David Eddy: The Bureaucratic Imperative

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The Bureaucratic Imperative ) 1999 By David O'Daniel Eddy June 23, 1999

This quote from a recent Wall Street Journal article (Friday, June 18, 1999, page A22) by reporter John Fialka pretty much sums up what I see regarding so-called Y2K progress:

"Don't tell me the truth. Tell me what I want to hear."

Fialka's article is about the frustrating experience of a scientist at Los Alamos laboratories who was trying to get the bureaucrats to listen to his concerns about pilfering of American nuclear weapons research by the Chinese.

"Don't tell me the truth...Tell me what I want to hear" is the classic bureaucratic response to unwelcome realities. The worse the implications of any given problem, the greater the organizational resistance to hearing the message. Far easier to simply shoot the messenger.

For a wonderfully entertaining true story of how effectively bureaucracies resist opening their brains when the outside world attempts to intrude, an absolute must-read is Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg. Initiated by a 75-cent out-of-balance account, Stoll guides us through a detective story worthy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which eventually leads to Russian spies in West Germany breaking into American computers. Despite his well-documented discoveries, Stoll consistently found his attempts to raise the alarm stonewalled by agencies such as the NSA, CIA, and FBI.

Please don't get me wrong, such organizational antagonism to the unwanted intrusion of external realities is not confined to the federal government, the Defense Department, or private companies. Bureaucrats are bureaucrats, regardless of whose name is on their paychecks.

It has been my experience with the Y2K message that only a small minority of organizations react with a "Thank you for alerting us to this issue. We'll get right on it." Far more common is the reaction "How rude of you to tell us." Or "I can't go to my boss with this sort of problem."

Given this bureaucratic imperative, allow me to dust off my crystal ball and make a Y2K prediction. I expect there will be strongly negative social and organizational reactions when -- that's WHEN, not IF -- something major goes wrong. Suddenly convenient demagogues (the likes of Senator Joseph McCarthy and Representative Richard Nixon come to mind) will step from the shadows of obscurity where they normally reside, shouting, "Why didn't someone tell us about this Y2K thing!?"

Since the bulk of PR is saying Y2K projects are coming along just fine and since the stock market is churning away at new highs, I fear that public opinion -- currently blissfully asleep in the warmth and distractions of summer -- will suddenly shift from extreme disinterest to extreme anger.

The Russian Tzars, when confronted with embarrassing problems like a famine or a lost war, would predictably resort to a distracting activity called a pogrom.

Our leaders has seriously dropped the ball on Y2K, and I predict they will react as leaders have for centuries in order to distract us from their culpability.

Stay tuned. Next week I'll venture to predict how U.S. party politics will play out.

-- a (a@a.a), June 24, 1999

Answers

I was trying to explain to someone last week what caused me to become a "Get It" about y2k.

Reading Fred Brooks' "Mythical Man Month" certainly opened my eyes about the nature of software projects. But it was that basic priciple of human nature, so clearly explained by Mr. Eddy, that really did it.

It is simply human nature to respond irrationally to unwelcomed realities. (As opposed to responding irrationally to misunderstood realilties, as the pollys would charge of us.)

"Don't tell me the truth. Tell me what I want to hear."

This attitude is pervasive throughout all human organizations -- large and small. When you combine this fact of human nature with a carved-in-stone, no-compromise deadline, you have the makings of a disaster. Putting this 2 and 2 together was my "Get It" moment.

Print out Eddy's column. Sent it to your DGI friends. He does a great job of bringing this concept to life.

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), June 24, 1999.


The Mythical Man-Month (excerpts)

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), June 24, 1999.

Another good spot discussing these points:

http://www.michaelhyatt.com/editorials/programmers.htm

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), June 24, 1999.


Good page, Lane. A lot of food for thought. I sent it to my 3 sons, each of whom is involved in some manner with software.

I've also noticed that over the past few years the philosophy on one of the Navy's brightest and best systems has gone from "Build a Little, Test a Lot," to "Don't Bother With Testing." It is costing that program, with units that are out of service. It may have cost the prime contractor future contracts. Glad I worked when "Test a Lot" was in favor.

-- De (delewis@inetone.net), June 24, 1999.


Excellent post. Another very good example is the Challenger disaster.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), June 25, 1999.


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