-player is more aggressive, actively trying to sabotage your work, find a chance to engage him or her in civil conversation about it when colleagues are around — preferably in a meeting. Explain what you are seeing and how you interpret it, and ask whether your concerns are justified. Be specific and detailed, but also be concise, and end by asking your colleague for his take on things. What you want is to create a public awareness of what’s happening.

5. It’s hard to remember sometimes, but aggressive schemers are human beings too. If you want to alter the chemistry of this person’s relationship with you, look for any impromptu opportunity to talk with them about anything that’s unrelated to work. Let’s say the person loves football and you both saw the championship game — then start a conversation about that. Or you see a child’s artwork taped to his office wall — ask about it. You won’t rewrite history or change the person’s neural wiring, but a few sincere comments will likely warm up the situation.

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