Bureaucracy Comes in Two Flavors

I think that leadership mistakes that cause bureaucracy to develop come in two flavors: 1. Poorly designed incentive systems - many incentive systems punish mistakes but fail to reward successes, causing organizations to be overly risk-averse. For example, the FDA is punished for permitting harmful drugs to be sold on the market, but they’re not punished for stalling research that could save lives and they’re not rewarded for supporting transformative innovation. 2. Loose coupling of systems with desired outcomes - there’s often minimal connection between systems and processes put in place and desired organizational outcomes, even if the systems seem benign or helpful. For example, in engineering teams, it may seem like a good and safe idea to get consensus from leadership on every important architectural decision, but the desire for consensus can conflict with the organizational goal of releasing features at a high velocity to remain competitive.

На изображении показан фрагмент текста о двух причинах развития бюрократии: плохо устроенных стимулах и слабой связи процессов с желаемыми результатами. Шутка строится на жизненном описании ситуаций, когда организации наказывают за ошибки, но не поощряют успехи, а согласования и безопасные процедуры мешают быстро работать. Мем используют как реакцию на бюрократию, бесконечные согласования и неэффективное управление.

• @jemalloc / 1778 2024-10-23