Observation 5
One observation from 25 years of building businesses and leading teams.
16 September 2026
A new initiative started.
All stakeholders agreed that we should review it every week. The idea was simple — get everyone together, see what had happened, discuss what was stuck, and decide what needed to happen next.
So, a weekly review was scheduled.
Initially, it was useful.
There was a lot to discuss. People had questions, there were dependencies to sort out, and everyone wanted to know how things were progressing.
Three months later, things had changed.
The initial excitement had reduced. There wasn’t much new to discuss every week. The conversations had become fairly repetitive.
Yet the weekly review continued.
The suggestion was to change the format.
Perhaps a new template would bring a different perspective.
I found it interesting.
Something that had started with a clear purpose was continuing.
And when it didn’t seem to be working as well anymore, our first instinct was to change how we were doing it.
Not whether we still needed to do it.
I have seen something similar with reports.
There was a daily report that used to be generated with a set of metrics. When it started, it served a very clear purpose. The information wasn’t easily available elsewhere, so the report made sense.
Over time, things changed.
The department introduced a CRM. Most of the information in the report was now available there — and could even be customised.
But the report continued to arrive every single day.
Once, I happened to see a manager’s inbox. There were quite a few unread emails.
I asked him why he wasn’t reading them.
He casually said:
“Oh, that’s the daily report. I don’t even bother checking it anymore. I have everything on the CRM.”
I wondered why the report was still being prepared every day.
The requirement had changed.
The system had changed.
The way of accessing the information had changed.
But the report hadn’t.
And perhaps that’s what stayed with me.
Things don’t always continue because someone has consciously decided they should.
Sometimes, they continue simply because nobody has stopped to question them.
A weekly review.
A daily report.
A process.
A habit.
Something that once made perfect sense can quietly become part of the way we work.
And because everyone is busy doing it, it can be surprisingly difficult to notice that its original purpose has disappeared.
We are quite comfortable changing the agenda.
Changing the format.
Changing the template.
Changing the frequency.
But perhaps the simplest question is also the one we ask the least:
“What are we trying to achieve by doing this?”
And sometimes, the uncomfortable answer may be:
“Because we have always been doing it.”
Just an observation.