Friday, August 31, 2018

Hierarcheology: The Peter Principle, The Peter Prescription, and The Peter Plan

The Peter Principle by Laurence J Peter and Raymond Hull
NY:  Bantam Books, 1969

(7)  The Peter Principle:  In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

(8)  Peter's Corollary:  In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.

(10)  Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

(18)  ... in every hierarchy_the cream rises until it sours_.
NB:  Edgar Bergen to Charlie McCarthy at a society party:  Here we are among the cream of society.  Do you know why they call it the cream of society, Charlie?  Because cream rises to the top.
Charlie McCarthy:  Yeah, so does the scum.

(25)  But if the superior has reached his level of incompetence, he will probably rate his subordinates in terms of institutional values:  he will see competence as the behavior that supports the rules, rituals and forms of the status quo.  Promptness, neatness, courtesy to superiors, internal paperwork, will be highly regarded.  In short, such an official evaluates input...

In such instances, internal consistency is valued more highly than efficient service [output]:  this is Peter's Inversion.

(28)  ... in most hierarchies, super-competence is more objectionable than incompetence.

Ordinary incompetence, as we have seen, is no cause for dismissal:  it is simply a bar to promotion.  Super-competence often leads to dismissal, because it disrupts the hierarchy, and thereby violates the first commandment of hierarchical life:  the hierarchy must be preserved.

(38)  Employees in a hierarchy do not really object to incompetence (Peter's Paradox):  they merely gossip about incompetence to mask their envy of employees who have Pull.

(56-57)  In any event, neither sound nor unsound proposals can be carried out efficiently, because the machinery of government is a vast series of interlocking hierarchies, riddled through and through with incompetence.

(58)  Even if the majority of the nominating committee consists of competent judges of men, it will select the candidate, not for his potential wisdom as a legislator, but on his presumed ability to win elections!

(62-62)  As we have already seen, an employee's prospects of reaching his level of incompetence are directly proportional to the number of ranks in the hierarchy - the more ranks, the more incompetence.  The area DC [Dominant Class], for all practical purposes, forms a closed hierarchy of a few ranks.  Obviously, then, many of its employees will never reach their level of incompetence.
NB:  Why upper-class twits may demonstrate competence

(72)  C. N. Parkinson, eminent social theorist, accurately observes and amusingly describes the phenomenon of staff accumulation in hierarchies.  But he tries to explain what he calls the rising pyramid by supposing that senior employees are practicing the strategy of divide and conquer, that they are deliberately making the hierarchy inefficient as a means of self-aggrandizement.

(76)  Unfortunately Parkinson's investigation does not go far enough.  It is true that work can expand to fill the time allotted but it can expand far beyond that.  It can expand beyond the life of the organization and the company can go bankrupt, a government can fall, a civilization can crumble into barbarism, while the incompetents work on.

(86)  A favorite recommendation of efficiency experts is the appointment of a co-ordinator between two incompetent officials or two unproductive departments.  A popular fallacy among these experts and their clients is that "Incompetence co-ordinated equals competence."

(106)  Many executive conferences consisted of the high-ranking employee telling hard-luck stories about his present condition.

"Nobody really appreciates me."

"Nobody co-operates with me."

"Nobody understands how the incessant pressure from above and the incurable incompetence below make it utterly impossible for me to do an adequate job and keep a clean desk."

This self-pity is usually combined with a strong tendency to reminisce about "good old days" when the complainant was working at a lower rank, at a level of incompetence.  

This complex of emotions - sentimental self-pity, denigration of the present and irrational praise of the past - I call the Auld Lang Syne Complex.

An interesting feature of the Auld Lang Syne Complex is that although the typical patient claims to be a martyr to his present position, he never on any account suggests that another employee would be better to fill his place!
NB:  The rich today

(121)  [Substituting]  The rule is:  for achieving personal satisfaction, an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.  (Peter's Placebo.)

Note that although this technique provides satisfaction to the user, it does not necessarily satisfy the employer!

Peter's Placebo is well understood by politicians at all levels.  They will talk about the importance, the sacredness, the fascinating history of the democratic system (or the monarchic system, or the communist system or the tribal system as the case may be) but will do little or nothing toward carrying out the real duties of their position.

(133)  The method [of creative incompetence] boils down to this:  create the impression that you have already reached your level of incompetence.

(140)  The more conceited members of the race think in terms of an endless ascent - or promotion ad infinitum.  I would point out that, sooner or later, man must reach his level of life-incompetence.
NB:  Has homo sap reached the level of our incompetence?

(150)  You can apply the power of negative thinking.  Ask yourself, "How would I like to work for my boss's boss?"

Look, not at your boss, whom you think you could replace, but at _his_ boss.  How would you like to work directly for the man two steps above you?  The answer to this question often has prophylactic benefits.

The Peter Prescription:  How to Make Things Go Right by Laurence J Peter
NY:  Bantam Books, 1972
ISBN 0-553-12686-5

(6)  True progress is achieved through moving forward - not through moving upward to incompetence.

(46)  Unless you know your real position you may be an Unwitting Incompetent.  As an Unwitting Incompetent you will not know the truth about whether Incompetence lies within yourself, within others, or within the system.

(57)  ...hardening of the categories...

