Chesterton’s Fence

Whenever someone is starting a new job, I always advise them to take it slow at the beginning. Understand the current setup, see how things work, and then later begin to make suggestions.

With our newest hire at GreenMellen, I told her exactly that. She’s coming from another agency, and we’re very excited to learn from her, but I’ve asked to wait a bit before diving into that stuff. The more she understands about how we do things, the better equipped she’ll be to offer meaningful suggestions.

I first saw this explained in the book “ Unreasonable Hospitality “, where they said:

Some of the best advice I ever got about starting in a new organization is: Don’t cannonball. Ease into the pool. I’ve passed this advice on to those joining my own: no matter how talented you are, or how much you have to add, give yourself time to understand the organization before you try to impact it.

It turns out that this idea has a name: Chesterton’s Fence. It was coined by G.K. Chesterton and here is how he explains it:

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to…