[monkeydreams]

> If you want to have a maximum effect on the design of a new engineering system, learn to draw. Engineers always wind up designing the vehicle to look like the initial artist's concept.

This is a key truth that works in a number of contexts. If you want to make sure the new security policy won't break your workflows, offer to write the first draft. If you want to ensure the new automation system will work for your team's requirements - offer to chair the requirements meetings.

Humans are lazy, though some of them move around a lot in an attempt to mask this. If you get in early and set the parameters of an enterprise, you influence every iteration of that enterprise until its dying day.