Innovation hides behind rites of passage

There are rites of passage everywhere in business.

Résumé expectations. Behaviour modification. Career ladders.

But these passages hide opportunities for innovation, if only we’d look for them:

A rite of passage could be assuming the only way to be good at producing a certain result takes a decade of experience, or that the hardships you experienced should be experienced by others too.

An opportunity for innovation could be to suppose that decade of experience could become process documentation that enables people with half your experience to produce the same results, without the hardships or struggles.

Behind every rite of passage lies an opportunity to innovate.

What innovations are hiding in your industry?