Jamie Dimon Sounds Off on Bureaucracy

The breaking point came at a town hall in Ohio this week. According to audio obtained by Barron's, JPMorgan's CEO unleashed his frustration when he learned a single wealth management project needed approval from 14 different committees. "I am dying to get the name of the 14 committees, and I feel like firing 14 chairmen of committees. I can't stand it anymore. I want it out of the company."

For Dimon, the issue goes beyond wasted time. Every year brings more controls, more checkpoints, more coordination meetings. Until one day your organization can barely move. "It just kind of creeped in," he said. He put it straight to his employees:

"How many of you take training classes that you think are a waste of time? Compliance classes that you think are a waste of time? How many of you think there's a lot of bureaucracy that we gotta do something about?" Just raise your hand in general. That’s part of the problem…

He went on to say:

"Bureaucracy is also centralizing too much. Everything's got to be documented too much, and so it's just creeped in in a million different ways."

This is how bureaucracy works – it spreads under the guise of prudence, risk management, and coordination. Each additional approval step seems reasonable. Each new committee appears to add valuable oversight. Each documentation requirement feels prudent. But the cumulative effect is organizational sclerosis.

Fighting bureaucracy requires more than careful analysis or gentle pushback. It demands the kind of genuine anger Dimon displayed – seeing your organization's potential trapped in bureaucratic amber, watching talented people waste their days in pointless meetings and paperwork. That's the fire that drove Bill Anderson and his team in their efforts to unleash initiative and ingenuity across Roche. Now Bill is bringing that same urgency to Bayer.

Think about your own workplace. When was the last time you sat in a meeting wondering why half the people were there? How many times did you need to chase down approvals last month while your customers waited? Count the hours your team spent writing reports that disappeared into the void. What will it take for you to say "enough" and start dismantling these barriers?

Here's a practical first step: Get your team together and take our 10-question Bureaucratic Mass Index survey. Review the results together and have an honest conversation about what needs to change. Sometimes you need numbers to start a revolution.