A Thought Experiment

Picture this: You’re designing your dream kitchen. Money’s no issue, and efficiency is the goal. You’re given two options:

1. Traditional Setup – One dishwasher, a bunch of cabinets, and the never-ending cycle of unloading, storing, and retrieving dishes.
2. Revolutionary Setup – Two dishwashers. One for clean dishes, one for dirty. No unloading. No unnecessary steps. Just an elegant, time-saving loop.

It’s the obvious choice, right? Two dishwashers save time, effort, and even money compared to expensive cabinetry. But when you pitch this to your spouse, you get the look.

“Two dishwashers? Are you serious?”

Followed immediately by:

1. A deep sigh.
2. A concerned glance, as if they are reevaluating every life decision that led to this moment.
3. “What will people think?”

And that’s when you realize—you’ve just introduced an innovation so efficient, so logically superior, that it makes people uncomfortable. This will now be the defining conversation at every game night.

• “Oh yeah, those are the two-dishwasher weirdos.”
• “Steve, come look at this. They don’t believe in cabinets.”
• “Did you guys actually think this was a good idea? Or was it a dare?”

At this point, it’s easier to give up and install the cabinets than to spend the next decade explaining your life choices.

The Corporate Immune System: Fighting Off Innovation at All Costs

Big companies treat new ideas the same way the body treats a virus—immediate and aggressive rejection. The moment a concept challenges “the way we’ve always done it,” the corporate immune system attacks, isolates, and eradicates it before it can spread.

• AI-powered automation? Sounds risky.
• Rethinking bloated approval processes? Feels dangerous.
• Eliminating redundant reports? But we love those meetings!
• Two dishwashers? Have you lost your mind?

And the excuses roll in, wrapped in corporate-friendly language:

• “We’ll have to run this by legal.” (Translation: Never happening.)
• “IT security will need to sign off.” (Translation: Absolutely never happening.)
• “Let’s form a task force to explore this.” (Translation: We will discuss this in 18 months and conclude that it is impossible.)

The idea isn’t the problem. The change is.

Let’s Talk Money—Because Money Talks

Here’s where the logic gets even more airtight. The cost of two standard dishwashers ($1,000–$2,200 total) is often cheaper than the cost of the equivalent cabinet space ($200–$2,400 for just 2 feet of custom cabinetry).

Translation? You’d be paying more for the privilege of manually transferring dishes between locations—a process that could be automated for less money.

This is exactly how Corporate America spends millions on outdated systems, clunky software, and redundant middle management layers—simply because that’s the way things have always been done.

The Disinfection Process: How to Get a New Idea Approved

So, how do you get an idea past the corporate immune response? You sanitize it.

1. Dilute the Disruption – Present your idea as a natural extension of what’s already working, not a radical overhaul.
2. Use Corporate-Approved Soap – Frame the innovation in the language of “efficiency,” “compliance,” or “cost savings.”
3. Give Leadership the Lysol Wipe – Let them take credit. If executives think they invented the idea, they’ll champion it.
4. Introduce in Small Doses – Roll it out in phases. If you propose replacing cabinets with one extra dishwasher, people might listen.

Final Rinse: Don’t Let Good Ideas Get Scrubbed Away

If corporate leadership insists on rejecting efficiency in favor of tradition, it’s not because the idea is bad—it’s because change makes people uncomfortable.

The next time you’re shot down for suggesting an obvious improvement, remind them:

• We could have had two dishwashers.
• Instead, we have expensive cabinets full of clean plates—while dirty dishes pile up in the sink.
• Just like the outdated workflows they refuse to fix.

Now, let that thought soak in.

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Inspired by Rory Sutherland, Who Would Absolutely Approve of Two Dishwashers

This entire line of thinking is directly influenced by the work of Rory Sutherland, whom I’ve blathered on about in previous posts, yet will recommend again. If you haven’t encountered his ideas, he’s something of a TikTok star these days, dropping wisdom on the absurdity of how we think about business, economics, and human behavior.

If you like this kind of thinking—the type that makes you go, “Wait, why don’t we do that?”—his book Alchemy is highly suggested for those ready to commit.

Check out the Deep Thoughts and Whatnots podcast for the audio version—complete with expanded humor 😏—on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.