Live in the Past and be Lost in the Future

 

The most deleterious inhibitor of the ability of an organization to recognize and take advantage of change is an entrenched bureaucratic culture. Over time  insincere, insecure, incompetent and incoherent bureaucratic management actions create an abhorrence and fear of change, in any form. Bureaucracy suffocates innovation, challenge and change, but that’s its purpose. Bureaucracy is meant to preserve and protect the past. And it does so with vengeance by blinding organizations to the presence, threat and positive potential of change.

When a company has achieved success, it is natural to want to preserve that success. The problem is that like fame, success is fleeting. The fallacy of allowing bureaucracy to take hold in a previously entrepreneurial culture is the belief that the environment in which success was achieved can be frozen in time. But, of course, that is not the case. Success is maintained by responding to constantly changing conditions and challenges. The use of bureaucracy to maintain the status quo is akin to believing that it is possible to stop the march of time.

Opening the door to bureaucracy    

For a young organization, the desire to achieve success is so all encompassing that when success is achieved, the desire to protect it is natural, but this can open the door to bureaucracy. Once this happens, the results tend to be the opposite of what was intended. Protecting the past from change imperils the future.

The ability to maintain the success of an organization is more challenging than achieving success in the first place, but it is possible. To do so, organizational leaders need to re-define the concept of “success.” The mentality of the leaders must be that the real objective of the organization is constant, consistent and positive response to change.  Current success should not be viewed as the final objective, but simply an indication that the organization has been on the right path.  

A focus on constant achievement forces the organization to be responsive to change and, in fact, seek it out. There is no room for bureaucracy in such an organization because bureaucracy is designed to preserve what has been achieved, not support what is still to be achieved. Seeking constant and consistent achievement recognizes that if you are not making history, you are history.   

Systems and Procedures vs. Performance and Progress

Examine any company with a corporate culture that discourages recognizing and responding to change and you will find a bureaucratic management style based on systems and procedures, not performance and progress. The difference between a healthy work environment and a bureaucratic one comes down to the mindset of those charged with managing the company. The bureaucratic manager has a fixed mindset, believing there is only one way to achieve results. Their aim is to make any alternative or creative thinking as unrequited as an Orwellian "thoughtcrime."

Bureaucratic managers feel safe and secure with systems and procedures. They believe it is easier to protect success already achieved by following a rigid system or set procedures than it is to deal with the variable vicissitudes of change. They may be right, but history shows that a fixed mindset in business as to the way things are and should be is a sure path to decline and failure. It was Leon Tolstoy who said (1856), “The people who bind themselves to systems are those who are unable to encompass the whole truth and try to catch it by the tail; a system is like the tail of truth, but truth is like a lizard; it leaves its tail in your fingers and runs away knowing full well that it will grow a new one in a twinkling.”

And the Moral of the Story …

When the success of an organization is defined by what has been accomplished, instead of what can be accomplished, the door is open for bureaucracy to take hold. The only way to defend against bureaucracy and its crippling impact on the performance of an organization is to re-define success.

Success should not be viewed as a place in time or a fixed target, that once achieved is to be defended to the death. Success should be defined as a constant and consistent effort to diligently recognize and take advantage of change. Success must be something to build on, not rest on. If this is the attitude and approach of organizational leaders, then a culture of achievement will be built and maintained. Bureaucracy will be banished, allowing for the potential of lasting success to be achieved. 

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Bob Macdonald: Former CEO of ITT Life; founder of LifeUSA;  retired chairman and CEO of Allianz Life of North America; author of numerous books on business, management and leadership. bobmac5201@gmail.com

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