The president of a local community college tells the story of how a new building was built on his campus. He instructed the maintenance staff to only create one sidewalk leading to and from the new building until the students came back on campus after the winter break. Upon hearing this the maintenance staff was stunned and confused. Why would there only be one route to and from the main entrance to a brand new building? When questioned about the lack of routes, the president explained that before observing the natural flow of students to the new building, there could only be speculation about where would be the best places to create more sidewalks. After allowing the students to determine how they would get to and from the building by creating rabbit paths, these paths would then show everyone the true best placement of the new sidewalks.
Just as Beta was beat out by VHS, and VHS was beat out by DVD, which is now giving way to even newer technology; it is important to continually monitor and realize new and improved ways of doing something. As a process, and the system developed to manage it, is first being created there are usually several views of the best way to make it work. Allowing a group the freedom to find their own way increases the chances of more people being willing to contribute. An increase in the number of contributions leads to a higher likelihood of new and innovative ways of seeing things and the development of a better product over time.
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