Policy in absentia

Pierre Dolet writes his Notes from The Cube (this is not a holiday weekend in Canada) . . .

Hate making decisions. Guess most people feel that way. See that it's happening at all levels, too - 'specially on the policy-making level.

Policy. That's that crazy thing that politicians do so well, when they lay out Grand Plans that no one could expect anyone to actually follow. "Broad Strokes," doncha know?

By and by, though, it would be helpful down here in the cubicles to have a little policy guidance once in a while.

No, not Rules & Regulations: those are the nitpicking, can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees crap of the mini-meenie-mojo-macho bureaucrats who enjoy Control. (yeah, with the big "C," eh.)

Policy, on the other hand, is a guidance - a philosophy of approach. There is a Team philosophy, the Lone Wolf approach, Vertical Integration, Fiscal Restraint, Laissez-Faire (or, usually, Let Me Faire and You Don't Do - but that's back to politics again).

Any which way, we're setting up for next year and it's tough to make plans without any policy guidance from the top. Everything is seat of the pants, even the 1-year, 3-year and 5-year Plans. (Question: Does anyone remember from high school World Affairs how Stalin and Mao's Five Year Plans were such disasters? Regularly. On both the economic and human scales. Isn't the "Five Year Plan" a concept/term we should abandon, if only for the sake of good taste?)

Oh, yes, they are planning far out ahead - but what's the policy guiding those plans? There's all such a grab bag feeling to the whole endeavor, especially as it filters down to the cubicles, where we create the support structure for the plans, fleshing out the details and without any other guiding principle than "That's what they want us to do."

One part of me is cool with the lack of Policy and says "OK, you don't want to get straightjacketed into these things." After all, would you want a doctor to diagnose your illness only from the "guidelines" of the medical book? I used to take car engines apart and put them back together: nothing ever fit and worked exactly like the Theory of Motors said they should. Why is it different here, then?

Because we're not inanimate objects and, yes, we would understand changes made in mid-stream if the policy had to be adjusted to meet realities on the ground. But you've gotta have a policy to begin with, doncha? Right now the "changes," "adjustments," "corrections" (yes, we use all the right words) are made without apparent policy reasoning. They are reactions - possibly right (given the experience of many making the changes, probably right) - but still reactions.

The tiger's a wily and powerful master of the jungle, but it's still a feral being.