This term was recently used by a wonderful and harried colleague in an agency. She meant to say NDA.

We all know what an NDA is – Non-disclosure Agreement.

But given the amount of paperwork required to get things done in some agencies, I think she was right. DNR.

How many bureaucracies do you have built into your system? Are there dozens of unnecessary steps, paperwork and processes?

If there's more than a step or maybe two, it’s usually because someone somewhere made a mistake. Something was overlooked. Someone skipped a very important step. And it cost your agency in time, money, relationship with your client, or reputation.

So little by little you add requirements, forms, approvals; send memos and this grows to layers of paperwork and eventually ultimatums.

All these little things add up to one big bureaucracy where you just can’t get anything done. On time. Without extraordinary support of administrative staff.

It’s time to get rid of that crap because we can’t resuscitate a bad system.

I highly recommend a DNR for bureaucracies.

An NDA should be simple. Don’t disclose our valuable info or we will sue you.

Now go forth and let bureaucracies die!