A mother trims a ham because her mother did, who did it because her oven was too small. The speaker argues most business rules persist for forgotten reasons. Ask why each one exists, find who started it, and delete it if the reason is gone.
So it's Christmas, mom's making ham. Young mom, she's got a toddler at home, and toddler's like, "Mom, why do you have the sides of your ham cut off and the top of your ham cut off?" She's like, "Well, that's the Miller family tradition." "But why?" Finally, the mother's like, "I don't know." And so she asks her mother, and she says, "You know what? It's a good question. That's just always how we've done it." And so then they group call the grandmother, and they say, "Grandmother, why did you always cut off the sides and the top of the ham when you made the Christmas ham?" And she said, "Sweetie, our oven was so small, I couldn't fit it in." In business, it's always good to say, "But why do we really do that?" this. And if you don't know why, you should know who and ask the person who made the rule. Otherwise, delete.
