The Hidden Blueprint Inside Every Broken Process

You’ve probably seen a dirt trail cutting through grass, ignoring the paved path. That’s a desire path—a route forged by use, not by design. And they show up everywhere: in your product, your processes, your org.

They matter because most systems don’t fail from lack of design. They fail because they’re designed in defiance of how people actually behave.

The Process Isn’t Broken—The Map Is

People call it shadow IT. Or noncompliance. Or a training issue. But what looks like rebellion is often a blueprint.

In urban planning, desire paths are seen as feedback. In companies, we treat them as disobedience. We forget: precedent precedes policy. People do what others do—not what the sign says.

Desire paths are structure. They’re not chaos. They’re just emergent instead of enforced.

“Just Add Training” Is a Cop-Out

When employees ignore a system, the typical response is to double down: add rules, run a lunch-and-learn, maybe build a dashboard no one asked for.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: there is no such thing as lazy behavior. There’s only friction. Users, like water, follow the easiest route downhill.

If your system’s being ignored, it’s not a user problem. It’s a design problem.

You Need a Turnstile, Not a Sign

One security-conscious org posted signs forbidding “tailgating” through badge-access doors. No one followed them—because shutting a door in someone’s face feels… rude.

So they installed a turnstile. Problem solved.

This is the core idea: when a behavior persists, it’s not enough merely to warn against it. You have to make the right thing easier to do than the workaround.

Watch What People Actually Do

Managers often whiteboard the system they wish existed. But that version rarely survives contact with reality.

Want to see how your system actually works? Talk to the people doing the work. Watch their browser tabs. Look at the Slack channels people actually use, not the ones you pinned. Pay attention to the DMs.

Remote orgs have desire paths too—you just have to look at the social network behind the tools.

Pave the Damn Path

Okay, so you’re now in tune with your Org. What’s the problem now?

Maybe you noticed the desire path, but you stopped there. If you let it remain informal, it gets messy. It’s lore, not documentation. You’ve gone from a system where the map disagrees with the territory to a system where there is no map.

Instead, formalize what’s already working:

• Promote the doc everyone already links to

• Build the integration they’re duct-taping themselves

• Normalize the meeting they keep having off-calendar

Strategy is pathfinding. Your job is to recognize the direction things want to go—and help pave the way.

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