... because we forgot that you can take the legs off of the table ... because the screwdriver we needed to take off the legs was in use elsewhere when the table arrived ...
Don’t ask for permission, just fix the stuff so that it works for you and maybe your small team and then announce it.
There is no documentation and no planning? Just start writing documentation, just start planning. If you need permission, I grant this to you. I‘ve seen too many internal projects not even having a README, so this is now something I start whenever I have to debug something and wished to have documentation.
Someone needs you to do something? Ok, I‘ll share my screen, start asking questions, and write all the important things down.
And now you try to suggest using a screwdriver, but your suggestion gets immediately attacked and buried because the team already have an established culture around the impossible table, and they don't want to change their ways, or made to look incompetent by revealing that there was an easy solution all along.
Or it can be as simple as someone's (or a whole team) job is to maintain those workarounds and bandaids and they're very invested in keeping their job (or they hold all the IP in their head).
Not just an established culture but a product with a long history of success despite its jank and problems. I appreciate the enthusiasm of new hires but often they don't understand priorities or that the goal is profit and not perfection (for most of us).
Don’t ask for permission, just fix the stuff so that it works for you and maybe your small team and then announce it.
There is no documentation and no planning? Just start writing documentation, just start planning. If you need permission, I grant this to you. I‘ve seen too many internal projects not even having a README, so this is now something I start whenever I have to debug something and wished to have documentation.
Someone needs you to do something? Ok, I‘ll share my screen, start asking questions, and write all the important things down.