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The great unstated truth is that most folks don't understand what they do. They didn't implement it, they inherited it. They know the how , but not the why . Plus, human nature makes us avoid admitting our own ignorance.

As a result, resistance to change means resisting anything that upsets the As-Is. Unfortunately, the As-Is has a stealthy way of changing in little bits over time; that, and the fact that the folks who originated this particular process have probably moved on, taking their understanding with them. And so starts the slow, steady spiral to complete irrelevance, and slavish adherence to non-value adding work.

Empathy Helps Overcome Entropy

To make change happen in these environments, it helps to have - and demonstrate - empathy for how people feel and think, to lower the resistance and open the minds.

Show your self-knowledge, and humility, by freely admitting when your understanding falls short. As a team member - speak up! in public! when you don't understand the underlying process. As a manager - encourage folks to raise their hands and ask for help. And please - make it easy for me to seek help off-line, after the meeting ends, so I don't have to demonstrate my ignorance in public.

Realize, however, that there is a significant requirement to Get Things Done; we don't have time to stop and deconstruct everything. There is a significant business value in having a repeatable, lean process, and all of this 'search for understanding' is wasting daylight. Balance the importance of understanding with the need to get stuff done, by designing, documenting, and implementing lean processes with incremental improvements, that can drive results on day one, but can also mature and improve over time.

Set the expectation that Understanding the Job is just as important as Getting It Done - but don't forget that we are getting paid by our Results, not our Understanding.