A Wall Street Journal opinion editorial piece caught my eye today. Titled “A Simple Idea for Speedier Government,” it talked about the early success of a Pennsylvania program that refunds fees if permits are not issued by the deadline. In the few months that it’s been in effect, one department has reduced its backlog by 41%. So many people are benefiting because businesses don’t have to sit and wait…and wait…and wait for permits.
This program is demonstrating beautifully one of the tenets by which I conduct my business. Sure, I “run” a program that’s enjoyed some success over the years, but in the end, I’m about the customer service I’m providing. It’s important to me that I make my customers better at what they’re supposed to be doing for the Air Force (and others), and job one in that is to get the job done and done quickly so no one’s left sitting around waiting for me. It’s a fact that one log jam along the way can throw off an entire project. I’m not going to be that log jam.
But bureaucracy is different, and if you think your government is there to serve you, you’d best take a closer look. I’ve spoken personally with government managers who are frustrated when their people don’t get the job done. In reality, these managers (the ones who actually call their people to account) are rare…and unpopular. Government employees show up at the job surprised that they’ve got to get anything done on a timeline. There’s a lot of setting things aside and “getting to it when I get to it” going on. Laziness isn’t the problem, because no one seems to care if they’re lazy. It’s really about accountability.
And this brings us to Pennsylvania. Those government agencies didn’t get an influx of manpower that suddenly made them more efficient. They got a governor who laid down the law and said, “If you don’t get this done, it’s gonna cost you.” And in these last few months, they’ve not had to issue a single refund. Imagine that. The point this sadly demonstrates is that they had it in them all along. Countless lost hours and cost overruns (the article gives the example of a dam project that increased in cost 20% while waiting nearly 5 years for a permit) have cost us all who knows how much.
This is only one simple change to the rules in one state. Can you imagine what would happen if this was done at all levels of government? It honestly doesn’t take that long to do the research, stamp the papers, and issue the permits if everyone along the way just does their jobs. But we have for far too long (and COVID helped demonstrate this for us) gotten away with just sitting on our backsides without being called into account. The term “close enough for government work” didn’t just spring up in a vacuum.
I’m sure we’d all be amazed what a little accountability would do for society. We can hope for a renaissance in this, but it’s going to be a hard slog. I see some examples broadly in my observations of the Air Force, where they’re slowly coming to the realization that moves they’ve made over the past decade and some have gutted the service’s readiness. They’re trying to resurrect standards that had over time fallen by the wayside, and I think people are by and large open to it. It’s just that far too many have forgotten what it was actually like to be held accountable.
I’m sure we’ll learn before it’s too late, but it won’t be comfortable. History has taught us that sometimes it takes a war to wake us up. Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far. Stay tuned…