by Kent Aitken |
Yesterday, my colleague joked on
Twitter that his son had agreed to make the family lunches as part of
his allowance, but the bread, mustard, and cheese sandwich from day
one wasn't exactly up to snuff. I joked back that he should institute
a sandwich accountability framework and make a portion of his son's
allowance at-risk, contingent upon results.
Er, it's just something bureaucrats
do.
Sorry.
And Speaking of Segues
My colleague responded – as any
normal person should – that in fact, he was just going to teach
his son how to be a better sandwich maker. And
then simply let said sandwich maker, well, make sandwiches.
My
colleague is accidentally following the advice from the 1962/1963
Glassco Report. This report, formally the Royal Commission on
Government Organization, published recommendations for the management
of the public service of Canada. The most memorable of which was this
lasting soundbite: “Let the manager manage.”
How'd that work
out?
Shortly thereafter,
the Canadian House of Commons spent a considerable amount of time
debating the minutia of contracts for the retrofitting of the
aircraft carrier Bonaventure. As Donald Savoie explains in
Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher:
“During the debate, opposition members from all parties hurled accusations at the government and concluded with pleas to introduce 'administrative integrity.' Specific details were brought up, including the awarding of two separate contracts – for different amounts – to remove fifty-two chairs from the Bonaventure's briefing room.”
That was 1970.
Despite it being less than a decade after the Glassco Report, the
resounding call was for increased oversight, rather then letting
managers figure out the underlying issues and manage on. Increased
oversight may protect the public purse in the short term, but it may
also lead to important questions going unanswered, or worse, unasked.
Did decision-makers
have the information they needed to make solid decisions?
Were they
generally well-equipped to do their jobs?
Asking
Tough Questions
I suspect Glassco would prefer the story of Tom
Watson Jr., former CEO of IBM. As legend would have it, a young
executive once walked into Watson's office after making a decision
that cost the company millions, expecting to be fired. Watson's
response was that firing was out of the question because, as he put
it, he had “just spent a couple of million dollars educating” the
executive.
No
kneejerk reaction, no changes to accountability regimes. Watson
recognized the difference between structural deficiencies and
management issues. In that case, the issue was an ill-prepared executive. In my colleague's, it was an inexperienced sandwich maker.
Asking tough questions about the why behind events is the sustainable approach. And it leads to good results. For sandwiches and management.
Asking tough questions about the why behind events is the sustainable approach. And it leads to good results. For sandwiches and management.
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