I've heard it said that people who try to see both sides of the issue end up with no viewpoint at all. I think that happens to me.

Take the ideas of bureaucracy and innovation. Because I work for a software company that does outsourced work for some state governments, I get to see the people who make some bureaucracies work. Seeing their web of organization charts, and the listings of their various responsibilities, I'm amazed that they function at all. A fair number of the people who work at these places are the classic bureaucrats, with not much motivating them except their next scheduled coffee break and retirement -- but not all, not by any means. A goodly number are intelligent and experienced at what they do. For someone to walk into their job and try to do it, or to redo it by 'reengineering' or ' improving the process' or any of the other buzzwords, is as likely to succeed as me being able to leap into the cab of a combine harvester, grab the knobs and levers, and run it smoothly down the lane. It's possible -- but not very likely.

Yet these same intelligent and experienced people are dead set against anything that changes the way they do business. Or if not dead set against it, at least dead set against anything but the most minor changes. They want to debate everything, and their favorite word is No, followed by their favorite phrases: We Can't Do That, We'd Have To Get Approval, and "We Need To Study That." The idea of Just Do It is anathema to them.

The thing is, if I had their responsibilities, I might well be that way, too. If I had a public customer that knows nothing of what it takes to do what I do, but knows 'they could do it better'; if I had no one defending me and encouraging me; if all the risk was downside -- I might become a coffee-break scheduler and retirement watcher, too.

How in the world can this be improved? How can we get these organizations to do what they are charged with doing, but do it with verve, style, and speed? How can we get them to embrace change when they soak every day in a culture that rejects it?

Is this why governments hire business people to enforce change?