Tangling with Your Temple Cats

Every organisation keeps a few “temple cats” — the assumptions, traditions and ways of working that have become sacred simply because they’ve always been there. They prowl the corridors untouched, and questioning them can feel like heresy.

Why they matter

Temple cats aren’t all bad. Some protect genuinely good things. But others quietly block the very change an organisation says it wants — and because no one names them, no one deals with them.

Tangling, gently

The work isn’t to chase every cat out of the temple. It’s to be willing to name them, to ask whether they still serve the mission, and to let go of the ones that don’t. That takes courage, care and a culture safe enough to ask hard questions out loud.

We dare leaders to shine the moral light on those aspects of their schools, systems or culture that need it most.

Sustainable change rarely fails for lack of ideas. It fails because the temple cats were never disturbed.