100% agree! I would like to see OMB step back into the role of offering training to streamline and simplify procedure. Leadership and other training is decentralized across the federal government (and looks different at every agency) so mandating some core training on "work simplification" across the government would be step in the right direction. Thanks for highlighting!
“Reformers note that bureaucrats rarely consider what it’s like to actually apply for benefits – once again, a failure that process charting aimed to correct.”
This benefit goes the other way, too. At my last job I did customer service calls for a rebate program. Knowing how the whole machine worked let me explain the process in human terms to customers, flag pitfalls in advance, and reassure customers that someone competent had their back.
If managers know the process, they can fix it.
If customer service staff know the process, they can explain it IN FULL to customers/applicants/etc.
Absolutely! This was such a good idea that you could imagine expanding it to every sort of employee, not just the managers. I agree 100% with what you said. But also: If, say, the CIO's employees knew the entire process start to finish, imagine how much better software would function.
It's an absolute shame it was abandoned in favor of a much more top-down approach in the 1960's. The LBJ admin mandated a different governmentwide management approach, Planning-Programming-Budgeting (PPB). It was soon abandoned for being totally unworkable, although the Department of Defense still uses it. (And they have not quite demonstrated that it something other than "totally unworkable".)
After PPB, the federal management initiatives have just been a rotating series of fad-of-the-month.
I think part of the problem is that you can read Stephen Drucker or Charlie Munger and it's just banger after banger, but in practice people will cite these same principles to slough off accountability and outsource effort.
Efficient business processes are like good health--people want the easy solution when the upfront difficulty is precisely the point.
I've heard that all diets are approximately equally effective: the benefit is getting you to actually start noticing what you eat. I wonder if similarly, all management fads are equally effective: the benefit is getting organizations to actually think about their processes. And therefore, all management process certifications are equally ineffective: standardized certified management consultants cuts out the "actually thinking about things" step, i.e. the only actually important step.
This is an amazing post and everyone in federal government should read it right now.
100% agree! I would like to see OMB step back into the role of offering training to streamline and simplify procedure. Leadership and other training is decentralized across the federal government (and looks different at every agency) so mandating some core training on "work simplification" across the government would be step in the right direction. Thanks for highlighting!
Well, I'd let the feds finish their shopping now and read it during the snowstorm tomorrow. Jokes aside - thanks so much!
“Reformers note that bureaucrats rarely consider what it’s like to actually apply for benefits – once again, a failure that process charting aimed to correct.”
This benefit goes the other way, too. At my last job I did customer service calls for a rebate program. Knowing how the whole machine worked let me explain the process in human terms to customers, flag pitfalls in advance, and reassure customers that someone competent had their back.
If managers know the process, they can fix it.
If customer service staff know the process, they can explain it IN FULL to customers/applicants/etc.
Absolutely! This was such a good idea that you could imagine expanding it to every sort of employee, not just the managers. I agree 100% with what you said. But also: If, say, the CIO's employees knew the entire process start to finish, imagine how much better software would function.
It's an absolute shame it was abandoned in favor of a much more top-down approach in the 1960's. The LBJ admin mandated a different governmentwide management approach, Planning-Programming-Budgeting (PPB). It was soon abandoned for being totally unworkable, although the Department of Defense still uses it. (And they have not quite demonstrated that it something other than "totally unworkable".)
After PPB, the federal management initiatives have just been a rotating series of fad-of-the-month.
I think part of the problem is that you can read Stephen Drucker or Charlie Munger and it's just banger after banger, but in practice people will cite these same principles to slough off accountability and outsource effort.
Efficient business processes are like good health--people want the easy solution when the upfront difficulty is precisely the point.
I've heard that all diets are approximately equally effective: the benefit is getting you to actually start noticing what you eat. I wonder if similarly, all management fads are equally effective: the benefit is getting organizations to actually think about their processes. And therefore, all management process certifications are equally ineffective: standardized certified management consultants cuts out the "actually thinking about things" step, i.e. the only actually important step.