It was management author Peter Drucker who made the perfect distinction between efficiency and effectiveness. He wrote that efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.
It is a difference that successful political and military leaders throughout history seem to have recognized instinctively. And as Drucker’s writings were integrated into business school textbooks it gave the distinction between the two concepts a wider audience. It became part of modern business leaders’ thinking and was put to good use. It’s too bad that this simple but powerful idea hasn’t gained much traction in the public sector.
The streets in our neighborhood provide an example of how Drucker’s distinction is sorely missed.
Not too many years ago the main route — actually, the only route — from our residential area to the more economically developed, paved-over portions of south Snohomish County and beyond was very much a typical two-lane country road. In the 1990s, though, following the rapid development of the surrounding real estate, improvements were made to the road.
These improvements took the form of an ambitious construction project with enough engineering challenges in earth moving, terrain altering, drainage issues and overall complexity to equal anything the pharaohs ever took on.
In recent months, a new project was begun to add even more improvements to a portion of the road: sidewalks and an added lane on one of the hills so that slow-moving trucks could pull over and allow faster vehicles to pass.
These latest improvements, of course, require additions to a road that was already an engineering challenge. Not surprisingly the additions would present similar challenges.
Imagine a sidewalk that requires massive reinforced concrete structural support and you will get an idea of the kind of engineering challenges faced. And that is just one example.
While the construction crews seem up to the engineering tasks, there have been substantial amounts of what economists call “external” costs. Over the past few months the construction project has involved temporary closures of the road that offers the only way in or out. This has put a burden on school buses, mail delivery, UPS and other commercial deliveries and commuters headed to and from their jobs. And signs that say “Use Alternate Route” aren’t very helpful when there is no alternate route.
The flaggers controlling traffic have done an admirable job. They pay attention to their work, respond well to traffic flows and usually manage to avoid the confusing “huh?” signals that frustrate drivers. Over time they have gotten to know the neighborhood residents as well as some commuters, and their ready smiles have helped to keep the delays from reaching the steering wheel-pounding stage.
Overall the complex project, other than starting far too late in the season, seems to be well designed, well managed and well executed. They are doing things right.
The only thing missing in the project was someone to think it through and ask the question, “Why are we doing this right now?”
Apparently, no one wondered why the need for sidewalks and an uphill passing lane was so urgent that we had to start work on this expensive project right away — at a time when state and local budgets are so tight that we are seeing cuts in important and even critical services. No one asked if they were doing the right things.
The funding of public projects is increasingly shrouded in fog, mystery and “magic money.” Magic money comes in different forms and shapes, the most worrisome of which is federal funding, which has become a type of internalized corruption.
Perhaps, then, this project was underwritten by federal dollars that could only be spent on road improvements. Surely, though, there had to be areas where immediate safety concerns or costly traffic delays made them more worthy of our attention and limited resources.
The needs of this area certainly would not seem to qualify for top priority. Being stuck behind a slow-moving truck on a hill had been a fairly rare occurrence, usually limited to arriving at the hill at the same time as the weekly visitations of the Waste Management folks. There have probably been more of these hill delays caused by the improvement project’s gravel trucks and flat-beds than in the years that preceded it. The sidewalk additions are a more complicated issue, for at least portions of them are related to usage of a children’s park that has not been built.
Drucker is not required reading for candidates. But we could sure use some elected officials who understood the difference between doing things right and doing the right things. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to reduce important services in order to launch expensive road improvement projects that could be postponed.
James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a monthly column for the Snohomish County Business Journal.
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