Most ways of working started somewhere, usually for a reason. They were designed around the customers, technology, people, risks and operating environment that existed at the time. Some were excellent decisions. Others may never have been particularly effective, but survived long enough to become accepted practice.

Over time circumstances change while the process often doesn’t. “We’ve always done it this way” becomes the explanation for why something should continue. Alternatives receive little consideration, familiarity becomes evidence of effectiveness and inherited processes are followed without anyone really understanding why they exist other than muscle memory.

Established ways of working aren’t automatically wrong, because experience and consistency have considerable value. But neither should make a process immune from challenge or constructive review. Experience should inform how things are done. It shouldn’t prevent them from being questioned.