Red tape. It’s universally despised. So how does it wind its way around institutions from the college bursar’s office to the Department of Motor Vehicles?

“When things go wrong, the default answer is to put training and a policy in place. But sometimes, what you’re mitigating isn’t worth the cost to mitigate it,” said Meghan Pickard, senior manager for Operating Systems Excellence.

In the summer of 2023, Sandia launched a campaign titled Unleash Excellence, a massive, ongoing effort to hunt down and destroy red tape.

This began with a comprehensive review of Labs’ policies with an eye toward empowering employees and reducing unnecessary requirements. By the end of fiscal year 2024, 429 requirements had been removed from Sandia’s policy system.

“Internal controls make it easier to ensure we follow the rules, but they slow down the Labs like crazy, and people who put those internal controls in place won’t realize how much they’ve slowed things down.” said Natasha Schwartzwald, manager of Lean Excellence and Design. Natasha cited increased options for staff members to “test out” of many required trainings as an Unleash Excellence win.

To identify policies and processes that were creating drag, and generate ideas for improvement, the Labs introduced a crowdsourcing tool. The Unleash Excellence tool, which gathers ideas that “aim to reduce red tape, increase efficiency and effectiveness,” has received more than 1,200 ideas and counting. Sandians vote ideas up or down.

“Those ideas that get upvotes very quickly capture the attention of leadership,” said quality systems professional Lisa Ragsdale, who has worked on Unleash Excellence for the life of the project.

One of those ideas, titled “Simplify Travel Booking,” was upvoted more than 300 times. Sandia subsequently added SWABIZ, which, among other benefits, allowed Sandians to book and change flights via phone app rather than speaking with an agent under the old process.

“Unleash Excellence helps us see pain points from the traveler’s perspective,” Travel & Event Management manager Anne Rimbert said.

Shortly after adding SWABIZ, Anne’s team was coming back from a conference in Atlanta when a global IT outage crippled their air carrier. They rebooked flights within minutes and flew home to their families rather than being stuck in the airport.

“We’re giving people time back in their day,” Meghan said.

The Unleash Excellence effort is also giving time back to Sandia’s mission. The Labs supply chain team worked with NNSA officials to streamline contractual requirements that slowed down negotiations with vendors for critical parts and services.

Hypersonics project manager Tim Penn said the improvements cut negotiations from months to weeks.

“We’re able to reach agreements faster because we’re able to shift the focus from terms and conditions to technical content,” Tim said. “We’re always in a position of needing to go fast.”

The supply chain team was recognized for making improvements with an Unleash Excellence WWE-style championship belt, a traveling trophy bestowed by Labs Director James Peery.

“I’m glad the Unleash Excellence initiative was created,” said Louis Griego, director of Sandia’s Integrated Supply Chain Center. “We hire really smart, dedicated people and we want our team to think critically. By doing things like this, we give our teammates the autonomy to meet the fundamental spirit of requirements and encourage them to think critically and be creative.”

Louis wrestled the belt from senior manager Duff Lill, whose team started “Red Tape You Love to Hate,” an early national security programs effort to address bureaucratic obstacles. This effort predated and catalyzed the Labswide Unleash Excellence initiative.

Overall, results of Unleash Excellence have been staggering. As of mid-March, its projects saved an estimated 419,000 hours of labor, with a cost impact of $55.6 million.

There’s more to come, according to Natasha.

“We’re not done cutting red tape,” she said. “It’s a journey and it’s going to take time. Five years from now, we’re going to look back and say, ‘It’s so much easier to do my work.’”