some musings on bureaucracy and discipline

I recently finished Jim Collins' "How the Mighty Fall". I'm a big fan of Collins' work, I think he does an excellent job collecting, analyzing, and then distilling raw data on corporate America into fairly legitimate and consumable frameworks. In "How the Mighty Fall", Collins' identifies some of America's greatest companies that fell on hard times, many of them eventually succombing to their self-inflicted wounds. He identifies key milestones and markers along their downward path. One particular paragraph got my eye though, as it had me jumping up from my seat, shouting "that's it! he gets it! that's our problem!"

In Collins' second stage of decline, he discusses how companies, bloated with personnel, turn to bureaucracy to solve its problems. By having so many people to manage, some of whom fall below the threshold of competency a great company should have, organizations create rules, systems, and procedures to compensate. Don, the moron who runs Accounts Receivable, who couldn't lead his department out of a wet bag? Let's solve that problem by requiring drastic amounts of oversight and constant reporting requirements. Does this sound familiar to anyone already? By compensating to address the shortfalls of some people, the second order effect is to piss off all the high performers. Strong performers deserve freedom in part because they are self-motivated and self-disciplined. They don't need constant oversight to ensure they are achieving. Achieving is what they do naturally. But since rules have to be applied fairly, the same bullshit bureaucracy that falls over Don falls on Sarah (Sarah is our strong performer. Good job, Sarah). Strong people are pissed, so they leave, or even worse, start underperforming, thus causing additional bureaucracy because performance standards are slipping, and so on. A vicious cycle is created all because of that asshole Don. Thanks a lot Don. Inevitably, a culture of mediocrity consumes what was once a culture of excellence. And there is nothing more disgusting, repulsive, or dirty than mediocrity.

I'm sure everyone in the military has been a part of a mediocrity disease-ridden unit or staff. If not, lucky you. It's an awful place to be, especially if you're the sort who takes pride in their job and demands excellence of themselves.It really chafes to have to get paid the same amount as some booger-eater who will in all likelihood get promoted the same time as you, because God forbid somebody actually gets fired. Real fired, not just "reassigned" or "given a chance to excel elsewhere". It piss me off. Anyone else?