Can a bureaucracy really get anything done?

In the movie The Dark Knight, The Joker tries to explain to the Bat what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Well, in the real world, gravity beckons and a bureaucracy is born. Bureaucracy. Something intransient. Something systemic. Something that is castigated as the bane of all things progressive. Is it so bad? Does it really hamper everything around which it spreads its tentacles? Is everything broken when a bureaucracy takes over the reins? Hmmm. I wonder. For the sake of this discussion, lets just try to think through one simple question -- Can a bureaucracy really get anything done?

Most organizations succumb to this phenomenon at some stage of their existence. And the ones who don't, they need to pat themselves on their back and stay on the vigil. What begins as a formula to sustain growth ends up becoming a self-sustaining, self-multiplying eco-system in itself. Having spent an unforgiving time close enough to one, on the surface it appears that a forward looking outlook is replaced by a "worry about the now" ideology. Innovation is just a theory on paper waiting to be discarded in the nearest bin. Probably the most damaging aspect of a bureaucracy is that a passionate, hard working individual may get crushed by an unyielding forcefield of negativity and hypocrisy.

If most people despise a bureaucracy, how does it maintain its modus operandi and thrive in every corner of the world? Well, for starters, a bureaucracy is a by-product of organizational growth. As more and more people join any group, the system of checks and balances moderating the entry point to that group weakens. Any attempts to restrain or control this pattern is dampened by the inherent defensive nature of a bureaucracy.

By no means am I saying that nothing gets done in a bureaucracy. Although a breed of visionary, inspiring leaders is replaced by a motley cabal of "managers", things do move. Stuff happens. Slowly. If it hadn't, then many organizations would have died a painful death by now. The fact that they have survived and continue to gnaw at the rope of progress is a testimony to the possibility of things getting done by a bureaucracy. But, to anyone who has slogged their way in such a surrounding, it is clear that getting rid of it needs a major shake up. Alas. That usually does not happen...

Final closing thoughts. Any organization without an entrenched "establishment" is far superior to one that has it. Such organizations promote free and fair discussion and decision making, providing vertical momentum to any fruitful idea. If honest, industrious people make it a point to sustain their vitality by thinking and acting for the greater good of the organization and not let "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" culture creep in, their organization holds a fighting chance against the onset of bureaucracy.

p.s: while rats are the first to jump off a sinking ship, bureauc-rats expect to be rewarded for sinking the ship....