Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy is the systematic conversion of human judgment into procedural theater, where the appearance of process matters more than actual outcomes. It thrives by transforming simple problems into complex workflows, creating entire industries of coordination that produce everything except results.
On Beauracracy
As organizations mature, rules and approval layers accumulate, rewarding people who navigate process rather than those who innovate; this accretion of “distributional coalitions” ultimately hampers productivity and agility.
Simple Sabotage Field Manual
Bureaucracy is the only weapon that grows stronger the more you try to fight it—every committee formed to reduce committees, every process to streamline processes, adds another layer to the very disease it claims to cure. The saboteurs of 1944 didn't need to infiltrate our organizations; we hired consultants to implement their field manual as best practice.