“Work flows down the path of least resistance. If the right action is hard, people do the wrong one, every time.”
Behavior follows friction, not intentions. When the correct process is harder than the shortcut, people take the shortcut, and no amount of training or policy reliably overrides it.
People default to whatever is easiest in the moment, regardless of what they "should" do.
Do not exhort better behavior, engineer the desired action to be the path of least resistance.
Map where the easy path and the right path diverge; those gaps predict every workaround.
Security mandates a clunky approved tool; everyone quietly uses the easy unapproved one. Lectures do not help. Making the approved tool the fastest option, one click, pre-filled, ends the shadow usage overnight, because the right path finally became the easy one.
Optimizing purely for ease can smooth away necessary friction, the deliberate pause before an irreversible or high-stakes action. Some steps should be a little hard on purpose.
Where is the right thing to do also the hardest thing to do on your team?