By Christopher Aesoph, MA
Growing up a rancher’s kid in South Dakota, I have an appreciation for the story of the cow path. It’s a story about change, feeling threatened, and how people will struggle to keep things the same, even when it doesn’t make sense.
The Cow Path
Once there was a cow path. This dusty trail led from the hill where the wind blew flies away to the tree where the cow could find shade and nice place to scratch her back on the low hanging limbs. From there, the path meandered down to the water hole. All in all, a good route for the herd to use.
Long after the cows were moved to a different pasture, the trail remained. And people began to use it. The milkman used it, the postman used it, kids on their way to school used it. As the community grew, more people used the path, and so it got wider. The path became crowded at certain points of the day, so it grew wider still. Bikes, buggies and finally even cars began to use it, at which point everyone realized its limitations, because in the spring it would become so muddy that no one could pass.
And so they paved it.
This made perfect sense and everyone was very happy with the cleanliness and passability of the new road. It quickly took on more traffic, and so they made it a four-laner, and installed stoplights to protect the flow. Compared to what it was, this highway now tolerates much more traffic at higher speeds than ever before. It gives the people great satisfaction to see how much it has improved.
But it’s still a cow path.
This is how we end up making do with infrastructure, with systems and organizational structures, with solutions that are much less than ideal. We invest so much in a familiar way of doing things, that we feel we cannot bear the thought of moving beyond.
This makes sense when you think about it. How would you feel if you were the paver who paved the path, or the traffic controller who designed the stoplight system, or a daily user who watched the road become much faster over time? If someone came up to you and announced that the road would be moved or abandoned, you’d feel threatened and betrayed, right?
The point of this piece is not that you should seek and destroy cow paths. The point is, how do you bring the people who invested in the path along to a new destination? Those people are very good at making things work. You’ll need them in your future. How do you help them move forward? If you think the logic of pointing out how much better the new system will be is enough to placate them, you have many surprises ahead. You will be amazed how logic has nothing to do with what happens. Being right has nothing to do with it. Ignore these cow path builders and users at your peril. They will find a way to derail the best-laid plans, unless you find a way to bring them along.
