If you have ever dealt with the frustration of the bureaucracy as a public servant, or if you have been annoyed at delays or unnecessary red tape trying to get a government service, this blog is for you. I summarize my three takeaways from Sludge, a book about the bureaucratic burdens of the public sector and how to overcome them. It is written by Cass Sunstein, Harvard Professor and former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs during the Obama Administration.
What is sludge
As a public servant, you might be thinking about ways to persuade people to do something. From getting someone in your department to deliver a report on time, to convincing the Ministry of Finance to increase the budget for an important program. Either way, bureaucracy often gets in the way.
Sludge, as Sunstein describes it, are the frictions that separate people from what they want to get, including waiting lines, burdensome paperwork, administrative burdens, and processes.
We all have suffered it! Sludge has a high cost for individuals and society. If you ever wanted to put a number into it, the US Government has made it possible. Thanks to the 1979 Paper Resolution Act, the Office of Management and Budget has to produce the Information Collection Budget of the US government. In simple words, the time Americans spend on federal paperwork, which for 2021 was calculated to be close to 10 billion hours! On average, 30 hours per person per year, over a day lost in paperwork every year. If we were to translate the cost of our time into dollars, a measure easier to grasp for most of us, this would be around 270 billion dollars per year (at an average rate of 27 USD per hour), which is 50% more than the budget for Education to complete paperwork!
What can you do?
It is easier to feel burdensome of paperwork when you are on the receiving end. But, when you are the one causing it, for example with an additional step for a service, it might be harder to see. These three tips can help.
1. Conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis for Paperwork
Bureaucratic sludge sometimes results from good intentions executed without a second thought. Imagine you are trying to prevent people that do not qualify for a social protection program, like a cash transfer, to receive it. One solution could be to fill out a form that gives you all the details required to avoid potential leakage. The problem is, that filling out a form also has a cost for citizens which could be more painful for those that needed the most. Precisely your target population. In this example imagine a single mom, working two jobs completing a 12-page questionnaire.
Even a simple cost-benefit analysis of any new paperwork (or potential Sludge) you want to impose could help you overcome inertia, be more mindful of the potential consequences of the measures you are trying to adopt, and perhaps inspire you to look for alternatives. Three simple questions to get you started:
- What is the objective of adding this requirement?
- How does adding this requirement help?
- What are the potential challenges of adding this requirement?
Sunstein shows that simplifying paperwork is not mission impossible. The coronavirus pandemic, for example, has shown that removing paperwork, providing fast services to people, and expediting approvals of medicine are possible and doable. Another example is the program TSA Precheck, which exempts pre-qualified people from airport screening in the US. Estimates suggest that program participants save around 20 minutes per person.
2. Recognize the power of inertia
Inertia is a powerful force that can prevent people from taking action even when it’s in their best interest. For example, imagine that you registered for a streaming service but you stop using it. You would be better off cancelling the service, but because the payment is automatic, you forget and keep paying. At the government level, we talked about the billions of hours lost in paperwork, yet sometimes the system lacks the bandwidth to analyze what’s going on and what’s worse, to do something about it.
Sunstein suggests that companies and public officials can use inertia to their advantage too, by making it easy for people to do what they want them to do. In the case of the public sector, for example, by making it easy for citizens to register to vote, enrolling beneficiaries of a program automatically, or facilitating access to government services.
3. Reduce sludge and implement nudges
Nudges are initiatives to steer people in a particular direction but allowing them to choose their own way. Nudges can be used to promote a desired behavior, such as recycling more or enrolling in a public program. It can be for a good purpose, like automatic enrolment in a public school. Or, for a bad purpose, like an automatic enrolment into something costly or not desirable like automatic renewal of an unwanted subscription.
In this table, Sunstein explains the difference between the two:
| Low friction | High Friction | |
| Good | Helpful “Make it easy” nudge Example: Airport maps, simplification of options. | Promoting nudge or sludge Ex: Are you sure you want to …?, or cool off periods |
| Bad | Harmful “Make it easy” nudge Ex: Automatic enrolment in a worthless program | Sludge Ex: Form filling nightmares |
Fight bureaucratic sludge!
Bureaucratic sludge is a significant problem in modern society, causing delays, frustration, and lost productivity.
Fight bureaucratic sludge as if someone is stealing money from you because it takes away something more precious, your time!
As a public servant, it’s your responsibility to recognize the impact of sludge and find ways to reduce it. By conducting simple cost-benefit analyses for paperwork, recognizing the power of inertia, and implementing nudges you can make it easier for people to access government services and improve their lives.
Every time we impose a bureaucratic hurdle in someone else’s time, we are effectively taxing them on their most valuable commodity.
