I know the system now — why do red tape and politics still beat me?

You learned where the approvals go. You know which form triggers which review. And still the purchase order sits on a desk for six weeks, still the committee tables your proposal again, still someone you've never met can end your project with silence. This is not a knowledge gap anymore. You do not lack the map. What you lack is the will to treat the blocker as a person, not a process. A stalled request has a name attached to it — the director who hasn't signed, the peer who benefits if your project fails, the office that goes quiet before budget season. You keep filing another version of the form. You have not yet called the person. Your pod feels this together — one member blocked in finance, another in legal, another waiting on a peer department that never replies. Good. Shared frustration is data. It tells you where the real decisions are made, and by whom, if you stop complaining about "the process" long enough to look.