Click through to read Charles Chu’s In Defense of Laziness.
He writes,
In a similar manner, von Hammerstein understood that the worst thing you can have is a hardworking idiot that goes around creating more work for everyone else.
This is the situation perpetrated on organisations around the world by the BSI/ISO mindset.
It carried over boot-camp standardisation from the Royal Navy to stamp out individuality in other spheres of enterprise.
ISO management standards train workers to think about how they can provide inspection-fodder for the assessors. It distracts them from improving the flow of work for customers and from their own well-being.
Amway doesn’t have it so easy. It’s fairly simple for independent business operators to walk away when they see through the scam.
It’s not so straightforward for those whose employers love to collect certificates at other people’s expense.
ISO standards impose military discipline to little benefit except to the fee-gathering pyramid of the International Accreditation Forum’s inspection cartel.
The standards are loved by the hardworking idiots that don’t just ask, “how high?” but demand attention by showing how much higher they can jump.
General Von Hammerstein warned,
One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent — he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief.
ISO quality standards are a mechanism for multiplying such people.
It’s better for a leader to be clever and lazy than clever and hard working.
ISOwatch 