Paperwork, approvals and tightropes are the makings of a disgruntled office, and despite its disadvantages being obvious, some companies still hold on to such ways. While most established companies may not feel the immediate impact of bureaucratic approaches, smaller organizations, and especially startups, have more to lose from this governing approach.
There are several hallmarks of bureaucracy. These include having an excessive number of paperwork, planning, reporting, meetings, and other activities that keep people away from their desks and getting work down. It is also characterized by approval delays that slow down execution, even of time-sensitive material. If your business it checking any of the boxes, it is perhaps time to see who your decisions are hampering growth.
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You’re not focusing on the goal
Effective processes are those that ensure the fastest and best route to getting something done. When you find that as a manager you’re signing off on too many things for different projects to move forward, then it is an indication that you’re focusing on the process than what the ultimate goal is. If you’re unsure of the effect, then look out for frustration among all members. Another indicator is that things tend to fall through the crack because the cracks because decisions were not made fast enough.
Your employees are not empowered to do their job
During the hiring process, managers look for people who are team players and self-starters. When you put them in a position where they have to run their work by you, attend too many meetings and file reports, they end up feeling disempowered. In such a case, employee morale is low. It also reduces their productivity because that time would be better spent doing what they were hired to do in the first place.
Your customers and clients are dissatisfied
Picture an HST lawyer having to run approval for a tax service and, due to delays, a company misses a deadline and gets penalized. If your clients and customers are complaining that processes take too long and continually voice their frustration, it is a sign that your systems are bureaucratic. Nowadays, despite more processes being done online, some companies have still found ways of making the process longer. Therefore, you may have eliminated the paperwork but remain slow.
You’re putting off decision making
Part of what delays decision making is not having the full information required to have an informed decision. Therefore, the best way to ensure decisions get made faster is through having everything done on a singular platform. There, a person can post all the information pertinent to proper decisions making.
