I was in a meeting this week and we were brainstoroming what challenges could we expect in the business environment both externally and internally for 2008.  As each person volunteered ideas my responsibility was to write them on the white board. Externally it was going to be the pricing market, being profitable, cycle of the economy, weather, office location, etc. Internally it was hiring the right people, maintaining the culture, feedback from the division, communication and then someone mentioned a word I had a hard time spelling. At first I wrote, beauacracy? No, that didn't look right. Beuacracy? Nope. (Where was spell check when you need it?) The truth be told if this were a spelling bee, we were all out at this point. We didn't have a clue and so we just went with what we had.  

Bureaucracy defined as: "Administrative system or structure. Officials collectively. Frustrating rules". And I would add 'enemy of the entrepreneur' (I spelled that one right). A bureaucratic culture has severe limitations and discourages individual thinking, creativity and encourages brain dead thinking. It is a rank-and-file system where you are expected to just do your job. It is generally a system where it takes forever to get something approved because it has to go up 'the food chain' and be signed off by someone who for the most part doesn't have time nor the inclination to really care. This process generally takes too much time and by the time a decision is made people have developed alzheimer's('Now remind me what you wanted to do?') Bureaucracy not only stifles decision making and approval systems but bleeds over into vacation time, sick leave, rigid work schedules and much more. There is no leniency or the bureaucratic system is so antiquainted it just doesn't make sense anymore. 'But will there be change?' 'No'. 'Why not?' 'Because that's the way we've always done it. Don't buck the system'.Is it any wonder your best people leave companies because they don't feel appreciated?

In order to succeed today, businesses have to allow others to think for themselves, think like owners, and improve because they care about success. This doesn't mean there is not a place for some organizational structure and specialization to promote efficiency, predictability and the like but too often the system chokes ownership, pride, and commitment.

The successful people I work with and for will not tolerate a slow bureaucratic system for long. They have the life vision of an entrepreneur and will not allow this kind of structure to suck that life and desire out of them.

Question: What part of your company needs to change to be less bureaucratic? If you don't know, ask your employees. And once you've asked, do something about it.