Government and non-profits alike: people shoot for mediocrity and avoid taking risks. This is how you avoid getting fired. This is what happens when incentives

Government and non-profits alike: people shoot for mediocrity and avoid taking risks. This is how you avoid getting fired. This is what happens when incentives & accountability are misaligned with your organization's supposed goals. There's also a culture of not recognizing or admitting failure; they're spun into success stories. This means people don't learn from mistakes and keep repeating them. Smaller teams are weeded out very early. The barriers to entry for working with government and non-profits are high, demanding all kind of certifications and processes to be implemented. If you don't have teams to build excruciatingly detailed (and inaccurate) proposals (complete with 100 slides presentations), jump through the hoops of procurement and fill up the deluge of paper associated with tracking every single hour working on the contract, you won't land the big contracts. Personally, I threw the towel in. Enterprise pays more, is more loyal and while procurement can still be a PITA, the overall organization is clearly aligned behind growth and revenue. If you help them do that, you can circumvent or negotiate things.