Insane Corporate Efficiency

David St. Lawrence writes at Ripples -- a blog I read several times a week. He was involved in business management and is now semi-retired, working for his wife's woodworking business and has just had his first management book published. He has been writing about Corporate Efficiency and some of the insane behavior that results. Today, Part 3 was published. Here are the links to the three (so far) parts: Link to Part One Link to Part Two Link to Part Three He starts off in the first part with trying to define insanity:

According to Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Another definition of insanity is non-sequiter responses to communication or situations

Another definition of insanity is continued non-survival behavior.

Another is the inability to understand the nature and consequences of ones acts.

Still another definition, insanity is when you try to make reality conform to your views, rather than to conform your views to reality.

He then asks:

When was the last time you talked to a Customer Service Rep and got mechanically scripted answers that did not apply to your questions?

When was the last time you talked to your boss about your performance and got meaningless gobbledygook?

When was the last time you encountered the Phone Tree From Hell when you had a problem that required a human answer?

When was the last time you were in a weekly staff meeting that made no sense?

When was the last time you attempted to point out that a proposed design or product had already been soundly criticized by existing customers?

It gets better from there (although this is really good itself). David is a wonderful writer and his blog is worth checking out.