I have a grudge against multi-level interlocked bureaucracy. You might think, “He’s talking about government!” But no, it’s not just a government issue. I quarrel with it, whether in the private sector or the government. However, my experiences with it were when I worked for the government.

In the little out-of-the-way part of the government where I worked, my staff had an exhibit to create. It pretty straightforward until I was told that the concerns of “cooperating agencies” had to be considered. Design meetings no longer were three people. They grew large. Simple things became a matter of appeasing someone’s pet peeve. And, of course, the cost grew terribly and trebly.

Eventually, the “reinvention of government” under Clinton came along. But in typical glacial governmental style, it took two years to lay us off.

I haven’t been shy about discussing this with friends whose experiences were with large not-for-profits and commercial enterprises. So, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to their horror stories of lock-step organizations gone wild.

I’ve spent time thinking about their stories and my own experience. I’ve decided that it’s not so much an issue of organizational size. Bureaucracy by itself is not bad and serves many valuable purposes. It’s more an issue of protecting organizational “turf,” individual ego, and asserting control.
All these things also cause trouble in small organizations. The costs and potential for failure multiply when coupled with size and complexity. This is especially so when there is no strong guidance or no one who can dampen the ego issues involved.

After the government, I became a professional woodcarver. However, to maintain a benefit package for the family, I went to work for a large transportation company. The dominant philosophy was to keep management levels lean, and make people responsible for their own areas. Our parts of the company were like small businesses. And we were responsible for making them work. One day I was helping to load a trailer when a “suit” walked in. He took off his jacket and started loading with me. He asked me what problems we had and what resources I needed to fix them. Later that afternoon, I was informed that the Regional Manager had been loading with me, and he had approved a few thousand dollars of fixes for my area.
Soon, I found that “management by walking about” was a popular method of staying in touch. Over my years at that company, I found very little of the turf wars or ego fights. When management failed, they were accountable. There was little shuffling of feet or blame, getting placed on committees or the lower ranks.

It was a tough, dirty place to work. But I preferred it to the backbiting, ego-bruising stupidity of my previous job.

Oh – and we got the job, and done well, too.