GovernmentExecutive.com

March 25-27 1996

REINVENTION REVOLUTION: REPORT FROM THE FEDERAL-FRONT LINES

Philip Howard

Author of "The Death of Common Sense"

What has happened is that no one is using their judgement. There are now warning notices for everything. Coffee cups say "Caution. Contents may be hot." On a bulletin board there is a caution sign about not eating the toner of the copier. We have reached the point where we need one generic warning: "This product should be used by people using ordinary intelligence."

We have changed our legal system. The reason it looks like this is based on a new premise: "Judgement should be banned from public thinking." Law would be like a science, telling us exactly what to do. When rules don't tell us exactly what to do, we have process-the process tells us how to do it. In our quest of doing away with irresponsible decisions, we've gotten rid of responsibility.

We believed we could prevent irresponsible decisions but rules and processes don't do that. No one has discretion to waive a rule that makes no sense. We have denied letting public administrators use their judgement to deal with rules that don't make sense for the actual circumstances.

What we need is the creative destruction of rule books. One of the most important things is for you to decide what you need to eliminate in order to do your job, to have the power to make exceptions, and to waive rules.

Government is not about sameness. Nothing is the same. All of these things require judgment and the judgement has to be yours. What's wrong with government is that we, the citizen, have lost our intelligence in what it takes to run a government. There are only two components: law and people. We have too much law, not enough people.

What it takes is people taking responsibility to achieve the right results. Rules don't allow you to take responsibility so you have to identify the rules that get in the way of taking responsibility. We need a suggestion box for rule removal.

If you were given the power-which you should have- you will be those who will bring confidence back to the citizens of the U.S.