Notes from the General Manager

Bureaucracy by Diane Jacoutot

I've been dealing with government bureaucracies on both a personal and professional level this week, and it got me thinking about them. 

On a personal level, my son is applying for university funding in the UK and we've been caught up in the huge, swirling void between two bureaucracies - Student Finance England and the Job Centre.  My son has not yet been approved for funding because he doesn't have a national insurance number. I call the Job Centre  who says the number has to be requested by SFE, and SFE say it comes from the Job Centre... it's been 4 months of this Catch22 that's had my teeth permanently set on edge.

On a professional level, in one example, I've been trying to work with the Nigerian High Commission in London to get a visa for a teacher who was meant to be out there already. For some reason, High Commission in London require that the person who is getting the visa pay for it only with a Visa credit card. And she only has a Visa Debit card and a Mastercard so we've been fighting this battle for 4 weeks.   Seriously. 

I found a case where Teachanywhere became the bureaucracy this week - a really experienced Principal candidate was given the run-around by Teachanywhere. That was a wakeup call.  And I then was the victim of bureaucracy within my own parent company's advertising team as I tried to place some ads.  Perhaps that was karma.

On top of this we have had contract delays from the Middle East, flights cancelled by airline bureaucracies, and so much more. It's been a week of non-stop bureaucracy -wrestling on many levels for me. 

The funny thing is, the word bureaucracy used to mean a good thing about a hundred years ago - back when a privileged few held authoritarian power and could act on a whim. Bureaucracy was put in place to provide an unbiased system based on logic and rational decision making, to give everyone a fair chance and predictable outcome.  But as the above examples show, it can't always be considered rational and logical nowadays.

Now come closer and I'll let you in on a little secret. I have found the trick with beating a dysfunctional bureaucracy is to find the 'back door' which is always a person who has some power to influence behind the scenes.  Some people try using a battering ram of angry letters or hurling verbal abuse at the front line staff - trying to batter the front door down so to speak - but I've never found that helpful as a general rule. Because the thing about dysfunctional bureaucracies is that the people answering the front door are almost never given the power to do anything other than answer the front door.  They are powerless so it gets you and the front-door-answerer all worked up but makes no forward progress.

 I will admit that in well-functioning (good) bureaucracies the front line staff are often empowered which is probably what makes them well-functioning,  so simply pointing out the issue in a dispassionate way is enough to help the system right itself. Well-functioning bureaucracies have hiccups from time to time and sometimes you can't tell at first if it's a well-functioning or dysfunctional type when you are at the front gate with a problem on your hands.

If the direct but friendly approach doesn't work, then the trick with a typical dysfunctional bureaucracy is to find the back door and it's often quite well hidden. If it weren't, the unwashed masses would flood in and it would be another front door.  You usually have to use personal contacts and this might involve networking or even paying a company or consultant who has the contacts.  So just like Teachanywhere knows the back doors into schools and principals, there are other people who know where to brush away the branches and dead leaves to find the back door into other organisations. 

In the case of Nigeria, we are paying a visa company with connections (and a Visa card!), and in the case of Student Finance England I've both written to my Member of Parliament, who is on the case, and also looked for a company that claims to help get NI numbers for people (not sure if this is a scam but hey, for £40 it's worth it). And so on.

You do have to be patient with bureaucracies, even when you've found the back door. These are not fast moving, nimble organisations and if you walk in the back door making lots of noise, it can startle the wrong people causing it to slam the door in your face.  For goodness sake, don't shout about it. You have to be stealthy at the back door like any good burglar and hope your guide knows what they are doing. 

Ironically, I find that when people go abroad, the first time they run into bureaucracy in the new country they act shocked as if it's something they've never run into before, but I know this is not true. Bureaucracies of all types exist in every country and organisation I've ever dealt with or lived in. It doesn't matter where you go, you just have to know - or find out- how to play the game.