Logic and culture have nothing to do with one another.
Jerry Weinberg, The Secrets of Consulting
A friend of mine works for a large government organization that runs a dam, extracting electricity from water and gravity.
They have internal software development, of course, and my friend described some impressive obstacles to change. Deploying a new lambda function is a challenge. My friend calls on contacts throughout the department, including friends from previous jobs that now also work there. They help each other through procedural barriers.
I said, wow. He said, yeah, we have a mantra: “We make power, not sense.”
Culture doesn’t make sense, to anyone from outside. Culture is common sense, to anyone embedded in it.
To understand and work with a large organization, let go of trying to make sense of it. Observe it and see what’s there. After that, logic might help in finding ways to work skillfully inside it, maybe even to change it.
Simon Wardley always says, map what is. Then think about moving it toward what you want.