The Invisible Dictator

• People require more effort and control to do a task or activity that's not part of their default mode. If you need someone to do something outside of their default mode, start with small steps and slowly introduce the new activity.
• When hiring people, try to identify what's their personal default mode. Ask what their typical day at work looked like? What tasks would they prefer to avoid?
• When there are no clear goals and instructions, most people focus on doing what they're good at or most comfortable with instead of what the company needs. E.g. overengineering in tech companies.

Most organisations need hardcoded processes for the company to work as a well functioning machine. 

However, processes create habits. People who carry out processes stop thinking critically. When processes are too strict without a degree of autonomy and feedback, the organisation will run on old habits.

There are acceptable default behaviours, "how we do things here" which people learn through osmosis and which can become habitual. If an organisation is not pro-actively defining its culture, it will assume whatever default modes there happen to be. For example:

• Do people trust their colleagues by default or exercise caution?
• What's the default atmosphere in the organisation? Are people excited to show up at work?
• Do people care about their work, or do they just tick checkboxes?