You have probably heard of Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time available for its completion. It is often quoted in the context of procrastinating until the deadline looms large. But who was Cyril Parkinson, and how did he come to write this particular law?
A really interesting article by Tiffanie Wen (read it here) gives some really interesting background d to Parkinson, and many of his other observations. He was a British naval historian and author, and his famous law first appeared in the Economist in 1955. His law was written in the context of observing that between 1914 and 1928 the British navy reduced its number of ships by two thirds, and personnel by one third, yet the number of bureaucrats has continued to increase by almost 6% a year!
Parkinson went on to make further observations about bureaucratisation, like that if your administrative body grows at 6% ore more, then sooner or later your company will die. He also developed the law of subordinates, and noted that bureaucrats create work for other bureaucrats.
The article by Wen looks at these observations by Parkinson and brings them into the modern age and tests them against current research, which, sadly, tends to validate these laws, even today. The article is well worth reading to challenge your thinking about how efficient you and your organisation really is.