In my career, I haven't seen: * A marketing team who wants to lower their budget * An engineering team who wants to give up their head count * An NGO who tries to obviate itself (though that's exactly what they *should* do!) To the contrary, by default: * Marketing teams will want to increase their budget * Engineering teams will ask for more head count * NGOs will ask for more donations The first is a push of natural evolution. The other three are natural because once an organization is set up for a certain mission (e.g. "get new customers for our product" or "eradicate malaria in Africa"), they actually have a subtle, secondary mission which is: "help promote the careers of the people in the organization" which happens by growing it. When the secondary mission becomes the first, it's [[Goal Displacement]]. It's certain to occur at *some* level, and the actors will [[Everyone thinks they're the good guy|justify]] it to themselves: "we need the donations so we can fulfill the mission". The evolutionary pressure is *towards* growth: if NGO A keeps asking for more donations and increase their role, and NGO B keeps trying to obviate itself, the first will be larger, and is more likely to survive. So this is a [[Gravitational pull|gravitational pull]] that exists in all organizations. #published 2025-02-07