bureaucracy

How to win against red tape

Monday, April 5th, 2010 | e-Learning pioneers | No Comments

The e-pioneer cuts through red tape.

An “efficient bureaucracy” is an oxymoron – red tape strangles all efforts towards efficiency.

Many people have tried fighting bureaucracy, only to find that, while it may be possible to win small battles, red tape is such a powerful weapon that it is impossible to win the war.

How can an e-pioneer cut through red tape to ensure successful implementation of technology in schools?

When hitting a “you can’t do this” brick wall, first establish: is this an organizational rule, or is it simply the whim of an official? Red tape is often created on the fly by bureaucrats who have personal agendas – in this case enlist the help of someone higher in the hierarchy.

If the stumbling block is an organizational rule, try to understand the reason for it. With this understanding it may still be possible to achieve your objective while altering your plans slightly or finding an alternative way to reach your goal. You can only succeed against red tape if you are flexible – don’t insist on a single solution.

The e-pioneer must make friends with people in the hierarchy, explaining why technology is important in schools and what needs to be done to implement it successfully. Such friends will prove to be powerful allies.

If e-pioneers can’t cut through red tape, they weave their way through it.

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Tags: bureaucracy, e-pioneer

Never give up in the fight against bureaucracy

Friday, April 2nd, 2010 | e-Learning pioneers | 2 Comments

The e-pioneer fights bureaucracy.

A bureaucracy is an organizational framework with procedures, protocols and regulations to manage and control the activities of large systems, such as education departments.

The vast volumes of documentation required by such a structure are often tied in bundles by red tape – a tradition of bureaucracies since the seventeenth century. This explains why the term “red tape” is used when we refer to the excessively complex and depressingly time-consuming processes of an organization.

Bureaucracies are sometimes at odds with e-pioneers. Why?

Schools are subject to the red tape of the education department. Red tape is used by bureaucrats to preserve the status quo – innovation is not encouraged since it takes them out of their comfort zone.

When e-pioneers introduce new technologies, they are seen as a disruptive influence. Red tape is spun to hamper progress on the road to innovation. And even if the barriers are not put in place deliberately, organizational red tape hampers the pace of modernization.

The e-pioneer can never give up in the face of such obstructions and has to fight back. How? Innovative e-pioneers always find legal ways to cut through the red tape to liberate teachers and learners.