Anthropologists have suggested that the greatest human invention is the organization. Organizations can accomplish so much more than individuals. We collectively arrange ourselves for mutual advantage.
Let’s think about business and non-profit organizations (excluding military and government organizations).
We accept the trade-off of sacrificing something in order to gain the benefits. We put ourselves under the authority of a boss. We sign contracts committing ourselves to certain behaviors or results. We agree to cooperate with others on schedules, locations, and methods. We do required training, fill out surveys and forms, attend mandatory meetings. In return we get a paycheck or the payoff of associating with a good movement.
There are also inefficiencies associated with division of labor and size of the organization. We pay the costs for waiting for others, or accommodating the way they want to operate. We suppress our annoyance with the little things. We get frustrated by people saying “that’s how we do it around here.”
Think of these tradeoffs and inefficiencies as “organizational taxes.” There will always be some taxes. It’s an inherent function of organization dynamics. The tax profile will be different for a big multinational company, an established family business, a startup using VC money, or a local non-profit helping hungry people.
The question is whether this tax overhead is working well for the larger aim. It’s a subjective question, but understand that the organizational leaders – and whomever they are accountable to – get the define “working well.” Not employees, and generally not organization members at large.
