I consider myself an easy going guy. I understand the need for paperwork and was taught by many a mentor that in our field if it is not documented then it did not happen. I even teach documentation to graduate students and others from time to time but I am astonished at the mountains of red tape that seem to be considered normal to some people and programs.

I remember when an evaluation of a program, proposal, etc. was a simple process. The reviewer read it, made a few comments and then ended with little more than a Yay or Nay. It worked. Nothing fancy but it worked. Call me old fashioned but since when did matrixes become standard for a simple evaluation? It seems as if every facet of our professional life has become a large process. Does it really need to be? I mean, if I go to a workshop and am asked for feedback do I really need to rate the person on 20 different areas using a Likert Scale with room for a written narrative? If I get a proposal for a new group idea should it require a PowerPoint presentation, XL spreadsheet, survey monkey, notary, MRI and a Congressional hearing or other complicated multipage computer program in order to make a decision?

All hyperbole aside, my point today is not to come off persnickety or negative though I am seeing red over the love affair many of us seem to have with red tape. When did we forget about handshakes? Are we “old timers” or dinosaurs if we still believe in using our word and a handshake to settle a deal? I am not talking about clinical documentation or testing, but most other areas of our lives.

Recently I completed a multiyear (10 years at least) rental deal for about 900 square feet of studio space with nothing more than a short get together followed by a handshake that the space was mine and that we would each give each other a year’s notice if possible before either one would try to change the terms. No lawyer, no PowerPoint etc. just two people coming to terms. Though I realize contracts ARE necessary in today’s litigious society, I feel we have gotten away from honesty, integrity and respect. If given a choice, I will not do business with folks who I feel have a lack of these ingredients. As I told one person a while back, even if free I did not feel I could work with them because the cost would be too great.

Have you ever wondered why some of us love to make so much work for everyone? Who came up with the concept of setting up a committee for everything? I swear I was once asked to serve on a committee in charge of overseeing the formation of committees. I think our job was to set up a formal process for setting up committees, job descriptions of members, rules on how to serve etc. Yes, it did include making a Power Point presentation, matrix and then my head exploded so I cannot tell you what else. It’s been said that a platypus is a duck made via committee and frankly I think that is very accurate.

I remember that I once suggestion the use of a 25 cent piece of the soft side of Velcro to assist someone with a need for tactile stimulation. I was advised by my boss that it would require several meetings, a formal referral to a vocational counselor, evaluation, additional meetings and instead of the Velcro we would have to purchase an approved sensory device that would likely cost several hundred dollars and that looked and worked very similarly to a piece of 25 cent Velcro because that was how the process worked. Oh, and this would take at least 6 months. Silly me, I could have achieved this with a trip to the local hardware store…

I am a simple guy. I love nature, love my wife and family, never saw inside an issue of GQ and I could not tell you who or what a Snookie is let alone any of the other “reality” shows (that are often staged) or their “stars.” My office which was founded in 2005 has a Board of Directors as required by law (we are a 501 c (3) not for profit) and I cannot tell you the last time we ever had a committee formed let alone meet. The scheduling of appointments is done on paper and pencil and we rarely have an issue. I use about 300 minutes of cell phone time per year as I prefer to meet with people in person and when I am on my own time that means unplugged and unwired. I have negotiated multimillion dollar deals while walking in the woods with the person who was on the other end of the purchase. We shook hands, talked about the hawk flying above us and remarked on a large amount of coyote scat in the area and of the best way to scare them off should they pay us a visit. Had they come, we would not have set up a committee to investigate the best way to get rid of them. Instead we would have made a lot of noise, stomped our feel and watched them run away.

I often wonder if I am becoming an island, that folks like me are going the way of the Dodo. If we are you can bet that we drowned not in our mistakes but in an ocean of red tape. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of red tape at times. When repairing a classic car, farm tractor or machinery color coded electrical tape not only looks good but helps one make sense of old wiring. When it comes to paperwork however count me out.

Warren Corson III (Doc Warren) is a counselor and the clinical & executive director of a community counseling agency in central CT (www.docwarren.org).