History as important as the future?

In business how a decision was made may be as important as what you do in the future. Why decisions were made, what things were in place when it was made and who made that decision. Maybe it was a reaction to another bad decision. Maybe it is in place for something that people have not thought about in some time yet is still viable. Maybe it was just part of the culture and it has been carried through simply because it was trained that way. These are the ways that the "TPS Report" become every day practice

Next time that someone tells you to do something a particular way, ask for the history, not just the why.