Tech Lead Journal - 171 - The Delicate Art of Bureaucracy and Adaptive Ethics - Mark Schwartz
Bureaucracy is neither good, nor bad.
9:30 - learned helplessness in the face of bureaucracy is not good 10:20 - Max Weber’s definition of a bureaucracy has 6 characteristics:
- Division of labour
- Hierarchy
- Technical competence (a set of skills required for a position)
- Rules (processes as well)
- Flow of paper
- Impersonality (people follow the rules) This is a way of doing things - eg. Open a ticket and anyone can take it and it has process to be done.
22:00 - What makes a bureaucracy bad?
- bloated - controls are heavy handed, lots of waste
- Petrified - doesn’t change
- Coercive - controls ensure you say no and keep the status quo
23:45 - the opposites
- Lean - how can we make this control so it doesn’t get in the way? Or less burdensome
- Learning - do controls evolve?
- Enabling - do you use the rules/controls to better get your job done
And it should be clear that each of the above “bad” and “good” descriptors could be used to describe the exact same control.
Author has 3 personalities/types on how to push bureaucratic to evolve:
- Monkey
- Razor
- Sumo wrestler
Monkey - provoke and observe. Try changing to see what rules actually matter, eg. Change answers in documents or look
Razor is all about lean/six sigma/etc. Can we take waste out by revisiting how a control objectives can be better handled.
Sumo - use the system against itself. Eg. Make processes and policies to do the right thing.
45 min mark on the issue with how bureaucracy focuses on fairness and can not do equitable. Also how the digital approach vs traditional approach for inclusion creates a tension.
Tech Lead Journal - #171 - The Delicate Art of Bureaucracy and Adaptive Ethics - Mark Schwartz
https://overcast.fm/+AAfKlzwgz9Q
https://techleadjournal.dev/episodes/171/