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      KEYZINE: An e-zine for LEADERS:
     ABOUT THE PEOPLE PART OF BUSINESS
                 Volume 39, June 2004
    Publisher: © Key Associates, 2004
              ISSN # 1545-8873
           http://www.mkkey.com

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This Issue: On "Bureaucracy"

This is a monthly electronic magazine for anyone 
who wants to be a better leader, coach, facilitator, 
or simply, to tune up their people skills.  It is a 
complimentary publication, devoted to the next
evolution of Quality Thinking.

View Earlier Issues

Contents:

• What's Hot in Leadership
• Maintaining Yourself as a Leader
• Frequently Asked Questions from Leaders
• Educational Opportunities
• Useful Websites
• Articles/Publications

"Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable 
from molasses."
           -- Anon

"Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time 
when the quo has lost its status."
           -- Laurence J. Peter

"A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but 
to protect the writer."

-- Dean Acheson

"A conference is a gathering of important people who 
singly can do nothing, but together can decide that 
nothing can be done."

-- Fred Allen

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WHAT'S HOT IN LEADERSHIP
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STREAMLINING. (See earlier e-zine issue on 
Lean Does Not Have to Be Mean, Volume 19, 
October 2002.)

INVITING CRITIQUE OF ORGANIZATIONAL
POLICIES AND PRACTICES.

CLEANING HOUSE ON ADMINISTRIVIA.

DEVELOPING STRUCTURES THAT ARE FLUID
AND RESPONSIVE TO CHANGE.

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MAINTAINING YOURSELF AS A LEADER
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You probably feel constant pressure to organize.  
Drawing the organizational chart and moving the 
boxes around are often the first tasks of a new 
leader.  Be warned that this is the least effective 
mode of change.

Bureaucracy is an attempt to put order into 
chaos, but the order gets stuck in its own 
self-importance.  To mend its ineffectiveness, 
leaders mistakenly add more steps and complexity.

Consider instead: clarifying the aim, the mission, 
the end result, the principles, and allowing your 
systems to self-organize.  Group around a task 
and disband when done.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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I am appalled at the size of our Policies and 
Procedures manual.  No one could read all of 
this, much less understand it.  Then we have 
to police it.  What to do?

One leader I know (and he's reading this with you)
publicly burned the monster, with a ceremony, 
to symbolize the purge of bureaucracy.  Then 
he began anew, articulating a handful of principles
by which organizational members could guide their
behavior.  He did this with them, not to them.

There is only one rule in Nordstrom's handbook,
reflecting three generations of trusting employees
to make good decisions.  Quote:

    Rule #1:  Use your good judgment in all situations.

    There will be no additional rules.

    Please feel free to ask your department manager, 
    store manager, or division general manager any 
    questions at any time.

            NORDSTROM

If I abandon rules, don't I lose control?

First of all, most rules are built for the exception.  
There is an implicit message that without the rules,
most people would lie, cheat, and steal.  In the words
of W. Edwards Deming, most policies are constructed
for the "special cause."  What this does is insult the
larger mass of people who would willingly comply
with the spirit of the rule, if they understand its
purpose.

There is another peril.  When you treat adults like
children, guess what...they ACT like children.

Incidentally, you never had control in the first place.  
Organizations and people (what's the difference?)
run themselves, and at best, you can only hope to
influence them in a positive direction.

If not an org chart, then what?

Complex, adaptive systems cannot be described 
in such a static fashion.  Still there is no harm in 
everyone knowing what their job is and how it 
contributes to the whole.  Some people have
flipped their org charts upside down to put the 
customer on top, as the boss.

Some newer, more dynamic depictions I have
seen are molecular designs, constellations, a fern
leaf, pods attached to a hub, circles upon circles 
upon circles, overlapping circles, a tree, clusters.  
Notice the organic theme.  Margaret Wheatley 
(Leadership and the New Science, 1992)
described these as "process structures"--things
that maintain form over time yet have no rigidity
of structure.

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EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
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Key Associates can help you revision your 
organization via Search Conference
http://www.mkkey.com/Key%20Associates/FutureSearch.htm

Business e-coach with 25 lessons form Jack Welch
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_new-model_25lessons-welch.html

Term papers and essays on bureaucracy
http://www.academon.com/lib/paper/45552.html

Max Weber's classic essay on bureaucracy:
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters/324_ch1.pdf

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OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES 
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The CEO Refresher.  How to identify bureaucracy
and five methodologies to revision it:
http://www.refresher.com/!holder4.html

How people view and are viewed in a bureaucracy:
http://www.nmsu.edu/~iirm/articles/bureau.html

Reinventing Government with a DNA model:
http://www.nlma.org/banish.htm

Pitfalls, misconceptions, alternatives to bureaucracy:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rxv/orgmgt/bureaucracy.htm

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ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS                              
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Books on Bureaucracy
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/103-9347409-0978210?mode=books&keyword=Bureaucracy&tag=thelandofquote09

and

http://psychology.about.com/od/bureaucracy/