The Short Version · 1 min read
Somewhere in your operation, there's a step that exists only because it once solved a problem that no longer exists — and nobody's checked whether it still needs to be there.
Somewhere in almost every operation, there's a step nobody remembers deciding to keep. A spreadsheet that was supposed to be temporary until the new system went live — and the new system launched two years ago. A manual double-check that started after one bad shipment and never stopped, even though the cause was fixed months ago. Someone built the workaround under pressure, it worked, and then nobody circled back to ask if it still needed to exist. It just quietly became "the way we do it here" — inherited by every new hire without anyone explaining why.
In your next team meeting, ask one question: is there a step you still do only because that's how it's always been done? You'll usually get at least one answer immediately — and that's the workaround worth revisiting first.
