"Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement"
About this Quote
A judge’s warning disguised as management advice: Brandeis is telling you that systems are comforting, not corrective. “Organisation” sounds like competence - charts, committees, protocols, the soothing sense that someone, somewhere, has a process. But he draws a hard line between structure and the human faculties that actually decide outcomes: initiative (the will to act) and judgement (the ability to choose well).
The intent is surgical. As a Progressive-era reformer who believed in regulation but distrusted concentrated power, Brandeis saw how institutions can become alibis. A bureaucracy can distribute responsibility so widely that no one feels responsible. “We followed procedure” becomes a moral escape hatch. In legal terms, it’s the difference between having rules on the books and having people capable of applying them with prudence when the facts don’t fit neatly.
The subtext is also anti-idolatry. Organisation is a tool, not a virtue. Treat it like a virtue and it metastasizes: more forms to prove you did the work, more layers to protect decision-makers from blame, more “coordination” that delays the moment someone has to commit. Brandeis is defending the unpopular parts of good governance: discretion, courage, and accountability.
Read in context of early 20th-century industrial America - giant corporations, scientific management, expanding administrative states - the line lands as a rebuke to the era’s faith that efficiency could replace wisdom. You can engineer workflows, but you can’t mechanize conscience.
The intent is surgical. As a Progressive-era reformer who believed in regulation but distrusted concentrated power, Brandeis saw how institutions can become alibis. A bureaucracy can distribute responsibility so widely that no one feels responsible. “We followed procedure” becomes a moral escape hatch. In legal terms, it’s the difference between having rules on the books and having people capable of applying them with prudence when the facts don’t fit neatly.
The subtext is also anti-idolatry. Organisation is a tool, not a virtue. Treat it like a virtue and it metastasizes: more forms to prove you did the work, more layers to protect decision-makers from blame, more “coordination” that delays the moment someone has to commit. Brandeis is defending the unpopular parts of good governance: discretion, courage, and accountability.
Read in context of early 20th-century industrial America - giant corporations, scientific management, expanding administrative states - the line lands as a rebuke to the era’s faith that efficiency could replace wisdom. You can engineer workflows, but you can’t mechanize conscience.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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