How to Lose a Pointless Process

It’s one of the great injustices of Corporate America.  Complex processes spring up around everything, and only some of them make sense.  As someone with an eye toward improving productivity and adding to the bottom line at your organization, inefficient, overly complicated, unethical, or just downright silly processes may irritate you to no end.

Off With Its Head!

Whether you’re a new employee who has seen things done better on the outside or a tenured one who knows change is essential, your first reaction might be to march into your manager’s office and let her know exactly what you think of this nonsense.  This may include an emotional, frustration-fueled recommendation (read: rant) to do away with the process immediately.  Or better yet, why not skip your boss and go straight to the source of the problem – the “keeper” of the process?

Well, hold your horses because this approach doesn’t usually work.  The truth is, most processes were implemented for a reason, and most were sensible at one time.  Managers, and especially the “keeper” of the process, are invested in it and presumably understand the big picture regarding how the process fits into the scheme of general operations.  They will probably not appreciate being told how things should be by someone who doesn’t have the whole story.  And by railing on said process, you may in fact be implying that they are not doing their jobs well, which will put them on the defensive right away.

For more tips on coping with bureaucracy, check out Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Comments

[Anna]

More often just doing away with an overly complicated process may do more damage than good. It is often better to take time to understand the end result of the process and find a better way to achieve the same results.
When it comes to proposing the actual changes be humble and show how it will help people other than yourself.