New ways of working get absorbed into the old pattern
Behaviour reverts because the old pattern is the one the structure makes easiest.
When new ways of working don't stick, they don't fail.
They get turned into something the organisation already knows how to run.
The new way arrives.
Roles have already formed around what came before. Meetings hold it in place and approvals reinforce it.
None of that disappears when something new enters.
Some of it goes through. Some gets routed back through what's already trusted.
What gets routed is the gap between what the system was built for and what the new way needs.
Over time, the new way can start to resemble the old. Edges soften. Steps drop out. Workarounds appear.
What survives is what the existing system could absorb.