Bureaucracy and Innovation: It Can Be Done
By
Branko Terzic
Last week I reflected on modern bureaucracy in terms of humor. This week I’ll look at how bureaucracies, whether in government or the private sector can frustrate innovation in all spheres including management.
Innovators face an uphill battle. They always have. That new political or management ideas will inevitably face opposition was observed in the sixteenth century by the astute strategist, political philosopher and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli. Consider Machiavelli’s statement of the problem in The Prince (published in 1532).
“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.”
Innovations offered by regulators or other government bureaucrats have not historically fared better for the reasons observed by Machiavelli.
In the twentieth century James Q. Wilson wrote about the problems government managers faced when attempting to implement change. In his excellent book Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It (Basic Books 1989) Wilson observes that:
“We ought not to be surprised that organizations resist innovation. They are supposed to resist it.”
He also invokes the well-known bureaucratic adage “Never do anything for the first time.”
Later in Bureaucracy Wilson provides a recommendation for what management needs to do to successfully implement innovation. His advice to the innovating bureaucrat (often an appointed office holder with a limited term, see last week’s Commentary) is sound:
“However authority is distributed, the executive who wishes to make changes has to create incentives for subordinates to think about, propose and help refine such changes and this means convincing them that if they join the innovative efforts of a (usually) short-term executive, their careers will not be blighted if the innovation fails or the executive departs before it is implemented.”
Clearly, regulatory innovators will need to understand both Machiavelli’s warnings and Wilson’s recommendations to successfully bring about change. It can be done. It just won’t be easy.
The Honorable Branko Terzic is a former Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and State of Wisconsin Public Service Commission, in addition to energy industry experience was a US Army Reserve Foreign Area Officer ( FAO) for Eastern Europe (1979-1990). He hold a BS Engineering and honorary Doctor of Sciences in Engineering (h.c.) both from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
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