The Reformists
It's easy—even cool—to be a reformist. For a reformist soul, everything done thus far sucks and it must be replaced for something better, something more efficient, more adaptive. Something more modern.
Almost no organization in the history of organizations has heard a new manager saying after being hired: “everything is fine like it is, just carry on”. On the contrary, the usual is “I am here now, things will be very different. I represent the good, the organized, the well-thought. The past represents the exact opposite”. Every new manager is the reincarnation of Martin Luther.
But hiding in the depths of a reformist lies a combination of laziness and a silly thirst for dominance.
See how lions behave. When a new coalition of males takes over a pride, they almost always kill the prides' cubs, since they are not biologically related and do not want to spend energy ensuring that other lions' genes will be passed on. Damn nature, you scary.
Bit less cruel, a reformist needs to kill the past because the past cannot continue passing on. He or she represents a fresh new start of organizational genes, the new lion taking over a pride.
Why laziness? It’s fairly easy to opportunistically ignore why things are like they are or how much effort it took to build what the reformist flags as a mess. Every "mess" has a background story, and although improving messes must be encouraged, every change spawns new ones. Someone in the future will eventually flag your perfect new solution as a mess, and the cycle shall repeat. Also, managers bringing all the tools they know with them and wanting everyone to unconditionally switch shows laziness and stubbornness to adapt to different landscapes and tame new learning curves.
Everything can be considered a mess if you are picky enough because, well, nothing is perfect. Now, does everything need to be re-spun from scratch? Absolutely not.
Reformist souls should always remember that the problems of today were meant to be the solutions of yesterday.