It starts with a simple proposal.

A small, logical tweak to improve efficiency. Nothing controversial, nothing complicated, just the kind of thing that should take two weeks to implement.

And then, the telenovela begins.

Jamie is on holiday. We could proceed without her, but Jamie is very important (we think?), so we wait. Two weeks pass.

In the meantime, someone suggests we hold off until HR launches their new performance management system. Makes sense. No one is exactly sure when that’s happening, but…okay.

Then there’s Bob. Poor old Bob will hate this. If we invite him to the meeting, we’ll be here all year. Maybe we just… don’t?

And then Jamie returns: tanned, well-rested, and…she has some thoughts. Not about the proposal, mind you. Apparently the book she’s been reading while on vacation has blown her mind. She’s now full of ideas about how the company’s leadership culture should be radically transformed. She lays the book on the conference table, opens it at one of the many sticky bookmarks and starts reading out one of her highlighted quotes.

And just like that, the project is no longer about a simple process change. It’s about rethinking the way we work. It needs a new framework, new messaging, a new sponsor, and of course, a vision statement and possibly its own branding and intranet site.

A new round of meetings is scheduled. A new slide deck is in the works. The original problem? No one remembers. But Jamie’s book? Internal comms is already managing the order for the entire company.

And just like that, the project doesn’t get approved. It gets reimagined.

Simple changes don’t fail because they’re hard. They fail because over-enthusiastic executives turn them into grand reinventions of the wheel, chasing trends and building legacies for their own future instead of solving the problems that are costing us customers today.

Welcome to The Friday Confessional. If you know, you know.