How (im)mature an organization can be?

I've been involved with big organizations and projects for the most part of my working experience - which is not such a long period actually - around 6 years or so. Long time or not, I've seen quite a lot and some realizations emerged during the process. Yet, I'm still being continually surprised with the unbelievable heights to which inefficiency and incompetency can be brought. (I've always wanted to say this!!!) Sounds familiar? Yeah, I thought so...

Behave yourself, Yavor!!! Stop with this bad, bad criticism!!!

To put it in other words, organizations (especially big ones) have a whole lot to improve in certain areas. And let me give you an example.

Yesterday I attended a meeting at work. With several colleagues we were discussing how to improve the outcome of a task which was unsatisfactory. As the meeting developed, two approaches clashed: the 'follow the rules' approach against the 'get the work done' one. This is a situation common for the everyday work more or less everywhere - quite often the 'rules' or the 'policy' or whatever else the bureaucratic manifestation can be called, goes in the way of getting the work done. As in my particular situation: apparently the 'comply with the rules' mindset produced a negative outcome. And still - there was strong resistance against changing it.

And 'follow the rules, no matter if it makes sense' is kind of mentality that companies (and governments for that matter, but don't get me started on this one :)) try to impose on us. They are trying to limit the 'thinking' and 'creativity' and increase the 'compliance', which has the following major effects:

• on the positive side:
• makes people easier to be managed (yes, it sounds harshly, but the alternative is downright chaos)
• provides a well tested path to follow (as opposed to repeating the same mistakes again and again)
• on the negative side:
• can be used to evade personal responsibility
• the value of the people diminishes dramatically.

Considering this, I'm suggesting that organization's policy enforcement shouldn't be a means of suppressing the common sense and creativity in people. It is a framework to build on, not one to set limitations and to be a tool to evade responsibility.

And I believe that the extend to which organizations manage to successfully strike a balance between enforcing a policy and keeping people's individuality and creativity intact is a key indicator of the maturity of that organization.

Wow, that was tough one. Hope, you enjoyed it. See you soon.