One of the Big Killers of Business (Episode 5)

Transcript

Hello, friends.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about one of the big killers of business. Now, what is this big killer of business?

It’s bureaucracy. It’s rules. Too often, bureaucracy and rules destroy businesses, hurt productivity, and so on.

Now, rules can be good. Systems can be good, if they’re made for the right purpose. Rules and systems can help people be more productive by streamlining things, having a set order of the way things are done so that things can be done better, faster, quicker, and to help with innovation, creativity, productivity.

Rules can be created that help benefit that. But too often, they do the opposite. They hinder it instead of helping. They keep people from doing their jobs well because of all the approvals and all the paperwork.

It lowers morale of people. It kills their motivation and the productivity of them, and it causes good people to leave. And ultimately, for a business, it kills their revenue. And it kills them being able to stay on top of things and innovating, because there’s all these processes they have to go to because of the rules they’ve created.

Sometimes rules become a gotcha instead of let me help you. It’s about finding what people are doing wrong instead of setting good expectations and helping people do what’s right. It’s often about controlling people instead of enabling and empowering people.

It’s not the team…

 Now, some leaders will say, “Hey, I have to have these rules because I can’t trust my people. If I don’t have these rules, they won’t do their jobs and won’t do them right.”

Well, I hate to tell that person… actually, I don’t hate to tell that person. I’ll be glad to tell that person in the right way, of course, that you’re wrong. Because everything goes back to leadership. Everything.

If there’s a problem with trust, with people who can’t do their jobs well, that’s ultimately on you as the leader.

Is it that you didn’t train them well? Is that you didn’t set good expectations? Did you not hire well? Do you have a bad firing policy?

I mean, ultimately it’s on you and the culture you created. What kind of culture are you creating in your business? Have you created a culture that makes good people leave, that leaves you with the people who you feel like you do have to micromanage?

Ultimately, it goes back to leadership. So if you have an environment where you feel like you have to control people, that’s on you. So rules should be there to help people, to help them be creative, help them be productive, not to hurt it and not to control. Because ultimately when you do that, you’re hurting and you’re destroying your business.

Why are rules created

So why are rules created? Well sometimes they’re created with good intention. They’re trying to be helpful. They’re creating a system because they think that’s the way it’s going to work. Maybe it’s to save money or they think this is just a good idea so let’s make this happen.

But often it’s done without people in mind having a people perspective. Or they’re disengaged or there’s a disconnect from the front lines.

So, for example, some leader may be in the higher position. They say, oh, this is a great idea. We should do this. Let’s implement this. And they do it and they’re disconnected from the front lines and the people it will affect.

And so it ends up being a burden instead of helpful. And that happens a lot. Sometimes they create these systems to try to save money. And again, sometimes that’s without kind of a people mindset and without the trust that should be there. And so they create these rules about money.

And sometimes these things end up being counterproductive. Like for example, I’ve heard of companies that had certain policies for hotels. But the people who went to a conference, for example, they couldn’t find the hotel that fit that parameter near the conference.

So they ended up having to drive a long, long way away and costing a lot more money to fit the hotel that fit the procedure than if they were just given good expectations and guidelines and given the power to make a good decision.

Another reason rules are created is because it’s a passive aggressive way of dealing with people issues. People sometimes do make mistakes. Sometimes there are people who do bad things.

The way to handle it is not to create a new procedure or rule that affects everybody. Too often somebody does something and people create a rule to deal with that person instead of just dealing with that person. And so it ends up affecting everybody negatively instead of just if they dealt with that person and done what they need to do with that person.

And over time, rule after rule after rule is created and it becomes this giant burden on everybody. I know I’ve seen it personally when I’ve worked in government related institutions in the school system, in a local college, people would do something they didn’t like or that was wrong. Instead of dealing with that person or on top of dealing with that person sometimes depending, they would just create a new rule that affects everybody and ends up hurting everybody.

Rules and systems should be about helping

So rules should be there to help people. It should help them in their productivity. It should help them in the creativity and the innovation.

If they do that, if they hinder productivity instead of helping, you likely have a bad rule. The best thing to do is create a culture of trust, set good expectations and guidelines, and trust people in those. Will some people take advantage of that?

Yes, may people buy a whole lot more sticky notes than they should? maybe. But what matters is the culture you build because in the long run that will save you the most money and give you the most productivity and loyalty and the best employees you have working for you.

And if someone does break those expectations, instead of creating a rule, talk to that person.

Rules are for people, not people for the rules

Another aspect about rules I think we need to talk about is the fact that rules are for people and not people for the rules. There is a difference there and it’s a mindset that’s important because sometimes we can get it wrong. Rules are there for people, not people for rules.

Rules are there to help people, they help keep people safe, productive, and so on. People are not for the rules. They are not meant to be there so we can control people and to find what they’re doing wrong. It’s not about a gotcha.

Rules shouldn’t be set in stone

Rules should be questioned. We should look at things. Sometimes some rules are stupid, or maybe they were created at some point for a good reason, but now they’re not effective. So it’s good to go through the rules and see what’s good and what’s not good, what processes are helpful and which ones are helpful, and then do something about it.

A book I read recently was from Captain D. Michael Abershoff called It’s Your Ship, and in it he talks about how we turn one of the, or the worst performing ships, at least in the squadron, I think it was kind of in the broader sense.

It was a very poor performing ship and he turned it to like the best performing ship, the most trusted ships. And he talked about how he did that. And one of the things he talked about was the rules that he questioned. Because sometimes rules were there, but they were created years and years ago and they were ineffective.

So that’s something to think about and that’s a good book to read if you want a good book to check out.

In Summary

So in summary, bureaucracy rules can be a killer of businesses. Rules should be there to help your people perform better. It should enable productivity, enable creativity, not hinder it. You should have a culture of trust where you don’t feel like you have to control people with rules. Because all those bureaucracy does is it kills productivity, it lowers morale, it causes good people to leave, and it hurts you in the long run and short run.

So let’s work on building those great cultures. Let’s examine the rules we have to see how effective and if they’re really needed. And let’s just be great leaders. I’ll see you next time.