English summary · Methods
The 16 methods
Two methods per lever, each with a printable A4 template and a realistic time estimate. Eleven of them work standalone — no organisation-wide mandate and no preparatory work from other levers required.
In brief
How to read the table and where to start.
- Each method belongs to exactly one lever and is a self-contained piece of work, not a project phase.
- Effort is the honest estimate for one area, not a best case: most methods are a workshop or a week, not a quarter.
- The fastest route to a visible result without a mandate is the time-drain pulse (one week) followed by kill a stupid rule (one focused week).
- A full pilot cycle across all eight levers takes three to six months in one area. What follows is an annual rhythm, not a project.
- Every method has a German page with step-by-step instructions, a template and the typical failure mode.
This is a condensed English summary. STANDARD-8 is published in German, and the German pages are the authoritative and far more detailed version — including all 16 methods with step-by-step instructions, printable templates and worked examples. German counterpart of this page: Methodenbibliothek.
Phase 1
Understand
Levers Scan and Track.
| Method | Purpose | Effort | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bureaucracy map | Inventory all rules, approvals, committees, meetings, reports and forms of one area on a single map. | Medium | 2–3 weeks |
| Time-drain pulse | A three-question anonymous survey that surfaces the biggest time drains as staff experience them. | Low | 1 week |
| Effort-benefit matrix | Place every recorded activity on a 2×2 grid; the high-effort, low-benefit quadrant is the cut list. | Low | 1 workshop |
| Bureaucracy index | Condense bound hours, lead times and inventory counts into one baseline figure that can be tracked over time. | Medium | ~2 days |
Phase 2
Streamline
Levers Axe and Normalize.
| Method | Purpose | Effort | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kill a stupid rule | A focused cutting week with a public mandate, a reversed burden of proof and a 48-hour decision deadline. | Low | 1 week |
| Sunset clauses | Give every internal rule an expiry date. Extension requires an active, justified request; anything not extended lapses. | Low | 1–2 days initially |
| End-to-end redesign | Redesign a surviving core process from the outcome backwards, on a blank sheet, then justify every step of the old one. | Medium | 2 workshops |
| Standard and exception principle | Simplify the 80 % normal case radically and define exhaustively what qualifies as a genuine exception. | Medium | 1–2 workshops |
Phase 3
Enable
Levers Delegate and Automate.
| Method | Purpose | Effort | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delegation matrix | One page fixing who decides what, up to which limit, without consultation — including deputies. | Low | 1 workshop |
| Raising value thresholds | Raise budget and approval limits so the bulk of transactions runs locally, backed by sampling instead of prior approval. | Low | 1–2 days |
| Workflow automation | Specify a documented standard case so it can be implemented as a digital workflow without media breaks. | High | 1–4 weeks |
| Capture-once audit | Trace each piece of information through the process and remove every point where it is retyped or copied. | Medium | 1-day audit |
Phase 4
Embed
Levers Reframe and Drive.
| Method | Purpose | Effort | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principles code | Replace a sprawling policy with one or two principles, tested against real past decisions before the policy is retired. | Medium | 2 workshops |
| Role model and one in, one out | Clarify accountability with RACI — exactly one accountable person per outcome — and cap the rulebook. | Medium | 1 workshop + discipline |
| Annual bureaucracy review | One fixed hour per year: index trend, expiring rules, three new candidates per area, decisions and owners. | Low | 1 meeting per year |
| Report-it channel | A permanent low-threshold channel for redundant rules, with a guaranteed reasoned decision within 14 days. | Low | 1 day + ongoing |
Templates
What comes with each method
Every method has a working document: a table or form to fill in, a questionnaire to distribute, or a canvas to draw on. The full content of each template is published as a page — in German — so it can be checked before downloading anything, at Vorlagen im Überblick.
Templates may be adapted: columns, fields and criteria are proposals, not prescriptions. The licence terms apply — free for private and non-commercial use with visible attribution.
Stand: · Fehler gefunden? Hinweis geben