Most Bureaucracy Starts With Good Intentions

No one ever sets out to create a 27-step sign-off process.
It starts with something sensible: a risk, a mistake, a need for consistency.

But over time, one-off exceptions become rules. The rules become process. And soon, the process becomes sacred - even if no one remembers why it exists.

Bureaucracy isn’t usually malicious. It’s just the leftovers of old cock-ups no one felt brave enough to clean up.

👉 Watch my keynote at Interchange in which I talk about this

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Take Action

If you’re a leader:

Pick one process your team hates. Kill it. Publicly. Make that normal.

If you don’t know which processes your team hates, ask them.

If you’re a team member:

Ask: “What problem is this solving?” If no one knows, suggest skipping it (if informal) or changing the process to eliminate it (if formal)