Of course procedures are necessary
But the best ones are not obvious, or even visible. Things are just there when you need them, or happen as & when they should. Like an iceberg it’s mostly below the surface, even if it is paddling as frantically as a duck
Of course when you are new to a job or move to a different organisation you need to learn the procedures. But after a bit they just come naturally, part of the flow of your work
Or take surgical procedures. Done well, you hardly know you had them, except the pain has gone. With good modern techniques, in competent hands, you hardly even bear the scar
You can have too much of a good thing – like certain sorts of cosmetic surgery
Sometimes it has to be brutal, leading to permanent disfigurement or disability: head or neck cancer, gangrenous limbs. But at least you are alive, & can adapt
In the wrong hands the results can be disastrous & you might even prefer to be dead. Especially if it turns out that the diagnosis was wrong& you didn’t even need the surgery in the first place, or they operated on the wrong side
Those disastrous surgeons who come to our attention always have 2 things in common: incompetence & over-weaning arrogance
And they just forgot – or never understood – that procedures are there for people. The people are not there just to have your procedures imposed upon them
