General George S. Patton. Creative Commons Image.
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – U.S. Army General George S. Patton
I am thinking of you NZ government.
There is always a temptation for bad managers to try and micro manage, and prescribe in detail how to do things. We have that with the New Zealand government. Tens of thousands of pages of legislation, regulation and policies prescribing in greater and greater detail how everything is to be done. The trouble is that once you go down that route, there is never enough detail. There is always something that slips through the cracks, so there is a never ending cycle of more and more detail, more and more prescription, more and more bureaucracy, more and more busy work, but worse results.
New Zealand is drowning in legislation, and it is never enough. We always need more. The result is higher costs, more complexity, slower execution and worse outcomes. When is it time to stop?
As the say “Less is more”. Employ competent people and empower them to make decisions. Then get out of the way and let them get on with it.
New Zealand used to be able to do things before the bureaucrats took over. In times gone past we built hydro electric dams and electrified the country. We built, roads, bridges and infrastructure to connect the country together. New Zealand is no longer capable of doing projects like that. Now, any major project can spend years in the planning and consenting process before it can start, that is if it is allowed to start at all. Any project that is allowed to go ahead will be clogged up by the enormous compliance and bureaucratic processes with delays and extra costs.
My favourite example of unhinged bureaucrats/politicians is our education system. New Zealand used to have one of the best education systems in the world. It was simple, and effective. Then some bright spark decided that it needed fixing. Well they fixed it all right. We now have students coming through the system that “pass”, but can’t read, write or do math. They fixed it good. They changed the whole system based only on their clever ideas, without checking to see whether or not it would actually work. Our education system is failing our students and teachers.
The New Zealand government is trying to manage the country by legislation. Legislation should not be used as a management tool. Our bureaucracy is a disgrace. Save New Zealand from the bureaucrats and the politicians.