" But only by understanding why things are the way they are, and who else is connected to each part of your work, will you start to see that there are damn good

" But only by understanding why things are the way they are, and who else is connected to each part of your work, will you start to see that there are damn good reasons, even if the result feels inefficient or frustrating at your desk." Usually things end up being inefficient precisely because there are no or few people who understand the totality of a process or sales, from idea to design to implementation to sales to support and collections. That takes talking to other people, and learning about what they do and how they do it and why they do it. I've been in some orgs where that sort of "cross talk" is seen as subversive, likely because it tends to expose inefficiencies that are politically introduced as a way of controlling territory or power.