It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that one person represents a whole institution. When you get a bad customer service representative, it’s really easy to think that they are all bad. When the cashier who checks you out, doesn’t know the difference between a tomato and a potato, it’s easy to think that all cashiers are at the same level. Even inside our own companies, it’s easy to forget that one person that we struggle to work with is not necessarily representative of the group.
Similarly, a good experience doesn’t mean that all experiences will be good. But like with poker, we rarely remember the good outcomes. We are much more likely to remember the bad beats.
Yes, sometimes people are a product of their environment. But just as often, they aren’t. Beauracracy is real and painful but sometimes we think it exists when it doesn’t actually.