Bulldozer00's Blog

In the “Bureaucracy Formation” post, I hypothesized about how orgs can undetectably transform from vibrant and flexible citizens into rigid and slovenly slow, bullies. As a refresher, the figure below carries over the pre- and post-transformation “system” states from that post. Sadly, after the t=Bureaucracy time threshold is passed, the situation gets worse than the picture implies.

In order to survive, thrive, and indisputably “show” their importance to the well being of the whole, each support group continuously adds more and more time sucking and money hogging work of questionable added-value to the system. However, the work they add is not for them to do. Incredulously, it’s red tape work they impose on their clients (a.k.a. customers), which are the product group and “other” support groups that are forced to use their service.

Early on in the stages of org development, it’s relatively easy to get support. You ask a person for help and you get it in a timely fashion. If you have to supply input along with your request, like a piece of software, or hardware, or a document, you don’t have to meet any arcane content, formatting, or packaging requirements. Over time, however, everything changes. First, a simple form is required. Then, a more detailed form. Then, more than one form. Then multiple forms and multiple signatures are required. Then you are required to follow a detailed step by step procedure that is so arcane and unmemorable that you have to look it up every time you need service. Then, if you do something wrong, you’re scolded for not knowing the process. On and on it goes. You get the picture, no?