Death to Bureaucracies!

Bureaucracies are totally toxic, dysfunctional organizations. Unfortunately, they are to be found everywhere irrespective of whether they operate in a third world or a first world country. Also, my own experience has shown me that the practices, behaviors, body language, low energy level, territorialism lack of foresight, and shortage of spirit of bureaucracies around the world, is identical. 

I see bureaucracies like dinosaurs living at the wrong time for the wrong reasons and sucking the life blood and finances out of the structures that support them and the employees who work in them! I had a mentor who described these organizations as being in a coma and on life-support systems.  They do have one very powerful ability though; they sure know how to move the deck chairs on the Titanic!

Are you getting the feeling that I do not like bureaucracies? You are right! I don’t! And I believe that leaders around the globe need to start talking about a solution to bureaucratic organization, starting at government level and cascading into business.  We can no longer simply accept that bureaucracies are here to stay and we should just handle all the frustrating and costly inefficiencies and risks that their incompetence and denial creates.  We saw a clear example of this just a few days ago with all the agencies involved in Homeland Security.

My take on bureaucracies is that they are founded on ego and kept alive by the ego’s defensiveness, arrogance, nepotism and self-righteousness.  I could rant on about the role ego plays in bureaucracies but that would be my ego taking over.

So instead let me describe what growing, vibrant organizations have that bureaucracies do not.  You could use this as a check list to measure the predisposition for growth in your own organization, department or team. 

Vibrant, growing
organizations…

• Intuit very quickly when something is out of
  whack or has outlived its usefulness.            
• Find fundamentally different solutions.
• Discover opportunities that they had not seen
  before.
• Have the strength and courage to make radical
  change when required.
• Challenge their current worldview.
• Integrate new persepctive.
• Synthesize contradictions

• Assimilate
  multiple realities.
• Hold onto their deepest authentic valules
• Show humility.
• Retain their humor.
• See the panoramic niew (the biiger picture is no longer enough)
  

How did you score?  

I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can stop building and growing bureaucracies.Should we be concerned about this or not?  Have you ever worked in a bureaucracy?   What was it like?