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  • From: Lee Haslup <biglee AT haslups.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] The Terminal, a true story!!!
  • Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 12:16:30 -0400

Marcia wrote:

That's a new concept to me. I had never heard of anything like that! How can the people responsible for the paperwork and bureaucracy, be so heartless?

It's not easy but it can be done. It takes teamwork and organization. You need a clearly defined process where problem-escalation paths have loops and each loop has to have at least three steps. That way each bureaucrat can be convinced that he or she is doing the right thing. Callousness, indifference, corruption and irritation are helpful, of course, but unreliable. You simply can't count on them. Every now and then, even the most dreadful bureaucrat will be tempted by sympathy and try to be helpful. That is why they need to be backed up by a carefully designed dysfunctional process. The three-step minimum for loops in the process is key. It allows all participants to believe that they are doing their best and to hope that the person they forward the problem to will "get it right" this time. It is hard to maintain that hope if the person you send something to immediately sends it right back. An unusually perceptive bureaucrat might begin to doubt the process. But as long as the three-step minimum is observed each bureaucrat is able to assume that the problem lies elsewhere, in some interaction in which he/she was not a participant.

BigLee





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