Side Doors & Drone Drops
Confiscated Commissary
This time of year tends to bring out the best in people. Perfect strangers smile and let others merge in bumper-to-bumper traffic, while Secret Santas restore our faith in humanity—if only briefly.
And then there are the perennial Grinches.
Last week a drone dropped a package containing food — and a few other illicit items — into a prison yard in South Carolina, only to be intercepted by early nominees for Grinch of the Year. Prison guards at the Lee Correctional Institution confiscated a package of raw steak, crab legs, marijuana, cigarettes, and Old Bay, denying one inmate the ability to prepare a well-seasoned, maggot-free surf & turf in his state-issued Easy-Bake oven.
Illegal contraband isn’t new to prisons. Scarcity doesn’t eliminate demand — it just forces smarter workarounds.
Prison yard deliveries that once relied on a guy named “Big Mike” with a strong arm and questionable aim, have now progressed to drone drops by Dot from DoorDash. At this rate, next year inmates will be using AI to analyze guard schedules and wind speed to optimize drop windows.
As clever as the attempt was, the intended recipient — inmate #8675-309 — will likely remain silent. Claiming the package could land them in solitary confinement. And for what? A Harry & David Holiday Basket for Jailbirds — minus the Cheddar Bay biscuits?
No thanks. Just refund my commissary, please!
The Drone Test
This prison drone delivery reveals something deeply human:
When legitimate paths feel blocked, people don’t stop trying — they start improvising.
That instinct doesn’t disappear when we leave the prison yard and walk into the office. It just wears nicer shoes.
When budgets freeze, headcount stalls, approvals crawl, or priorities keep shifting, scarcity shows up at work in quieter ways. And when it does, people start building workarounds instead of solutions.
That’s where The Drone Test comes in.
The Drone Test is a simple pause — a moment of mindful friction — to help you decide whether you’re responding creatively… or quietly sneaking around a broken system. So, before you duct-tape a solution together and hope no one notices, walk through these four steps:
Name the Scarcity
Perhaps you're being held accountable without authority because you own outcomes but not headcount or budget. Once you say the quiet part out loud — or at least to yourself — that scarcity loses a lot of its power. Until then, it just feels like pressure — and pressure pushes people toward side doors, like unpaid overtime.
Ask...What Path Feels Blocked?
Get specific about the obstacle. In the accountable without authority scenario, perhaps you're asking your team — and yourself — to compensate for a system gap.
Answering this question helps because many workplace “workarounds” aren’t acts of rebellion — they’re acts of resignation.
Expand the Time Horizon by One Step
Scarcity narrows time. It whispers, “Fix this now or fail.”
So zoom out — just slightly. Instead of asking, “How do I get this done now?”, ask “What’s the next responsible step that reduces pressure in the future?”
Sometimes that means documenting the constraint.
Other times it means slowing down just enough to avoid inheriting a mess later.
Convert the Workaround into a Signal
This is a crucial step because it's the one that can change everything.
If you’re tempted to execute a workaround, before you do ask “What does this workaround say about the system?”
Then — when appropriate — say it out loud.
“We keep borrowing people from other teams because our staffing model doesn’t match demand.”
“We’re rushing launches because timelines aren’t aligned with review capacity.”
“We’re redoing work because priorities aren’t stable.”
That’s not complaining. That’s diagnosis.
And unlike drone drops, diagnosis has the potential to unblock the path — not just for you, but for everyone behind you.
Scarcity is real.
Constraints are real.
And ingenuity is often a strength.
But before you fly your own drone over the walls, it’s worth asking whether the real opportunity is to fix the fence.
Because the most mindful move isn’t finding a clever way around the system — it’s helping the system work better so no one needs a workaround in the first place.
Question of the Week
Where am I flying drones when what’s really needed is a gate repair?
BONUS QUESTION: What would happen if I stopped optimizing the drop — and fixed the fence?
