I don’t think MBTI has much to do with your fate. I’d rather look at a person’s emotional intelligence (which I see as very influence-able). In my opinion, EI is a more important baseline for figuring out where or how you can create value. After that, MBTI can be helpful to maximize your success.

I think I was hard on government more than I should be in two respects:
1) There is a lot of promise in individuals that are aware of this very scenario but have the patience and willingness to address it. A willingness I lost and a patience I likely never had. A more sustainable, practical approach to improving government is conceivable with a new generation like Miguel describes.
2) I applied some characteristics of big bureaucracies to government and perhaps sounded like they were the exclusive domain of public offices. They do apply almost universally to organizations that get to that size… though I love this Netflix presentation. (http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664) In it, they say, “As we get bigger, we’re going to INCREASE freedoms.” Bureaucratic restrictions and size are definitely tied at the hip, but it doesn’t have to be a given… except perhaps in government.

Thanks for reading!

I’m very glad that you finally put pen to paper (or keyboard to blog) and wrote down your thoughts on this career experience that you invested seven years of your life in. I think that I may have asked you to write about this some time ago in my comments on one of your previous blog posts. It’s also good to see you back making contributions to Proceed Until Apprehended. You definitely must be busy!

I think that you make some interesting points regarding the challenges of working in a public service environment. I have some experience with this myself but in a more competitive environment than the typical public servant works in. Government and public service definitely have some rules that differ from the private, profit-driven sector — for instance, political imperatives, election cycles, constituent sensitivities, etc… all have an impact. In a democratic system where policiticans and their ministers need to react to public opinion and wants, there are definitely lots of constantly changing pressures to deal with — all within a set of rules and with the ‘fifth estate’ constantly watching and digging.

I find one quote from your blog entry really interesting:

“There are written rules for when you’ll show up, when you’ll take a break, when you’ll get a performance review, how you’ll provide advice to decision-makers, how you’ll request bereavement leave… the list goes on. Then, there’s unwritten rules, like how you’ll dress, or what kind of message you’ll leave on your phone, what your out-of-office email message will say, where you’ll park your bike, there are even some unwritten rules for what are reasonable excuses for calling in sick.”

The interest that I have in this assertion is that you characterize this as something seemingly peculiarly negative about governments and public service agencies. In my experience though, this is typical of any large bureaucracy whether it be a public or a private bureaucracy. I used to work for a couple of very large, multinational private, profit-driven enterprises supposedly ‘disciplined’ by the stock market. What is described above in your quote succinctly describes the operating environment of these organizations. So, I think that it is a bit unfair for you to criticize governments as having some sort of monopoly on this type of stifling, suffocating bureaucracy. Large private sector organizations are — at least in my experience — just as bad with respect to ‘numbing’ bureaucracy.

Now, if you are comparing government AND large corporations with big bureaucracies to small, nimble, entrepreneurial businesses — perhaps a lot like the one that you currently work for — then I can definitely see your point. This is a different comparison though.

In my mind, large organizations = bureaucracy. There are perhaps some exceptions but I kind of doubt it. As soon as you have a large bureaucracy, you have lots of rules, internal audit departments, securities regulatory issues, etc, etc, etc…

For some personalities this doesn’t represent a problem. People with such personalities play the bureaucratic game and get along. For other peronality types (perhaps a lot like your own — I’d love to see your Myers-Briggs profile!), this type of operating environment represents nothing less than pure evil!! And I think that you’ve clearly expressed that here. It is defintitely a good thing that you got out and found a path more to your liking, passions, and motivations.

You’re right that it’s almost impossible to lock in changes to government. The processes that feed the outcomes are so incredibly dynamic that you can’t really hope to either. There are too many players with influence and such regular change above you that it makes it difficult.

I think the only permanent change you can make is with the people within the system. If you can make people challenge the rules, think outside the box and be truly motivated at work then you’ve made a change that will ripple throughout the system over time. In that sense, I think you did lock in some of the changes you were hoping for!

I can definitely understand the pessimism for the future of all governments but I think there’s a lot of optimism too. Most of the people are in it for the right reasons (even if they eventually hit the burnout stage)and there is a lot of new faces from outside government (and from outside the influence of the last generation of public servants) taking on important roles ……which will probably end up being a good thing in the end!

David Foot was right that we may all be about to ‘profit’ from the baby boomers moving on.

Any new entries / thoughts on their way? I see that there hasn’t been a new entry since late March!

Chris

Definitely words to live by. Lately, I’ve been thinking about what you have described here in a somewhat simpler manner — the old “what goes around, comes around”. For a long time, I have felt very driven with strong opinions on a lot of different topics. So strong, in fact, that I have definitely turned a lot of people off — family, friends, work colleagues, community. What I believe I have failed to notice or fully consider are the “fractals” as you describe them — how the positions and persona that I take is quite consistent and how it replicates itself from situation to situation and from venue to venue (and not necessarily with positive results). These are not necessarily all conscious choices but they represent behaviours and ways of thinking that I should perhaps be a lot more conscious of! So, your post is very timely with respect to a great deal of personal development thinking that I have been doing lately. I think that it would be a good idea for me to get much more in touch with the “fractals” in my life, live as true to my ideals as possible, and replicate these throughout the various parts of my life.

Chris