Separating Policy from Paralysis
Separating Policy from Paralysis:-
We visit the word “Policy” at every stage of the life, wherever we go, in social and public space in implicit and explicit ways. Whether it is registration of the birth of a child, admission in a school, examination in a college, an interview for a job, leisure travel, government expenditures, legal or economic matters you cannot escape the word “policy”. The word accompanies you as much as your shadow. Paralysis is a word that we visit in the medical world. Paralysis is the loss or impairment of voluntary muscular power. The connect between policy and paralysis takes place when the authorities in charge of creating a framework are unable to make decisions leading to cascading effect. The phrase policy paralysis became a favorite in the economic, social, media and political circles in the recent past when government machinery virtually came to standstill on key issues. Policy paralysis affects many governments and other bodies as well.
You can make out certain environments where policy paralysis is visible at every stage.
In such environments, policies are not instruments of empowerment but of disablement, prohibition, escapism and indecision.
You often hear “Your point of view is valid, but you know, this cannot be done as per the policy”. Promotions cannot be given, terrorists cannot be punished, widows of slain soldiers have to wait for pension, resources cannot be distributed., victims cannot be helped if the crime happens a few meters away from the place where police jurisdiction ends, outdated laws are not scrapped, compensations are not revised for years
There was a case in a factory, representative of such environment. An overhead crane developed cracks and it fell down on the floor. Fortunately, it did not injure anyone. The next day, an emergency health and safety Audit was scheduled. A committee was set up overnight to manage the embarrassing situation. All compliance requirements with respect to the care to be taken for workers’ health and safety were reviewed. The quality manager had prepared some charts that contained a list of breakfast items being provided to the workers along with calories content. . He made the suggestion that these charts can be displayed in the canteen. One of the committee members normally resistant to quality initiatives said, “Karo yaar, isme kisika nuksan thodi ho raha hai?The tension eased out. A strategy to manage the faulty crane issue was worked out. The chart was displayed in the canteen. The Auditors were taken for breakfast, the policy was demonstrated, lapse was shown as an aberration, the audit was cleared and the management representative received a pat on the back for saving the day. The message was clear as to what “policy implementation” meant. Along with safety policies, empowerment and reward policies became evident. The workers did not say anything but the policy was understood.
Policies got defined. Paralysis had begun.
How many types of policies exist in reality in such highly policy-driven environment?
Verbal and written, visible and invisible, understood but not followed, followed but not understood, structured and unstructured, brief and verbose, defined and vague, documented but not signed, signed by me as read by you, utopian, , practical, calibrated, disproportionate, de-linked from risks and also downloaded from other sources. Policies meant for auditors, policies meant for “every year same non-compliances”, policies that are well laid but have no space for creativity.
There is no separation between policy and paralysis in such environment. What is common in all the above examples is not the lack of policy but the lack of sensitivity.
Fortunately, many of these entities, organizations, governing bodies look for change. They look for better policies.
Nowadays, there exists a lot of material from various sources on what is a good policy and how to draft them. They also explain “characteristics” of good policy. These documents contain many adjectives associated with a good policy. However, they miss a core point.
The most important characteristics is sensitivity. Insensitive machinery can never make a good policy irrespective of the form, and contents.
Policy is often compared as the brain of an entity. The brain is a repository of experiences that controls and balances actions and emotions, takes feedback from sensory organs, adapts and responds. The sensory organs capture every signal from every source of every nature, be it warmth of the mother, pat from boss, change in weather and temperature or a sound signaling a threat and passes it on to the brain. Brain responds according to the signal received on moment to moment basis. This is how a good policy needs to work.
A brain unable to respond to the feedback of sensory organs leads to state of paralysis. This is probably the genesis of the word policy paralysis.
Though it is may seem tough to have policies so dynamically designed, a large section of good organizations, entities and governments try to maximize and accommodate diverse views and are able to stay ahead. You will notice that they are sensitive to change. Their policies written or not, signed or not, approved or not are ever evolving. They have limitations but not paralysis. In spite of the limitations, they find their own ways to grow and prosper. Superpowers are no exceptions.
President of US, Barack Obama released the cyber security policy of the White-house. He expressed his belief that a free flow of information in globally interconnected networks is an essential precondition to global prosperity and promotion of universal rights. In this context, his policy had a statement.
“People must have confidence that data will travel to its destination without disruption”.
This was a sentence from the person who led laser guided missile attacks on terrorist dens with high precision and still caring about that data reaching to its destination! How many organizations’ security policies contain such an explicit sentence? Look at any bank that provides internet banking services and see the fine printed disclaimers about the safety of your transactions. A customer needs to sign all these disclaimers and absolve the Bank from any liability in case of any unforeseen event of data security breach, are customers not entitled to have confidence that data will travel to its destination without disruption?
The specific policy statement of Obama/the President has vision, objective, simplicity, precision, direction, communication and assurance. It emerges from sensitivity to the fact that cyber-terrorism is a global reality and the citizens of the nation need to be protected while granting freedom of expression in all spheres of life.
The reader of the policy knows what to do and how to align. Accordingly, legal, administrative and investigative machinery shall move in specific direction. Product vendors shall enhance capability of their products. Seminars and webinars shall have a theme. Every entity shall re-validate its communication infrastructure. Every citizen shall check his wireless settings before using it for communication. Whistle-blowers will have courage. Emergency responses teams and forensic teams will sharpen their tools. E-commerce and international trade transactions with aspiring and emerging superpowers like India that is equally sensitive to its growth will increase. There shall be goal congruence. Policy shall remain the brain of the nation but sensitivity shall run through entire nervous system.
This is called policy. There is no paralysis. The only separating character between the phrase “policy paralysis” is space. And this space represents silent sensitivity.:-
Bol Madhavache 