The Ten Commandments for Business Failure - Don Keough [42]
Because we don’t have firsthand knowledge, we can only speculate based on information that came to light in the public hearings and in other postmission analysis. There are no doubt many who would argue otherwise, but a number of analysts seem to agree that the technical failures in these missions were partially the consequence of bureaucratic failure.* The decisions to launch both of these shuttles were made by a multilayered NASA bureaucracy that was attempting to serve a multitude of masters—the scientific community, the Pentagon, the administration, and Congress. In addition, there were suppliers of parts and systems who were also a part of the decision-making process.
Anyone who has been a part of any emotionally laden decision knows how many forces can be at play, sometimes driving the most rational considerations to the sidelines. My decision-making experiences, especially with New Coke, lead me to believe that NASA might have faced similar, though, of course, vastly more critical problems in their decision-making process. As I said earlier, the greater the excitement, the greater the sense of urgency, and the more cooks there are in the kitchen, the greater the chance that bureaucratic decision making will either be deadlocked or the decision will become an exercise in group wishing. As was the case with New Coke, as is the case in certain mergers or acquisitions, no one on the team wants to rain on the parade!
And when there are many countervailing forces at play within a layered bureaucracy, turf battles can further compound the situation. Ultimately, a bureaucracy can become so dysfunctional that there is literally no one who can rain on the parade. The team can never make anything approaching an objective decision. Within NASA, the evidence appears to indicate that responsibilities were so diffuse that everyone evidently thought someone else in the system would catch an error. But it did not happen. From the testimonies after the disasters, it appears that the ultimate decisions to go were not made by those with the best information but by those with the most power.
The story of the Katrina disaster is a case study in dysfunctional bureaucracies. Books have and will continue to be written about the complete bureaucratic failures at every level, failures that created untold suffering and death.
When bureaucracies in business malfunction, it is difficult and costly. A lot of time is wasted sorting things out; therefore people are probably much more likely to make mistakes because of the sheer frustration just trying to get off the dime. But those kinds of mistakes just cost money.
When bureaucracies clash in major decisions of life and death the costs can be catastrophic. (Clearly, based on recent performances, NASA has ironed out its decision-making process and found a way to better harmonize its bureaucracies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also has apparently streamlined its policies and procedures to remove layers of bureaucracy.)
Commandment Nine
Send Mixed Messages
“The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”
—George Bernard Shaw
SENDING MIXED or confused messages to your employees or your customers will jeopardize your competitive position, and result in failure. Jack Welch has indicated that when he took over GE, the company was a jumble of mixed messages, with many longtime units on the brink of failure. At The Coca-Cola Company in the early 1970s, there were a number of situations where our communication was, at best, misleading, especially to our own people and our bottlers, but also to our retail customers. One troublesome situation was in our fountain department, where management had been sending several mixed messages.
Like the parent who tells the child, “Clean your plate or no dessert!” We said it, but we didn’t mean it. They got dessert anyway.
When I came to Atlanta to work in our U.S. soft drink operations in 1973, the fountain department was the historic darling of the company.