Roundabouts Beat Traffic Lights
Every organization operates on invisible assumptions that rarely get questioned. Like operating systems running silently in the background, these assumptions dictate how we solve problems. Consider the traffic signal versus the roundabout. The signal assumes people need to be told what to do with complex rules and technology. The roundabout trusts drivers to use judgment with simple guidelines. Surprisingly, roundabouts outperform in every metric—they're safer (reducing fatal collisions by 90%), more efficient (reducing delays by 89%), cheaper to maintain, and function during power outages. Yet in America, we have just one roundabout for every 1,118 intersections. Why? We confuse popularity with quality. Perhaps it's time to examine which "operating systems" are truly serving our organizations, rather than blindly following what's familiar.