Every permanent change started as a temporary one.

In March 2020 we all sent the same email. Some version of: "Given the current circumstances, we are asking employees to work from home for the next two weeks. We will revisit this on April 3." None of those emails was honest. We were not going back on April 3. We were not going back on May 1. We were not going back, period, for the kind of work that did not need an office. It just took us three years to admit it.

"Temporary" is what we call a structural change while it is happening to us. "Permanent" is what we call it after we look back and notice the calendar didn't reset.

The pattern repeats. The 2008 mortgage rescue was temporary. The 2020 fiscal expansion was temporary. The two-week vacation a senior partner takes after a deal closes is temporary, until it isn't and he never comes back. The most consequential changes in any system are the exceptions that quietly become the rule.

The lesson, if you're inside an organization, is to watch the temporary fixes. They are the durable ones. The thing labeled "interim solution" tends to be the solution. The thing labeled "permanent strategic initiative" tends to die quietly two quarters later when the budget meeting goes the wrong way.

Believe the exceptions. Doubt the policies.