Rules, roles, and routines matter. They save us from having to clarify, coordinate, or renegotiate the same issues again and again. Much is decided in advance. But if introducing, maintaining, and complying with them requires more effort than they save elsewhere, we end up with costly bureaucracy.

Hardly anyone gets up in the morning determined to create more bureaucracy. Bureaucracy usually grows out of a good intention: to make things simpler, fairer, more professional, and safer. That is precisely the bureaucracy trap.

Bureaucracy is usually the result of costly leadership. Different parts of the organization are given too much room to make their own lives easier – at the expense of the organization as a whole.

Bureaucracy is neither good nor bad. If we want to avoid costly bureaucracy, we first need to understand the mechanisms behind this peculiar phenomenon.

Cutting bureaucracy alone is not the solution to costly bureaucracy. The answer lies in more personal responsibility, psychological safety, and risk tolerance.

Executives, HR leaders, leaders, management consultants, public-sector organizations, organizational development professionals