Bureaucratic Agencies have a reputation for resisting change but it is difficult for them to reject a method that brings innovation to the organization. That method adapted from industry is Lean. Lean brings innovation to the lower level of the Bureaucracy through Teams. The Teams meet once a week to discuss how to improve the processes that they use in their daily work. Their activities bring continuous improvement to the methods used in doing their job. A Team objective is to study their job Function by making a Process Flow Chart of the current job processes followed by a second Process Flow Chart of the improved method. A budget analyst costs out the new method to determine the cost savings and the Team presents these savings to top management of the Agency.

Top management’s role is to encourage the implementation of Lean by being supportive of the Teams. They should send representatives to the Team meetings showing complete management support. Each Team elects it own leader to chair the meetings and over see the making of the Process Flow Charts. The Agencies Top Management must support the Lean implementation or they should be replaced.

The Process Flow Charts provide a record of the costs associated with each process. If a process were to be eliminated all of its costs are also eliminated. A Process Flow Chart is done for each Function and if a Function were to be removed all of its budget will also be removed.

Did I say Budget? What you have now is the real budget for doing the Agency Functions not that phony bloated budget that the Agency presents each year. True, you must add in the cost of managing the Agency but now for the first time you know what that cost is. This is a bottom-up budget with actual costs for doing the work known. All other costs are for management and fluff (which can be significant). In my experience in industry most unmeasured office areas are over staffed by 10% or more.

Once you know what the real costs are for doing the Agencies work and top management is working closely with the Teams. The government reform process can begin. First the Team leaders become the Functional Management of the Agency. Second all the mid management levels between the Functional management and top management become redundant. Top management now assumes the role of a Steering Management Team. Some but not all of mid management may become part of the Steering Management Team. Steering Management has the role of guiding and steering the organization while Functional Management deals with the day to day operation of the Agencies functions. Steering Management is responsible for telling Functional Management “what to do” but not “how to do it”. This is a loose-tight organization with Steering firmly in control of the budget leaving Functional Management free to determine how best to do the job. Those in industry will recognize this as straight from the book “In Search of Excellence- Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies” by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., Harper and Row, New York, 1982.

What’s different? The multilevel career path is now one step from the Functional management Teams to the Steering Management Team. Gone are the hundreds of hours of endless manipulation of employee evaluations. Gone also is the endless bickering and negotiation over the Agencie’s budget. Staff reductions occur more at the management level and less at the bottom of the Agency. The normal approach is to lay off the most recently hired employees.

For more information see: Article 11. Adaptation of Manufacturing Quality Improvement Techniques to Achieve Efficient Government Article 20.Approaches for Different Types of Organizations
Article 23. The Relationship Between Needs, Functions, Funding Formulas and Performance Budgeting and Article 42. Declaring War on Bureaucratic Complexity