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Red Tape: Four Ways That it Can Set You Free
“My Lord, If I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence which surrounds me, I should be debarred from the serious business of campaigning.”
The Duke of Wellington to the Secretary of State of War, 1809
Everyone hates too much red tape.
Even the famed Duke of Wellington notes the frustration it causes to those on the front line. No surprise. Red Tape refers to the fabled red cloth tape ‘twist ties’ used by civil servants to physically bind the documents that contained the voluminous and prescriptive policies and procedures guiding the workings of the British Empire back when Queen Victoria reigned, and before. To be ‘strangled by red tape’ became the ultimate epithet where well-meaning people, in any organization, saw their efforts at leading rapid and meaningful change either slowed to the pace of near geologic time, or choked out completely. Jonathan Swift famously and satirically rails against this practice when he described the Lilliputians unfairly and unknowingly tying down poor Gulliver during his travels.
Consequently, in modern day business and government, enourmous amounts of time and effort are invested in various programs and initiatives to avoid or cut red tape, and in making processes work faster, better and cheaper for staff and clients. Great successes have been achieved in some quarters. For example, in 2014, Australia reported $4 billion in savings to businesses http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/red-tape-costs-cut-by-4bn/story-fn59niix-1226819047754 .
In other jurisdictions like British Columbia there are now laws, and a Ministry, specifically focused on red tape reduction that are, somewhat ironically, led from a capital city named after the ‘Queen of Red Tape’: Victoria .
Overlooked in this war on overly bureaucratic processes is the fact that, in some cases, a little bureaucracy can be good for you.
How?
Here are four ways that red tape can, paradoxically, help set you free:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/red-tape-four-ways-can-set-you-free-richard-eaton
“My Lord, If I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence which surrounds me, I should be debarred from the serious business of campaigning.”
The Duke of Wellington to the Secretary of State of War, 1809
Everyone hates too much red tape.
Even the famed Duke of Wellington notes the frustration it causes to those on the front line. No surprise. Red Tape refers to the fabled red cloth tape ‘twist ties’ used by civil servants to physically bind the documents that contained the voluminous and prescriptive policies and procedures guiding the workings of the British Empire back when Queen Victoria reigned, and before. To be ‘strangled by red tape’ became the ultimate epithet where well-meaning people, in any organization, saw their efforts at leading rapid and meaningful change either slowed to the pace of near geologic time, or choked out completely. Jonathan Swift famously and satirically rails against this practice when he described the Lilliputians unfairly and unknowingly tying down poor Gulliver during his travels.
Consequently, in modern day business and government, enourmous amounts of time and effort are invested in various programs and initiatives to avoid or cut red tape, and in making processes work faster, better and cheaper for staff and clients. Great successes have been achieved in some quarters. For example, in 2014, Australia reported $4 billion in savings to businesses http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/red-tape-costs-cut-by-4bn/story-fn59niix-1226819047754 .
In other jurisdictions like British Columbia there are now laws, and a Ministry, specifically focused on red tape reduction that are, somewhat ironically, led from a capital city named after the ‘Queen of Red Tape’: Victoria .
Overlooked in this war on overly bureaucratic processes is the fact that, in some cases, a little bureaucracy can be good for you.
How?
Here are four ways that red tape can, paradoxically, help set you free:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/red-tape-four-ways-can-set-you-free-richard-eaton
