There is a cafe down the street that I love. Great coffee, amazing huevos rancheros, warm friendly staff, good music.
On the path out to the garden area is a rock. It’s about the size of a small watermelon, it’s not decorative, it’s just there. It’s been there for years.
The about of times I’ve seen people stumble over that rock, or stub their toe, is significant.
Our organisations are full of pointless rocks too. Things that people, particularly the new and uninitiated, stumble over. Things that, if we are honest, could just be moved off the path.
Stumbling on rocks makes people feel clumsy, foolish, embarrassed.
Rocks being there at all makes organisations seem lazy and uncaring.
Like the cafe, we often don’t stop to question the rocks. Especially the ones that have been there for a long time. We assume there is a reason.
If we all questioned the rocks a bit more, we’d all trip a bit less.