Should you invest more in improving your processes or engaging your people? It’s not an easy question, and the answer isn’t as obvious as I first thought when I started my career in leadership development and lean thinking.

There are three things that you need to know to understand why going against the grain is hard:

1. We are social creatures, and avoiding social pain is a survival mechanism

2. We are intelligent, creative and compassionate beings and not necessarily ruled by our instincts

3. We live closer in time to Tyrannosaurus Rex than T-Rex lived to Stegosaurus