When I first landed in Kerala as a Civil Services officer trainee, we were staying in a guest house managed by the police department.
One evening, we all batchmates wanted to just sit and chat. So we started moving the furniture around so that we could all sit comfortably. The caretaker objected, saying that we could not do so without the approval of the police commissioner.
We were like, “Are you serious? Do you need the police commissioner’s permission to move the furniture in a guest house?”
While this caretaker was just trying to show his power as an employee union leader, this “furniture can’t be moved” is a fairly common problem.
In companies as well as in our own lives, we start doing things a certain way. And after some time, we forget how it all began and start taking the status quo as an unchanging, gospel truth.
I will give you another instance — once there was a proposal to implement a 5-day workweek (with slightly longer daily hours) instead of a 6-day week for Kerala Government employees. And do you know what the unions did? They objected!
The truth is, most status quo is just “furniture waiting to be moved.”
If you are stuck in a rut — be it in your life, your career, or your organization, find out “which furniture needs to be moved.”
And if that makes you uncomfortable, congrats! You are probably on to something.
– Rajan