Yes everyone just says yes to foolish projects and then staffs up and drags projects out for years.Give you a few examples.
The LL5 in our area allowed a vendor to analyze our area for security and technology holes. Now the whole reason the vendor does this is to sell Ford costly software ( to fix the holes). Well the vendor discovered a bunch of bogus holes. A senior person explained why the vendor was wrong. The vendor tech support admitted they were wrong- no holes. But the vendor salesman convinced the LL5 that neither the Ford technician nor the vendor tech support knew what they were talking about. The Ford LL5 signed a 2.5 million dollar contract with the vendor for software and tech support to resolve all the bogus problems. A huge multi-year project was spun up with PM and 26 technicians all meeting weekly and doing unnecessary work. The annual Ford people cost for doing unnecessary work is 3 million. All the senior technicians just rolled their eyes and pretend to agree with the LL5- it all pays the same. Go FORD!
Another example. 20 years ago a skilled tech spec found a vendor product that saved Ford a tremendous amount of $$$ by tuning resources and detecting things whose performance had degraded. The tech spec set up automated processes that kept everything running optimally. Then an LL6 who was jealous of the tech specs skills and reputation took over the group and started sabotaging every process that the tech spec had set up. The gullible LL5 played along and allowed the LL6 to de-install the vendor product. Well Sxxx hit the fan and splattered everywhere. The LL6 got transferred, then SRD, the LL5 retired. And then someone says we should just reinstall what the tech spec had installed for 20 years. The LL4 squashed that because he had backed the LL6 and LL5 in de-installing the vendor product. Instead Ford paid 1.7 million for an inferior product, and still to this day despite multiple projects headed by the LL4 has not gotten back to where they were before the LL6’s antics. Go FORD! Here the LL4 could of just admitted he had been played and solved the problem for less than 100K, instead he spent 1.7 million green dollars and 3.9 million in blue dollars (so far).
The opportunities lost because we are doing st-pid wasteful things is tremendous.