Navigating Bureaucracy is part of life. Here are a few key strategies for success.
1. Stay Informed. It’s important we don’t go off half-cocked: Don’t just react to what you hear or read. Take time to fully understand the issues.
- Read the fine lines and do your research.
- Talk to other industry professionals.
- Contact groups dedicated to the issues you face.
- Make sure you understand as much as you can, before taking action.
2. Set your Priorities. Make sure your clear in your mind as to what you want. If you don’t know what your looking for how will they? Decide where to prioritize your efforts and make a general game plan to start. First start by answer these questions:
- What exactly is the issue?
- What part of the legislation, rules, or law is the problem?
- Is compliance cheaper than fighting?
- Can someone really enforce the issue? Is it just part of a coercion tactic or public relations campaign by some politician?
- Which department is really in charge, or is it a labyrinth of paperwork and red tape?
- Who exactly do I contact to get the ball rolling?
3. Find the right people. You will get the run around until you find the right person or department. Usually the help/information desk is the best place to start. Here’s a few tips.
- Be patient and keep following leads.
- You will get pushed from place to place and person to person, so stay patient.
- Don’t give up. You’ll eventually find someone who knows what’s going on.
4. Be nice: Please ask for help, don’t demand it. It’s OK to be persistent and insistent, just do it nicely.
- Getting angry should always be your last-ditch effort.
- Remember, the people you meet didn’t write the rules. So, don’t take it out on them.
- There most likely will be multiple people involved. Someone to receive the paperwork and payment. Someone is responsible for interpretation and implementation. Someone for authorization and enforcement. And more in between.
- It’s better to have them on your side than against you.
- Please be friendly, polite, courteous, and patient.
5. Dealing with Paperwork and Red Tape: This is probably the most time consuming and aggravating.
- Make sure you have the right paperwork and are in the right department.
- Do not leave anything blank, and ensure you include all attachments.
- Try to get all the paperwork in at one time and on time.
- Don’t wait for them to get back to you. Always follow up and make sure the process is moving.
4. Be persistent:
- Often things will get lost and will need to be done again. Try to keep your cool.
- People don’t do their jobs. This is why followup is so important.
- Management changes. Next time you may have to deal with someone else.
- Incompetence reigns. Yes, the person helping you may have no clue or is giving out the wrong information.
- At first you don’t succeed, try again.
Some quotes from a great article called – The Fine Art of Dealing With Bureaucracy.
#1. The Iron Law of Bureaucracy: Every bureaucracy will act to preserve itself and its resources before acting to achieve its mission goals. The people who act to preserve the bureaucracy itself will end up in charge, and people who focus exclusively on the mission may be removed entirely as time goes on.
#2. The larger the bureaucracy is, the less likely it is that you can work outside its rules. This is because large bureaucracies rely more and more on established procedure and are subject to “black box” situations where one office has no real understanding of how other offices get work done due to advanced specialization of labor.
#3. The older the bureaucracy is, the more red tape it will have. This is because old bureaucracies have had time to establish complex and specialized processes and lingo for their operations.
Final things to remember when Navigating Bureaucracy:
No, they are not singling you out. Everyone is subject to this monster.
Know when to hold and when to fold. Especially if it costs you more time and effort than you save by winning.
Don’t let your company become a Bureaucracy. Being careful not to micromanage everything seems to be the key. Thinking you are the only one who can do it right leads to rules and procedures to keep everything and everyone in place.
If you find yourself buried in your own paperwork, then it’s probably time to rethink things.