Big Bureaucracy Hides Responsibility

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I've just had a brief involvement with a rather large bureaucracy. A huge bureaucracy, in fact. And a private company.

I remember reading -- years ago, when I was a fresh and callow MBA student -- about the GM decision-making process. It was claimed that GM would take six months to reach a decision to do... nothing. A decision to actually do something would possibly take longer.

I know nothing of the decision-making process of today's bureaucracy-of-interest. But I did notice an interesting method of avoiding responsibility.

Avoiding responsibility

I was looking at processes and at project recommendations. These are documents which are either put into use, or used as the basis for further work.

Old Boys and One Old Girl

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

Oh dear. Quentin Bryce is worried that there are not enough women on the boards of major companies. "I believe the old boys' network is a powerful one." Ms Bryce told the Age newspaper ('Luvvies' sex quota, The West, Paul Murray, 12 Mar 11).

Quentin Bryce -- for those who don't follow politics -- is the current Australian governor general, and female, and a former sex discrimination commissioner. Add international women's day and getting more women amongst the overpaid industrial fat cats is an obvious topic for dodgy declarations.

Has anyone counted the number of non-white fat cats? Or non-white G-Gs, for that matter. What about gay and lesbian fat cats? Or fat cats in wheel chairs, or blind, or illiterate? Surely all of these marginalised minorities deserve their place at the trough.

Does Bryce really think that the old boys sit round and say, "All right... we'll give some power to the niggers and the chinks. But we don't want the women!" (with apologies to Blazing Saddles -- and to anyone else who is offended).

Safety and Silence: Sold

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

I can't quite follow the logic in the letter by Dudley Smith (Obvious solution, The West, 4 Mar 2011). Perhaps he is very, very young. Or has a very short memory.

He seems to be saying that we should -- many years ago -- have planned to place Perth airport where it would not interfere with people and houses and open spaces. Here's some news: we did.

Perth airport was way out of the city. It was surrounded by empty, open spaces.

Then land developers saw the opportunity to make a quick quid.