Why good people eventually stop challenging stupid processes
Have you ever reported a pothole in the road? I think there are two versions of that story.
Version one, the one we all want. You come across a pothole in a major road, concerned that you, or another road user might end up with a flat tyre or worse, you call the local authority to report it – after all we are encouraged to do that - right? A few weeks later, your journey is disrupted by roadworks, fixing said pothole, meaning you arrive late at your destination which is mightily frustrating. And then the following day you enjoy the fact that the pothole is gone and you no longer need to take evasive action every day to avoid it.
This illustrates an important point – in fixing the pothole you’ve had to slow down (temporarily) to go faster (over the long run).
Slow down to go faster
There is however another version of this story. It starts the same. You report the pothole. And nothing happens. Every time you drive along the road, you take evasive action to avoid the pothole. After a few weeks you contact the local authority again to re-report it. Perhaps they missed the first one? You might even ask some of your friends to contact the local authority in the same way. You can’t understand why they haven’t done something about it - after all if a motorist was to lose a tyre or worse by driving through it – they could make a financial claim -surely it’s obvious what needs to be done? And yet, still nothing happens.
Eventually after trying several times you resign yourself to the fact that you will have to avoid the pothole for the foreseeable future – you even work out the best place to adjust your trajectory. You mention it to friends to help them avoid it too – and you start to see whole lines of traffic changing their driving line as they approach it.
You might wonder why I’m talking about potholes. Well, they’re a lot like the issues that abound in a problematic productivity culture. Not in their own right a big issue, however when compounded with others, potentially the cause of what I call systemic lethargy – the cumulative effect of drag on the system from lots of small issues, none of which in their own right seems worth bothering about.
One person driving around a pothole is a workaround. Everyone driving around a pothole is a process. Telling others how to drive around the pothole, is culture.
Most organisations I’ve encountered have potholes too. The spreadsheet everyone knows needs manual intervention before it can be used. The information that gets entered twice. The system that seems counter-intuitive to use. The workarounds new starters are taught in their first few weeks. Individually none of them seem serious enough to stop and fix, and yet collectively they are creating drag throughout the business.
There are countless studies that explain why good people eventually stop challenging stupid processes. Firstly there’s the ‘mum effect’ – (Rosen and Tesser, 1970) this explains that there is a general reluctance to convey negative information because of the discomfort associated with being the bearer of bad news. This is most likely to happen when employees have high aspirations they don’t want to jeopardise, or they lack trust in their manager.
Then we have ‘organisational silence’. (Morrison, E. W., & Milliken, F. J., 2000). This is when good people don’t necessarily stop seeing organisational problems, they stop believing there is any point in mentioning them.
A 2025 longitudinal study of 1,156 employees found that when people stayed silent because they believed speaking up was futile, they subsequently became less connected to their organisation (Weiss, M., Zacher, H. 2025). This wasn't found when silence was driven by fear. The researchers suggest that previous attempts to raise concerns being ignored can teach employees that speaking up won't make a difference.
Whilst you can recruit individuals to help challenge stupid processes, unless your organisation has some way to implement suggestions it is unlikely a few strategic hires will make much difference. Studies have shown that organisations that do this well, have both individuals that challenge the status quo, and small groups that problem solve and implement solutions.
And this is where leaders can misread what they are seeing. The employee who diligently works around the problems looks experienced and capable, while the one who questions the problems can feel more like the problem. Yet what behaviour do we want to encourage?
At the extreme, there are spectacular examples of how badly this can go wrong. During the investigation into the collapse of Enron, officials heard countless stories from people who had concerns about the shaky finances and failed to speak to their bosses due to a culture of intimidation.
Thankfully most organisations aren’t Enron. People aren’t frightened to speak, they’ve simply learnt there’s no point. Many organisations have a culture of indifference. And whilst not as harmful, it is every bit as dangerous to productivity. The danger is that by the time you have a culture of indifference, your people are no longer telling you about the potholes. They’ve learnt the workarounds, they’ve taught them to each other, and they’ve incorporated them into the processes. And yet, from a leadership team perspective, everything appears to be working.
So here's a question worth asking your team:
“What have we stopped complaining about because we've decided nothing will ever be done about it?”
The answers might tell you rather more about your productivity culture than your process documentation ever will.
This is exactly the sort of thing I look for when I'm working with organisations on productivity. Not the enormous transformation project waiting to happen, the accumulated drag from processes that everybody knows could work better and nobody expects to change.
If you're wondering how many potholes your organisation has learnt to drive around, I'd love to have a short conversation about it.
I’m Amanda Sokell. I speak at conferences and leadership events about organisational productivity and the culture shifts that unlock it. Through facilitation and coaching, I help leaders turn productivity from an agenda item into a way of working - building teams that deliver more value, with less friction. If you’re looking for an engaging speaker or facilitator to spark a different conversation about productivity in your organisation, let’s talk.