Tending the Fire

In my career, I've worked in the private sector and the government and have served in the military. My work as a consultant has brought me into close contact with government and private sector firms.

I've found government offices and teams that are as competitive and hard-charging as any of their equivalents in the private sector. On the other hand, there are private sector departments that are as slow-moving and bureaucratic as the most rule-saturated swamps of the civil service. Unless rooted out, incompetence and lethargy can spread in any organization.

Government, of course, needs special oversight and control. A corporation can't prosecute you or put you in jail and it cannot hide behind the claim that its actions are on behalf of the people. I've worked with a lot of altruistic and dedicated government workers but those warm memories are tempered by my also having been in the room when government execs, managers, and professionals displayed attitudes that could easily have been uttered by the most arrogant corporate villains ever concocted by Hollywood.

Putting faith in any particular organization is a very risky endeavor. The more powerful an organization is, the more it is prone to abusive practices. Power is a fire that requires tending.