Organizational Insanity

Most of us are all too familiar with the definition of insanity commonly used in organizational settings--continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results. Unfortunately it is too common and too true.

But today I would like to speak to another type of organizational insanity. It may be more prevalent and more destructive. As customers and stakeholders, we deal with it almost every day.

Shall we call it "internal organizational intellectual delusion"? Or "organizational insanity"? Or just"stupid"? My mother wouldn't like stupid so I think we will go with organizational insanity!

It is probably most notable in large bureaucratic organizations, but occurs in organizations of all sizes and in every industry. Just because you are in a small, nimble, organic and maybe virtual organization, it does not mean that you are free from organizational insanity.

How do you know if your organization suffers from this illness? There is a very telling and clear symptom--the people in the organization do totally insane things on a routine basis and sincerely believe that what they are doing makes sense.

It is important to note that this is an organizational malady. If the same people were outside the organization they would immediately recognize that what they were doing is insane.

Each of us could probably point to hundreds of examples. The government is of course ripe with examples.

Shall we start with the recent bailout funds that involved spending billions of taxpayer dollars in a bill thousands of pages long that was passed by congress without reading or knowing what was in the bill. Now whether you supported or didn't support the bailout, that is insane.

I recently heard a congressman sincerely and passionately defend his support for and leadership on a bill involving substantial taxpayer dollars and he admitted that he did not know what was in the bill. That is insane but seemed to make perfect sense to him.

The IRS has a tax code that is thousands of pages long. You may have tried to file your own taxes and gotten to one of those lines that says subtract line 47B from line 32A on Form 1372 and multiply by .0375. If you contact an IRS representative for an assistance, they will walk you through a five minute explanation, plus point to the five additional forms that you were not aware that you need to fill out. That is insane but is perfectly logical to the person on the other end of the line.

OK, enough with the government, what about the health insurance company I currently am dealing with. I am told by the representative of the company that my fax was received one day, was logged the next, would take 5 to 7 days to process and then they would send me a letter letting me know the results. I am very concerned about whether my daughter has coverage, and when I ask if they could call me or send me an email, the response, even though we were on the phone talking--I know they have phones--was NO. That is insane but made sense to the person I was talking to.

What do you hate most about going to the doctor? I guess it could be a lot of things, but most of us hate waiting. So what do doctors and hospitals do--they build Waiting Rooms! They design "waiting" into the system! Talk to almost any healthcare professional--smart people--and they will give you a ten minute explanation of why it has to be that way. That is insane!

Newspapers run editorials on global warming, the green movement, sustainability end environmental friendliness in "paper" editions. And they must believe it makes sense or they wouldn't keep doing it, right? That is insane.

Does your organization have any symptoms of organisational insanity? That may be an "insane" question, because it is virtually impossible for someone in an organization to recognize symptoms--there is always an logical explanation!

In later posts we will talk about those explanations and ways to address the dreaded organizational insanity.