Do not fight the mills

I am kind of privileged in a way that during my career I don't remember situations when I was blocked by my management because I had an idea (usually quite controversial) how to reform something we have: working flow agreements, routine meetings, planning, hiring, etc.

Sometimes it wasn't even an issue for anyone except myself or the team I was managing at the time. 

I do remember a case when it was a very common question we've been asked: how long does it take? And I went thinking for a few days; no one asked me to bring a system of estimating new features, but I knew already, as soon as I answered, I would get another question, 'why': "Why so long?" "Why so quick?" "How exactly did you calculate?" "Did you consider this and that?"

So I figured I would need a transparent system, 'How to Estimate,' and I came up with one. You can read about it in a series of my posts: How to decompose: the exciting part and How to decompose: the dull side

And it happens when you're on the other side: someone comes with an idea to reform things as they are, so they wouldn't. 

The first reaction often is, "This is bullshit." Or "Don't touch things that work." And the more passionate you are about your argument, the more effort you put in to fight this other controversial proposal. Mostly because it is not yours. 

After fighting a lot of mills like these, I came up with the next conclusion.

The good thing about the idea of reform is that it's just an idea. If it is completely bad, it will fail rapidly. 

In case the idea of reform has some grain of rationality, then the person who proposed it has the burden to execute it well, and it also likely fails because executing ideas is hard. Especially if you don't have many true believers around. If it is good and execution is good, everyone's benefit from it. 

So the conclusion is: give it a try. You don't have to believe in it or agree. Don't sabotage it; try it, like you try new sneakers you sure wouldn't fit your style, but you're just curious about how it is going to look.

The outcome might surprise you in a way that stupid reform idea that doesn't actually work, whilst being implemented, changed the shape completely and comes into a brilliant new routine that works.

Despite the fact that most of them just fail, I've seen transformations like that quite often to say, "Do not fight the mills".