– The person responsible for all the bureaucracy is hard to identify, and at the same time impossible to get past. The insightful words come from the Director General of the Armed Forces. They now want to reduce all this bureaucracy. I myself have just returned from the first four weeks of intensive studies at the Swedish Defense University. There, in addition to having the privilege of meeting fantastically knowledgeable teachers, I have also had the opportunity to listen to all the senior leaders in the Armed Forces, such as the Chief of the Army, the Chief of the Air Force, the Chief of the Navy and the Chief of the Home Guard, and on Thursday both the Commander-in-Chief and the Director General of the Armed Forces. Because there are a lot of things happening right now in the Armed Forces as an organization. What for many years can be described as a somewhat unclear activity that focused on operations abroad, has now suddenly come to life with a great challenge to get full focus on a strong international defense. Now also together with our allies in NATO, which places great demands on cooperation. What the senior managers are saying is that there now needs to be a reshaping of operations. And quickly, because the time may in the worst case be much shorter than any of us had imagined. We don’t have time to “lollygag” at the usual pace and we don’t have time to drag things out.
We need to improve quickly
That is the first lesson; the need to improve very quickly. I dare say, without knowing exactly where you work, that you and you in your organization have the same need and challenge. I see it over and over again; that there is a great need for improvement, but that we generally deal with the issue as if we have oceans of time to work on it. You don’t. As I always say, the only people who benefit from you dragging out your improvement work are those who do not want anything to change. They do not want it because:
- They themselves don’t want to change, because it’s hard. The law of least resistance makes us do as little as possible.
- They don’t want to go outside their comfort zone, because it’s uncomfortable and also hard.
- They are stuck in the whining corner, where it is quite convenient to be constantly energized by complaining about how badly things work. In the whining corner, there is no need to take responsibility.
- They are more concerned with what they might lose than what you as a whole might gain. There is always the risk of losing a mandate, a position, or perhaps something as simple as your office.
What I now hear from the highest representatives of the Armed Forces and compare with my own experiences, is that there is a will at the top for change. To some extent, the insight can also be found in the individual employee, because they see that things are not working in the organization. They themselves suffer from the problems. The big problem is the layer between the highest and lowest levels. It is like a fog where it is difficult to identify why things are not going as planned from the highest level. The problem can be compared to the captain of the ship standing on the bridge and steering. She turns to port or starboard, but the ship does not change course as quickly as the captain wants. It is as if the wire between the steering wheel and the rudder is not connected properly. Someone has created a slack that causes a large gap. There is a sluggishness in the system, which effectively puts an end to fast and effective change management. What I heard from several heads of the Armed Forces was exactly the same: There must be an end to “nonsense” and harmful bureaucracy, because we don’t have time for that. For the Swedish Armed Forces, there is a great need to quickly create the value that is the purpose of the business; to have military capabilities that deter our enemy from attacking us.
How do we stop the nonsense?
How then do we deal with this, to remove this harmful bureaucracy and stop the nonsense? Here comes the second lesson. If you’ve followed my communications in different places for a long time, you know that I’m looking for a better way to run businesses. A better way than the traditional hierarchical one. But if you still have a hierarchical structure, which is highly likely, then you need to use that structure. Here, you need to short-circuit it to a certain extent by directly contacting the employees at the bottom of the organization as a senior manager. That’s where you can find out what’s going on and what’s needed. Not a filtered and sanitized version of the situation. Because the middle layer between the “ordinary” employee and you is always more or less adjusted, so that no one in the middle layer appears in a worse light. At the same time, it is important that you, in contact with the employees, give your clear picture that the nonsense that is going on is over and that you really want to improve the way you work. This will immediately send a message about the importance of the improvement work and that you are leading the way. Now you may be thinking that you are not a CEO, municipal director, regional director or director general, so what should you do? Well, in your role as the person responsible for your organization, you have the opportunity to do the same. It may not be for the whole agency or company, but for you. Instead of six levels between the highest level and the lowest, it might be ‘only’ two or three. It matters less. Because if you go out and point out the importance of the improvement work, it gives the employees a real push forward. Then you show both your support and your expectations have been clarified. If you are a business developer, you should ally yourself with your immediate manager and together do your best to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Do you want help in brainstorming on how to get the best results in your improvement work? Contact me in the easiest way by clicking on the link, and we will take an online meeting to meet. No cost to you or obligation on your part. So let’s book a time that suits you.
