How to avoid bureaucracy in EMS?

Bureaucracy kills efficiency kills effectiveness!

And even more: It kills motivation and fun! We all have made unhappy experience with bureaucratic systems, where correct paperwork seems to be more relevant than happy customers, excellent products and good profits.

I've seen bureaucratic tendencies in many organizations I've been working with. It's like a virus that infects any system without being noticed at first, and which will eventually slow it down and make it much more expensive. It's an important yet not simple task to detect and fight this virus.

Have a look at your EMS: Although ISO 14001 has been designed to enable lean documented EMS, in the years after initial implementation the documentation often shows a strong tendency to grow like cancer. In many cases, processes are overdocumented, but in many other cases, the problem is another one: As the field of environmental issues is a very wide one, the EMS of course wants to deal with ALL of these issues. Of course, that's part of the CIP.

But there is another part of the CIP, which I call the elimination process. Among the questions your should ask yourself frequently are the following What processes (etc.) can be eliminated from the EMS because they are no longer relevant? What processes (etc.) can be eliminated from the EMS because they are now part of the daily business anyway? Which projects and measures can be released from the EMS, because they have reached their finishline?

And there is an even more important question: Does the system still represent the goals and targets of the EMS?

So what I suggest you is a frequent self-critical assessement of your documentation and of your processes. And I recommend to look forward and generously eliminate, eliminate, eliminate...

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