The Process Tax¶

Uncomfortable Reading

What Is the Process Tax?¶

The process tax is the percentage of project effort that goes into:

• Documentation that no one reads
• Meetings that don't change outcomes
• Approvals that are rubber stamps
• Reporting on progress instead of making progress
• Compliance activities that don't reduce risk
• Governance theatre (see: GOVERNANCE_THEATRE.md)

It's the difference between doing the work and proving you did the work.

Some process tax is necessary. Documentation matters. Governance matters. Communication matters.

But there's a point where process stops serving the work and starts replacing it.

The Process Tax Calculator¶

Step 1: Track Your Time¶

For one week, categorize every hour:

Step 2: Calculate Your Rate¶

Step 3: Interpret¶

Where the Tax Hides¶

Status Reporting¶

Symptoms: - Weekly status report that takes 2 hours to compile - Dashboard that takes 30 minutes to update daily - Multiple reporting lines wanting different formats - Reports no one reads but everyone wants

The tax: - 2-4 hours/week × 52 weeks = 104-208 hours/year - Per person - On a 10-person team: 1000-2000 hours/year - That's a half to full FTE spent on status reporting

The question: Could you deliver this project faster with no status reports but a weekly 30-minute standup instead?

Approvals¶

Symptoms: - Three signatures needed for decisions within your authority - Approval meetings scheduled 2 weeks out - Approvers who approve everything without reading - Approval dependency chains that create bottlenecks

The tax: - 1 week delay × 10 decisions/project = 10 weeks delay - 2 hours prep per approval × 10 approvals = 20 hours paperwork - Opportunity cost of decisions deferred

The question: Which approvals have ever resulted in "no"? Those are real governance. The rest are tax.

Documentation¶

Symptoms: - Templates that require 20+ pages - Multiple documents covering the same ground - Documentation required before you know enough to document - Archives of documents never accessed after creation

The tax: - 40-hour business case for a $50k pilot - Risk register maintained quarterly but never consulted - Design documents obsolete before implementation starts

The question: For each document, who read it and what did they do differently because of it?

Meetings¶

Symptoms: - Standing meetings with no agenda - 10 people in meetings where 3 people talk - Meetings to plan meetings - "For awareness" invitations

The tax: - 1-hour meeting × 10 people = 10 person-hours - Meeting that should have been an email: 10 hours lost - Daily standups that take 45 minutes: 3.75 hours/week × team size

The question: What would happen if we cancelled this meeting? If the answer is "nothing," cancel it.

Governance Forums¶

Symptoms: - Monthly board that reviews everything superficially - Papers submitted 2 weeks before, decisions made in 5 minutes - Committees with no authority to decide anything - Governance that's bypassed for anything urgent

The tax: - Preparation time for papers: 4-8 hours/paper - Waiting time for decisions: 2-4 weeks - Rework when governance asks questions that should have been asked earlier

The question: When did this governance forum last catch something that would have failed otherwise?

The Compounding Problem¶

Process tax compounds:

1. Process creates more process: Governance committees create reporting requirements, which create templates, which create training, which creates more governance.

2. Process crowds out work: When process takes 50% of time, you hire more people. Those people need process too.

3. Process becomes identity: People whose job is process will defend and expand process.

4. Process becomes cover: "We followed the process" becomes an excuse for bad outcomes.

The result: organizations that are very busy producing very little.

The Tax by Project Phase¶

Typical process tax at each phase:

Pattern: The tax is highest where the process was designed by people who don't do the work.

The Hidden Taxes¶

Things that don't look like process but function as tax:

Context Switching Tax¶

• Pulled into 3 different governance meetings for 3 different projects
• Each switch costs 20-30 minutes of productive time
• 5 switches/day = 2-2.5 hours lost

Approval Waiting Tax¶

• Work that can't proceed until someone approves something
• Average approval wait: 5 days
• Productivity during wait: near zero for blocked work

Meeting Recovery Tax¶

• Back-to-back meetings with no breaks
• No time to process or act on meeting outcomes
• Actions captured but not executed

Perfectionism Tax¶

• Document reviewed and edited 5 times
• Each revision after the second adds minimal value
• 80% quality in 20% of the time is often enough

Consistency Tax¶

• Making this project's documents match previous projects' formats
• Standardization for its own sake
• Time spent reformatting vs. rethinking

How to Cut the Tax¶

Strategy 1: Zero-Base Your Process¶

Instead of asking "can we remove this?" ask "if we were starting fresh, would we add this?"

Everything should have to justify its existence.

Strategy 2: Time-Box Everything¶

• No document >10 pages without explicit justification
• No meeting >1 hour
• No approval wait >48 hours for decisions under $X

Strategy 3: Question the Default¶

When someone says "we need to..." ask: - Who decided that? - What happens if we don't? - When did this rule start, and is the original reason still valid?

Strategy 4: Measure the Tax¶

Make it visible. Track direct work vs. process time. Report it. Create accountability for keeping tax low.

Strategy 5: Create Fast Paths¶

• Pre-approved patterns that don't need re-approval
• Templates that can be completed in 30 minutes
• Standing authorities for decisions under certain thresholds

Strategy 6: Kill Unused Process¶

If a document/meeting/approval hasn't been used in 6 months, eliminate it. See if anyone notices.

The Bureaucracy Budget¶

Just like a financial budget, set a process budget:

For a Small Project (<$100k, <6 months)¶

Total process budget: ~40 hours over life of project

For a Medium Project (\(100k-\)1M, 6-12 months)¶

Total process budget: ~150 hours over life of project

For a Large Project (>$1M, >12 months)¶

Total process budget: ~500 hours over life of project

If you're exceeding these budgets, you're probably over-processing.

The Uncomfortable Math¶

Consider a $500k project:

With high process tax, half your budget is producing documentation, not outcomes.

That $500k project is delivering $250k of value.

Is your governance worth $250k?

A Final Provocation¶

What if you:

• Cut all documentation requirements by 50%
• Cancelled half your standing meetings
• Made all approvals 24-hour turnaround or auto-approved
• Fired the governance committee and made project sponsors directly accountable

Would your projects: a) Succeed more often? b) Fail more often? c) Finish faster regardless?

Be honest about the answer.

"The process is not the product. Never confuse motion with progress."