How can we get common sense back?

New Delhi, Feb 1 Companies and organisations, it seems, have become so entangled in their own internal issues, so beset by invisible red tape, so handicapped by frozen screens, that they've lost sight of their purpose and culture replaced with a pipeline of bureaucracy leading straight into our bedrooms, writes Danish author and one of the world's foremost business and culture transformation experts Martin Lindstrom, in "The Ministry of Common Sense" (Hachette), a humorous yet practical guide to ridding ourselves-and our companies-of the bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape that plague every office.

For instance:

* During the Covid-19 pandemic, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration, the US equivalent of the CISF at airports) is allowing passengers to board planes with unlimited amounts of hand sanitizer, while maintaining its 3.4-ounce limit on all other liquids.

* Your eighth Zoom meeting of the day keeps freezing - and if you hear anyone say, "No, wait, no, you go first" again, you'll implode.

* And, by the way, how come every Zoom call lasts exactly one hour, no matter how trivial the subject matter? And as Zoom became a fixture in our bedrooms, why did the toilet breaks disappear?

* Why has a simple task like buying office equipment turned into a six-member committee decision followed by a five-level approval process?

* When a 264-page PPT deck kicks off with "Welcome to the Christmas Party Planning Meeting", you know it's time to call the Ministry of Common Sense to put an end to this nonsense, once and for all!

What happened to common sense - and how can we get it back?

Here's the reality, according to Martin Lindstrom. As Covid-19 profoundly changes the way we work, it no longer makes sense to do things the way we used to. Lindstrom's suggestion to set up a 'Ministry of Common Sense' designed to remove one stupidity at a time. First created and set up at Standard Chartered Bank the concept has spread across the world helped eliminate bureaucratic red tape, bad excuses, and corporate BS.

New York Times best-selling author Martin Lindstrom combines numerous real-life examples of corporate common sense gone wrong with this ingenious plan for restoring logic and sanity to the companies and people who need it most. A must-read for today's executives, managers, and office workers,

( With inputs from IANS )