Recently I have been thinking about the tendency in organizations to say: “we can’t let this happen Ever Again.”
My impression is that in most organizations there are moments when things happen, the result of those things is bad for the organization or the people in it, and so the organization says: “Never Again. We will put rules and processes in place to ensure that this Can’t Happen.”
I’m beginning to suspect that the side effects of these rules and processes may often, maybe even most of the time, be worse for the group than letting the bad thing happen occasionally.
My intent is to collect a list of examples here, but the clearest example in my head right now is an example of not doing it.