Few phrases close a conversation faster than: "It's just common sense."
Common sense feels self-evident precisely because its assumptions are rarely visible to the person using it.
Yet much of what we call obvious has been learned through family, education, profession, culture, institutions and experience.
What seems natural in one environment can be completely unfamiliar in another.
The trouble with invisible knowledge
Consider a new employee joining an organisation.
Nobody tells them that senior leaders expect challenge, emails should be brief, people rarely use formal titles, meetings start exactly on time, feedback is given directly, asking for help early is valued.
These rules may be obvious to established employees.
They are invisible to the newcomer.
When the person gets one wrong, the judgement may be: "They should have known."
How?
Common sense can hide privilege
People with long exposure to a system possess accumulated local knowledge.
They know which rules are flexible.
They understand tone.
They recognise who really makes decisions.
They know when formality matters.
Others are learning the system while trying to perform inside it.
Calling that knowledge "common sense" hides the advantage.
Explain important norms
Strong organisations reduce dependence on guessing.
They explain how decisions work, how escalation happens, what deadlines really mean, how disagreement is expressed, when people should ask for help, and what good performance looks like.
This improves outcomes for everyone, not only international staff.
Curiosity works in both directions
Sometimes the newcomer's question reveals that an established practice has never been examined.
"Why do we do it this way?"
The answer may be compelling.
Or there may be no answer beyond habit.
That question can be valuable.
Common sense often feels universal because we have forgotten where we learned it.
— Promise Monday
Reflection
Which expectations in your workplace would be difficult for a highly capable newcomer to know without being told?