Government By Consensus

[Chris Lawrence]

Once upon a time, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Canberra Rowing Club decided to engage in an annual boat race on Lake Burley Griffin.

Both teams trained long and hard to reach their peak performance. On the big day, the Rowing Club won by a kilometer.

The Authority team was rather discouraged by their loss, and morale sagged. Senior management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat must be found, and so a project team was set up to investigate the problem and take appropriate action.

It was found that, while the Rowing Club had eight people rowing and one person steering, the Authority had one person rowing and eight steering. Senior management accordingly hired consultants to study the Authority's team structure.

For half a million dollars the consultants advised that the team needed to be better coordinated so that more effort went into rowing.

The new Authority team consisted of four steering managers, three senior steering managers and one rower. A performance appraisal system was set up to give the rower more incentive, and he was sent to courses run by the consultants so that he would feel empowered and enriched.

The next year the Rowing Club won by two kilometers.

The Authority sacked the rower for poor performance, sold off the oars and halted development of a new boat.

The money they saved was used as performance bonuses for senior management