Lighten Your Process Burden
December 7, 2024
Everyone hates oppressive processes, but somehow we keep managing to create them.
Process should add value, not prevent it. Lightweight processes can drive a business forward. But when policies are layered on top of each other, it leads to a bureaucratic bulk that’s a drag on productivity.
No one intends to build a cumbersome bureaucracy. Policies are a response to corporate trauma. A Bad Thing happens. You create a system to prevent that problem. At some point, more Bad Things happen and your new system didn’t stop them. You react to the trauma with more policies.
Over time, your process becomes complicated. It slows productivity. It prevents real work from happening. To fix it you add more processes to make sure work happens. Things slow down more. But somehow, Bad Things still happen.
When your process consumes more time than the value it...