While re-reading a wisdom candy - “Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail” by John Gall, I discovered a story of Lionell Trilium. I suspect, just like me, quite a few of techies had a corporate box-ticker* (e.g. scrum master) demand a written plan with estimates for something that is essentially a discovery/learning endevour. Thus the techie, in Galls’ terms, becomes “Administratively encircled”. The story is an enlightening example of “systems people” (Mr. Baneberry) through which systems encroach. Enjoy.
Every student of science is required, at some point or other in his/her career, to learn Le Chatelier’s Principle. This Law states that any natural process, whether physical or chemical, tends to set up conditions opposing the further operation of the process. Although the Law has very broad application, it is usually looked upon more as a curiosity than as a profound insight into the nature of the universe. We, on the other hand, regard it as a cornerstone of General Systemantics. No one who has had any experience of the operation of large Systems can fail to appreciate its truth and relevance:
THE SYSTEM ALWAYS KICKS BACK
SYSTEMS GET IN THE WAY
—or, in slightly more elegant language:
SYSTEMS TEND TO OPPOSE THEIR OWN PROPER FUNCTIONS
In the field of human organizations, probably the outstanding example of Le Chatelier’s Principle is in connection with the Goals and Objectives mania, itself a specialized manifestation of an ancient and widespread phenomenon which we shall designate as Administrative Encirclement. Let us take as an example the case of Lionel Trillium, a young Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany at Hollyoak College. Although it is now too late to do any good for poor Trillium, we shall review his case-history step by step in the hope that similar tragedies may be averted in future. Trillium’s Department Head, Baneberry, has for some years now failed to initiate new and interesting hypotheses about the behavior of the Slime Molds, his chosen area or specialization. Paralleling his decline of scientific productivity, he has exhibited increasing interest in improving the “efficiency” of his Department. (The medically-oriented reader will recognize in these symptoms the insidious onset of intellectual menopause.)
Baneberry has actually gone to the extreme of checking out of the Library some recent publications on Management Science. Before his jaded eyes a new world has been revealed, and his mind is now buzzing with the terminology of information Retrieval Systems, Technology Assessment, Program Budgeting, and, above all, Management by Goals and Objectives. He fires off a Memo to the staff of his Department, requiring that they submit to him, In triplicate, by Monday next, a statement of their Goals and Objectives.
This demand catches Trillium at a bad time. His studies of Angiosperms are at a critical point. Nevertheless, he must take time out to consider his Goals and Objectives, as the wording of the Memo leaves little doubt of the consequences of failure to comply.
Now, Trillium really does have some personal goals of his own, that his study of Botany can advance. In actual fact, he entered that field because of unanswered questions having to do with the origin of babies. His boyhood curiosity was never satisfied, and it became fixed on the mechanics of reproductive processes in living creatures. But to study reproduction directly, in animals, creates too much anxiety. Therefore he has chosen the Flowering Plants, whose blatant sexuality is safely isolated from our own. Trillium is happy as a Botanist, and never so happy as when he is elucidating the Life Cycle of an Angiosperm.
But now his Chief is demanding Goals and Objectives. This is both disturbing and threatening. Trillium doesn’t want to think about his real goals and objectives; indeed, they are unknown to his conscious mind. He only knows he likes Botany.
But he can’t just reply in one line, “I like Botany and want to keep on studying it.” No, indeed! What is expected is a good deal more formal, more organized, than that. It should fill at least three typewritten sheets, single-spaced, and should list Objectives and Subobjectives in order of priority, each being justified in relation to the Overall Goal and having appended a time-frame for completion and some criteria for determining whether they have been achieved. Ideally, each paragraph should contain at least one reference to DNA or the phrase “double helix.” Trillium goes into a depression just thinking about it.
Furthermore, he cannot afford to state his true goals. He must at all costs avoid giving the impression of an ineffective potterer or a dilettante. He must not appear fuzzy-headed. His goals must be well-defined and crisply stated and must appear to lead somewhere important. And he must appear to be active in areas that tend to throw reflected glory on the Department. After all, one can’t expect a University to maintain a Department just for people who have a faintly scurrilous interest in how plants reproduce. Therefore, Trillium is forced to include in his statement of Goals and Objectives all kinds of things that he’s really not in the least interested in.
Poor Trillium struggles with all these considerations, which he does not consciously formulate. He only feels them as a deep malaise and sense of confusion that seizes him whenever he thinks about writing the Goals and Objectives Statement. He puts it off as long as possible, but still it interferes with his studies of Angiosperms. He can’t concentrate. Finally he gives up his research, stays home three days, and writes the damned thing.
But now he is committed—in writing—to a Program,in terms of which his “success” can be objectively assessed by his Chief. If he has stated that one Objective for the coming year is to write three papers on Angiosperms and he actually writes only two, he is only 67% “successful,” despite the fact that each of the two papers may be a substantial contribution to the field. Or he may not write any papers at all, devoting the time instead to a book for which the idea has matured unexpectedly. In that case his “success” is zero. No matter that he has overachieved in an unexpected aea. If the Chief wants to get rid of him, he need only point out his “failure.” And so Trillium has been led, step by step, down the primrose path of logic, to disaster. The logic was devised by others, but that is no consolation to him.
The next step is even more catastrophic. Since Trillium has clearly stated his Goals and Objectives, it is now possible to deduce with rigorous logic how he should spend his working and waking hours to achieve them. No more pottering around pursuing spontaneous impulses and temporary enthusiasms! No more happy hours in the Departmental greenhouse! Just as a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, so an efficient worker will move from Sub-objective A to Sub-objective B in logical pursuit of Objective K which leads in turn toward the Overall Goal. Not only can Trillium be graded on his achievements for the year, he can also be separately graded on the efficiency with which he moves toward each of his objectives. He has vocome Administratively Encircled. The Administrators,whose original purpose was to keep track of office supplies for the professors, now have the upper hand and sit in judgment on their former masters.
Only one step remains to be taken to complete Trillium’s shackling in the chains he himself has helped to forge. On advice of the University administrators, the legislators of his State establish by law the number of hours a Professor of Botany must spend on each phase of his professional activities. Trillium may feel impelled to protest, but how can he? The lawmakers are only formalizing what he himself has told them he wants to do! The System of Management by Goals and Objectives, designed to measure Trillium’s performance as a botanist and to improve his efficiency, has kicked back, gotten in the way, and opposed its own proper function. Once more the universal validity of Le Chatelier’s Law has been demonstrated.
Baneberry, meanwhile, has been powerfully reinforced in his newfound function as judge of other botanists. His own botanical career may be wilting, but he has found a new career in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of his colleagues—especially their weaknesses. The heady experience of hobnobbing with legislators and people of power in the “real” world gives him a new lease on life and convinces him that Trillium really is just a poor potterer who will never amount to anything. If only Botany could attract men of action like the lawgivers with whom he has been wining and dining!**
**Administrator’s Grandiosity Neurosis is desire to recreate the world in the administrator’s image.
*I use “box ticker” designation from Graebers’ “Bullshit Jobs” book. He probably would classify Scrum Masters as Task Masters though. In my opinion it’s more significant that they are hired to imitate agility. Cause all good organizations are doing agile now.