“Not Invented Here” syndrome (NIH syndrome) is a name given to a common type of organizational culture where people intentionally avoid research or innovations that were not developed within the organization. When faced with a problem, the people in the organization will typically reject a solution that is known to have worked elsewhere in the industry, solely on the grounds that it did not originate from inside the organization. They opt instead to build their own solution, often at far greater cost.

This may seem ridiculous or silly to people who have not directly experienced it, but NIH syndrome is a serious problem. Some teams will waste many hours defining procedures, creating tools, and building their own solutions to problems that have already been solved elsewhere, rather than adopting or adapting an existing solution that can be purchased off the shelf or learned from a book, training course, or outside expert. One motivator behind NIH syndrome is that people are often rewarded for building new software when they would not be rewarded for buying something that does the same work. For example, a programmer who would get a lot of recognition for spending months building a component might not get any recognition for buying an equivalent one, even though it would cost a tiny fraction to buy rather than build.

If you think about it, you may recognize at least a small example of this behavior in your own organization. For example, many programmers will “reinvent the wheel,” building functions or components that could be purchased or downloaded. If your organization commonly develops proprietary technology instead of using an alternative that’s available from a third party, it may suffer from at least a mild case of NIH syndrome.