Edition 25 | 10 March 2026

Welcome to The Perspective.

Each week I try to step back from the headlines and reflect on the systems that shape how organisations, institutions and societies actually function.

Sometimes those reflections come from policy discussions or economic data. Other times they come from something far more ordinary: like sitting at a traffic light.

Last week, a short observation about Johannesburg’s roads sparked an unexpectedly strong response online. It reminded me that small everyday behaviours often reveal deeper shifts in how we think about rules, accountability and shared spaces.

When Small Rules Stop Feeling Like Rules

Last week I shared a short observation about Johannesburg’s roads that sparked a surprisingly strong response.

Sitting at a set of traffic lights, I realised how often the basic rules of the road are now treated as optional. Red lights increasingly feel like suggestions. Amber lights are interpreted as a signal to accelerate. And even after the opposite side has turned green, cars still push through the intersection.

What struck me most was that it isn’t confined to taxis or a particular group of drivers. It’s everyone. And when you hoot in frustration, the reaction is often a hoot back, as though you are the one disrupting the flow.

The issue isn’t simply traffic behaviour. It is what we have gradually normalised.

When small rules are ignored repeatedly, they stop feeling like rules at all. They begin to feel discretionary, something to follow when convenient and disregard when the moment allows.

That shift rarely happens dramatically. It develops slowly through repetition. One driver pushes through a late red light and nothing happens. Another follows. Over time the behaviour stops standing out and starts blending into the background.

Lawlessness, in most systems, does not arrive through a single dramatic failure. It creeps in through tolerated exceptions that slowly reset expectations.

What makes this pattern interesting is that it appears far beyond traffic. The same dynamics show up inside organisations, institutions and public systems. When small standards are repeatedly overlooked, they gradually lose their authority. Deadlines become flexible, processes become negotiable, and accountability becomes uneven.

Over time the system begins to adapt to the lowest level of enforcement rather than the highest level of principle.

And once that shift has taken hold, restoring order becomes far harder than maintaining it in the first place.

Johannesburg deserves better than the quiet erosion of basic order. But the same is true for the institutions and organisations that shape everyday life.

Because when rules stop feeling like rules, rebuilding trust becomes the real challenge.

View the full post and comments on LinkedIn

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On My Desk

Much of my attention at the moment is going into preparations for our Annual General Meeting at work, which is about six weeks away.

AGMs are interesting exercises because the task isn’t simply to present numbers. It’s to tell the story behind them in a way that makes sense to a broader audience, connecting financial results, strategic direction and operational realities into something coherent.

That process involves going back through the details, making sure the facts are clear, the narrative holds together, and the message is accessible to people who may not live inside the numbers every day.

Once the core message is right, the work then shifts into translation. The presentation will ultimately need to be available in French, Arabic and Portuguese, which adds another layer of discipline to making sure the underlying thinking is precise.

After several years of mostly virtual engagements, I’m also looking forward to delivering this one in person. Some conversations simply work better when people are in the same room.

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Closing Perspective Order rarely collapses in a single moment. It erodes slowly through the small things we stop enforcing, the small rules we stop respecting, and the small standards we stop expecting from each other. The real question isn’t whether systems fail. It’s how early we notice the warning signs. If you’ve read The Bottom Line and would like to share a short reflection or review, you’re welcome to do so here: ​https://yusufbodiat.co.za/metform-form/review-the-bottom-line/​ Keep thinking. Move forward. — Yusuf Visit my website

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