Environment and landscape designers have a lovely term for pathways that walkers create when they take shortcuts across parks and the like. They call these tracks “desire lines”.
I don’t know if a technical definition exists, but if it did it would read something like:
desire line: An informal, preferred path used to get from one location to another rather than using the official route.
So what’s all this got to do with business? Quite simply this: if you have procedures or policies that people are not following — “pay within 7 days”, “Read and sign this three-month contract”, as examples — just consider the “desire line” carefully before you go beating up your clients and customers.
It may just be they are trying to tell you something. Something you’d do well to hear.
