# The Quantity Problem By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-04-24 Often organizations view productivity and value in terms of quantity. How big is the report? How detailed and convoluted are the presentation slides? How many charts and graphs are used to make a point? The bigger the organization, the more important the quantity. Massive bureaucracies have endless reports and presentations that are overwhelmingly inane and insanely repetitive. I suspect the reason for this comes down to the fact that everyone knows less as the organization grows but instead of showing this, we overcompensate with endless quantities of nonsense. It's like we are back in literature class, we only read half the book, and we have 3 more pages to meet the essay minimum length. There are two problems. First, the expectation is that a good response is measured in length. Second, the expectation that we know it all. The best advice and words of wisdom are not long. The point of a large bureaucracy is for no one to know everything and for everyone to be easily replaced. These false quantity expectations come from a place of insecurity and existential doubt. Managers who don't know what they are doing or what is good tell their employees to deliver longer and more involved reports. Employees doubt their abilities and worry about losing their jobs, so they fight against the point of the bureaucracy by trying to reflect that they know it all. Become an indispensable paper plate. Fear, doubt, and incompetence. Welcome to the breeding ground of quantity over quality. More quantity, less understanding. #### Related Items [[Quality]] [[Quantity]] [[Thinking]] [[Understanding]] [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Work]] [[Existential]] [[Fear]]