(60)  ...bureaucratic pollution

(62)  The ultimate Hierarchal Regression is the Mediocracy in which the political leadership is derived from selling to the Processionary Puppet a leader conceived in his own image.  This is achieved through utilization of the same technology that is employed in mass producing, packaging, and selling a vast array of products.
NB:  Political elections

(77)   Each one has to find his peace from within, and peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.  - MK Gandhi

(86)  Hierarchies are unlike most ladders in three fundamental ways:  (1)  the step size, or distance between one rung and the next, varies;  (2)  the rungs are movable;  and (3) eligibility to take a step is determined by a number of different systems of promotion.

Dow's Law:  In a hierarchical organization, the higher the level, the greater the confusion.

(119)  Greed enables a person to buy things money can buy while losing the things money cannot buy.

(125)  Take care of the means and the end will take care of itself.  MK Gandhi

(140)  Today's objectives are tomorrow's realities, therefore management for competence must be management by objectives.

(144)  Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.  F Nietzsche

(145)  The purpose of an objective is to give everyone a means to decide what has to be done, so that it can be done without constant instruction and direction. 
NB:  A clear, shared vision, chance for mastery, and a degree of autonomy - what people want from work

(146)  The Peter Panel:  Involve the personnel in establishment of objectives.

(147)  The Peter Policy:  Make group goals compatible with individual goals.

(148)  The Peter Proposition:  State the objective in terms of the need it serves rather than the form it takes. 

(150)  The Peter Practicality:  Make the objective one that can be achieved.

(152)  The Peter Portion:  Let others join in the process of establishing interim objectives.

(153)  The Peter Precision:  State objectives in specific, observable, or measurable terms.

(154)  The Peter Peace:  Be satisfied to stop.

(155)  Happiness and a state of contentment can only occur in the present. 

(159)  Three Rational Questions:  1.  Where am I?
2.  Where do I want to be?
3.  How do I know I am getting there?

(162)  The three questions focus your attention on the starting point, the ending point, and the intermediate measurements.  Unless you are one of these people who simply cannot make a decision, the questions automatically elicit decision making.

(169)  The Peter Parsimony:  Make your decisions solution-directed
The simplest course of action that will do the job is the one to select.  In the hierarchy of solution characteristics simplicity must be near the top - it yields so many untold benefits and avoids so many unseen pitfalls...

The Peter Partition:  Separate the solution from the people problem

(171)  The Peter Promise:  Watch for the decision no one asks you to make

(178)  The Peter Particular:  Define the job clearly before the candidate is selected or promoted

(182)  To the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name knowledge.  Ambrose Bierce

(206)  As a university professor working with doctoral students who were supposed to be capable of independent study and research, I rarely found one who could evaluate his own work.

(207)  I began by having the student define the objectives for his project, establish his criteria for successful completion, identify the checkpoints, and evaluate the project at each checkpoint.  I then reinforced the student for his evaluation of his own performance,  In other words, instead of providing reinforcement for doing the project the way I thought was best, I reinforced him for _his evaluation_ of _his project_ in terms of _ his own criteria_.

(217)  The Peter Proposition:  Provide discriminable differences between the rewards given for good and poor performance

(221)  The Peter Pantry:  Allow each employee to select the compensation benefits he or she would like to achieve

(222)  The Peter Participation:  Reward group performance

(223)  No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.  RW Emerson

(224)  The Peter Power:  Compensate competent performance by providing opportunities for individual initiative.

The Peter praise:  Communicate for specific acts of competence

(226)  The Peter Prestige:  Communicate with competent subordinates in all ranks
NB:  It's good to have friends in low places

(238)  In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.  MK Gandhi

The Peter Plan:  A Proposal for Survival by Dr Laurence J Peter
NY:  William Morrow and Co, 1976
ISBN 0-688-02972-8

(10)  A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul. - GB Shaw

(28-30)  In contrast to the hit-or-miss method, the systems approach seeks to arrange all the components of a system to work in harmonious, interrelated cooperation.  It is not a magical solution, nor is it a new solution.  What is new is the degree of the development of the skills of systems analysts in dealing with large-scale problems.  The essence of the approach is still only common sense and logic applied realistically and consistently.  Although its core is common sense, the method requires that this be enhanced by large quantities of detailed and accurate knowledge, along with the intellectual discipline to bring that knowledge to bear on the problem.  Nature is not easily duplicated by man

(48)  Callous greed grows pious very fast. - Lillian Hellman

(55)  Modern man tends to believe that competition is the driving force behind progress, but this belief does not stand up to close scrutiny.  Competition has no inherent virtue.  There is plenty of competition in organized crime.

(71)  Lobbyists are the touts of protected industries. - Winston Churchill

(82)  "The energy companies stand ready to engage in solar energy research if we are given exclusive, long-term rights to the sun, adequate federal subsidies and development money, government backing of our investment, and a twenty-seven percent radiation depletion allowance."
NB:  Positive vision for 1990 from 1975 with solar-saline +

(106)  The earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the earth.

(146)  Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. - Will Rogers

(160)  Corporations have at different times been so far unable to distinguish freedom of speech from freedom of lying that their freedom had to be curbed. - Carl Becker

(161)  Liberty!  Liberty! In all things let us have justice, and then we shall have enough liberty. - Joseph Joubert

(186)  Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man. - Stewart Udall

(214)  Achievement of an ecologically sound economy based on renewable resources would be true progress today.

(217)  Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age. - Albert Einstein

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