Occasionally I have a thought rumbling around in my head that just seems to click when it hits. Sometimes it hits before it rumbles around. Yesterday the later happened. I read a blog yesterday by Phil Cooke. The main point that resonated was this:

In bureaucratic organizations, far too many employees think the process is the goal. They think their policies, meetings, and paperwork is their job – when these areas are only tools to get the job done.

One of the things that is prevalent in my job for the federal government is a process. But too often people get bogged down in doing things the way they've always done them. So often they don't know why they're doing it, don't understand how they're doing it, and don't know any other way of doing it. When you suggest something to them they shut down the idea because it can't be right. What you're suggesting is so far different then what they know, you must be wrong.

The reality is that they simply don't know. These tend to be the people you can't explain things to.

This afternoon I found out that one of the goals of a project I'm working on was an arbitrary number not chosen specifically for our site. We can change the number, but it's a process that no one really wants to go through because of the bureaucratic tape. But if we don't we'll end up spending literally millions of dollars doing something to a number that was not really intended to be done. Easy choice here to do the hard thing, but the hardest part will be demonstrating that the paperwork is a process not the end.

Prayers are the same way. We can't allow the prayer of salvation to just lead to church membership and then appoint the new member to a committee. The process is a tool, not the goal. It doesn't matter how many people "get saved", it only matters how many people are saved.

Think about it and get back to me.

A link to the whole blog is here: http://philcooke.com/why-you-hate-meetings/

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