State versus Christ: More Thoughts

It occurs to me as a state employee that to interact with the State, you have to follow procedures, deal with policy, and wait for red tape, all the while looking for ways to bypass it in order to accomplish your job that the very same State is paying you to do. The State doesn’t handle exceptions well, and views me as a resource to further its mission.

As a Christian, I have a relationship with Christ. I can go directly to Him, my job is to follow where He leads and He will be responsible for the outcome. He knows, not just my name, but He also knows me, and desires to bring me into His image for my benefit. He loves me and created me unique in the first place and celebrates it.

Which of these is it again that we want in charge of our society?

SDG

Surrendering Territory

It is said that bureaucratic programs are easy to create but impossible to destroy. It is said that they develop a life of their own. There is some truth to this. As I have written before, when decision making becomes ‘policy,’ it becomes unowned—no one has responsibility for the decisions and their consequences anymore, they are ‘just following procedure.’

This also occurs because egos of those involved can feel failure if the program they created, manage or are part of is no longer needed, so they seek to justify its existence.

Paradoxically, programs and policies live on because no one wants to risk sticking their neck out to take responsibility for a potentially unpopular decision or other display of true leadership. Sometimes it happens out of a desire to save their careers because they don’t want to expend the energy to search for a new opportunity or are fearful of losing the security they have in their current position.

In both cases, the root cause is fear. Fear of losing prestige, a job, authority, influence and so on. Fear of taking a risk and making a mistake. Fear of making others angry or unhappy.

The motivation has switched from achieving a goal to self-preservation. This results in innovation becoming stagnation, and leadership degenerating into management.