Policy

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“Many policies are organizational scar tissue — codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again”.

- Jason Fried

Policy is organizational scar tissue. It's the sheep they’ll hang you for. It is the dominant ideology of modern management theory. Policy, and process, is seen as practically inviolate, or immovable.

Management orthodoxy is predicated on policy and process being the the fundamental layer of organisational competence. So, for example, a root cause analysis using the 5 why's method is intended to reveal as the root cause the policy which had not been complied with.

Policy is the mountain; the workers are Mohammed. So calling out substandard performance in the workforce is orthodox business management practice. But calling out substandard process or, heaven forfend, policy, is a kind of sedition.

But policy is a proxy. Policy is a second order derivative of the intractably complex life of a modern organisation. Adherence to policy is is the

Yet

See also

• doctrine of precedent
• elephants and turtles
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
• Rework - Jason Fried