Hack Your Bureaucracy

Get outside the office to identify its real problems.

Many organizations – companies, non-profits, government agencies and other institutions – have trouble implementing real change at a reasonable rate due to the bureaucratic paperwork that real change requires. However, you can hack the system and find a path through the red tape.

To create change, you need clarity about the problem you want to solve. Most for-profit organizations have the capacity to research and identify customers’ problems. But the people who manage such institutions as schools or government agencies often can’t spend a lot of time or money considering end-users’ experience. 

If you don’t have the resources for extensive investigation, forget the corporate handbook, get out of the office and start talking to real customers. 

Start with your organization’s public engagement unit, and learn about the research its staff has conducted and the knowledge it has compiled about your clients. Then, get out into the field. For example, if you want to change a police department’s tech budget, take a ride with on-duty officers so...