Have you ever taken a new job, and when the veterans started walking you through how things work, you immediately think, “Oh boy, there’s a way better way to do this”? Kafka wrote some stories that capture this feeling.
Written over 100 years ago, two of Kafka’s final novels, The Trial and The Castle, were left unfinished before his untimely early passing. Both books feature a protagonist named K. Both K.’s are intelligent. Both also think they understand more than they do, and as the stories progress, become more unlikeable. I apologize for any spoilers, but these books are over 100 years old.
Something in common between both books is that the K.’s are dealing with systems that seem needlessly complex to outsiders. As a reader, when you’re first introduced to the proceedings in The Trial, you cheer with K. when he gives his monologue in court. These systems have so many layers that K. seems to be at a disadvantage the entire time. The cards are stacked against our poor protagonist.
In business, there’s something called the “Curse of Knowledge.” I was introduced to this concept in Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath:
“Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has ‘cursed’ us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listener’s state of mind” (pg. 20).
Those who work within Kafka’s convoluted worlds have been cursed by knowledge. As you follow K. deeper into the labyrinth of rules, it seems like the system is the problem. However, as those around him patiently explain the inner workings, you start to realize that while the system isn’t entirely fair, it makes sense to them.
Complexity doesn’t come from nowhere. An initial system is created because something needed to be solved. Then something unexpected happens, so a rule gets added. Then something breaks, so a new policy gets created. Then another. Then another. This isn’t to say that the systems in the Kafkaverse are efficient or even good. For the purpose they serve, however, they work.
Think about your organization, or on an even smaller scale, your family. When you make a rule or set a policy, it’s because something happened. Something didn’t go the way it was supposed to, so you put a rule in place that makes sense to you.
Over time, these rules stack. More people enter your family. More people enter your organization with various degrees of control. As they become familiar with your organization, they encounter their own issues and then put rules in place for those too. To a new hire or someone from the outside, it can look needlessly complex.
And it probably is. The cursed within the system are used to the complexity, but being used to something doesn’t make it good.
So, what do we do with this? Do we act like K.? Do we ignore the system and try to outmaneuver it while telling anybody who will listen how ridiculous it is? Spoiler alert: that didn’t work out too well for K.
First, we need to pause and think. This is a great time for the Five Whys. Seek to understand and don’t assume that everyone else is stupid.
About 17 years ago, a GM told me that if I wanted to change something, I needed to accept things as they were, operate within the defined procedures, and then manage upwards to show how there was a better way.
What this means in practice:
- Accept the things and policies as they are
- Seek to understand why things are the way they are
- Operate within the established policies
- Demonstrate, once you’re able to operate within the guidelines, that there is a cleaner way to achieve results
This is helpful if you’re newly entering an organization, or if you’re a third-party vendor doing a complicated integration, or if you’re K. trying to figure out what crime you’re being accused of.
One of the worst things you can do is say, “Sure, got it,” and then do things your own way. Even if you end up being right, you’ve severed a layer of trust.
A caveat here is that if you’re given a task that is unethical or illegal, you need to push back and educate or find a new job.
If we’re within the system, we have the Curse of Knowledge. It’s up to us to teach those around us why things are the way they are. If we’re encountering a system that appears foreign to us, don’t be like K. Seek to understand before seeking to change.