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{{ | {{a|devil|}}:''“Many policies are organizational scar tissue — codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again”''. <br> | ||
::- {{author|Jason Fried}} | ::- {{author|Jason Fried}} | ||
Policy is | Policy is organisational scar tissue<ref>{{br|Rework}}</ref>. 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 | Management orthodoxy is predicated on policy and process being 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. | 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]] — to allege [[executive failure]], that is — is a kind of sedition. Yet history tells us catastrophic failures are far more likely a result of [[executive failure|executive]] than [[operational failure]].<ref>Let me cite some examples from {{author|Charles Perrow}}’s magnificent monograph {{br|Normal Accidents}}: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Erebus_disaster Air New Zealand’s Erebus disaster] in 1978. [[Enron]]. The Three Mile Island near miss in | ||
===Policy and subversion=== | ===Policy and subversion=== | ||
But policy is a [[proxy]]. It is a second-order derivative of the intractably complex life of a modern organisation. Compliance with policy is a quantifiable thing that [[internal audit]] can glom onto. It requires no qualitative assessment, no [[subject matter expert]]ise and no judgement. There is a simple enquiry with a simple answer. | But policy is a [[proxy]]. It is a second-order derivative of the intractably complex life of a modern organisation. Compliance with policy is a quantifiable thing that [[internal audit]] can glom onto. It requires no qualitative assessment, no [[subject matter expert]]ise and no judgement. There is a simple enquiry with a simple answer. | ||