It's all just a process

Many of us experience a great deal of frustration when dealing with things like deadlines, processes and procedures, sales, turn around times, learning and education and training. For many of us it is simply a case of A and then B, the agitation is often expressed in; "so what's taking so long"?

What we readily forget is what the process involves. We all want the speed of the local drive through take-away - forgetting that, that too is a process, albeit a very fast one. In our fast paced world we live under this grand illusion that even the most complex process is… well rapid - one step. Here is the news flash - NO IT IS NOT.

Then there, is of course, the "process curve-ball". Some processes we feel completely in control of, either because we put them in place, or they are easy to adapt to and accept. Other processes grew organically and we are familiar and comfortable with those. Then there are processes we do not need to know how they work; we are just pleased that they do.

And then there are those processes that we just do not come to grips with; no matter how hard we try. Yes, the "curve-ball" - those processes we don't have a clue about how they work and its hurting us. 

Allow me to illustrate this; cast your mind back (for some of us this is a long way) to the days of courtship, and let us imagine that place where you asked someone to dinner.

I will leave out the whole "what shall I wear" thing and all the aftershave and perfume and make-up and shoes (don't forget the shoes), as well as the car the roads the entire city infrastructure the electricity, the Hotel the plush red carpet and oh you get the point.

Back to the dinner itself; Kudu Cutlet's in Wild Fig Sauce with Vegetables sautéed in a white wine with cheese sauce. Is the process; please may I have this meal - and a fine bone china plate containing my meal arrives at my table and is placed before me. As easy as that, right? Well…. NO.

Considering the Kudu Cutlets - to get that on your plate it took the following a Kudu, a hunter, a butcher. The hunter needed a rifle and ammunition, which in turn required wood, a carpenter and a whole bunch of tools. It also required some fancy steel and a gunsmith, with more sophisticated machinery, which in turn required a whole lot more specialized "stuff" that got a bit much. Let's leave that for now. The butcher needed a knife and a fancy saw and the suppliers of that needed a whole lot of "stuff" - I don't even know what that all is and those suppliers needed a whole lot of "stuff" which… is more overwhelming and their suppliers even more… and as for the kudu and the hunter and the butcher well somewhere in this whole story they had to get conceived and that is a whole process in itself, which had a beginning somewhere (these dinner dates are dangerous). On second thought I wont consider just the main course as we will have to look at two farmers, one diary, one vegetable; the cows the cheese factory the vineyard, the quarry and… I haven't even mentioned the lipstick and the whale hunt and Green Peace… all too much.

What we often forget is that getting a new Strategic Plan, Training Programme or even just a memo on someone's desk goes through a process, some processes are well oiled and work with ease while others are a bit of a "curve-ball" we don't even know how we got here. A bitter sweet success, after all it was just a process.  

The Glorious Process; in its simplest form, it is just a list; at its most complicated, it's a science all of its own. Yes you got it, its what we do.

So what is the nugget, the moral of the story… consider those challenges you face, now segment each one and put it in a process. Step 1…

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Many people go through life thinking that it is absolutely essential never to make mistakes; many even go to great lengths to covering up their mistakes, even to the point of lying to avoid the perceived consequences of these mistakes. The lying is most certainly a more serious offense than the mistake itself.

Mistakes can, however, prove to be one of the most effective learning experiences leading to greatness. There is a story about the young executive who asks the Chairman of the Board how he became as good as he was at what he did. To his surprise the Chairman replies that he got there by making good and correct decisions. Pressed further the young executive then asks the Chairman how he learned to make good decisions, to which the Chairman replied - by making the wrong ones.

In short he had learned how not to make mistakes by making mistakes!

A number of years back I interviewed many applicants for a particular job.  Many applicants thought it prudent to confess to having never made a serious mistake, (I am sure they thought this would get them the job).  My view was a little different ... if they had not learned to deal with mistakes (and by implication make good decisions), and articulate what they had learned in the process, then when they did make one it was likely to be catastrophic! I wasn't keen to have that happen on my time, nor was I comfortable with individuals who were unable to take appropriate responsibility for their actions.

The truth is that people are going to make serious mistakes on your watch. The question that needs to be addressed is can I assist people to get through the mistake with their self-worth in tact?   

One 'Catch 22' questions revolves around the whole issue of experience. To this end there is no teacher like a mistake or two. It is mistakes that produce experience (applied knowledge).  Success born of 'plain sailing' very often does not add a whole lot to the experience thing. Here is the crunch, we are all going to make mistakes, it would thus be more valuable to learn to deal with them early in life.  If one has not developed a strategy for dealing with mistakes early, one is going to have to learn to deal with them later in life; this is potentially devastating.

An important thing to remember about mistakes is that it is better to deal with them than cover them up - and don't be afraid to ask for assistance from someone you trust. Learn this early and learn to stand up again, the sooner the better.

What did you do with your mistakes today?

As this is the first entry on a brand new blog, I thought I would enlighten readers that the code name for Kevin's blog is "Just a thought" and today's thought revolves around a quotation I have just read off one of the may emails I receive on a daily basis.

It goes like this:
" In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists"
- Eric Hoffer.
 
This, of course, has an amazing correlation for me to the second law of entropy, which essentially goes like this: If I am trying to run today on yesterday's knowledge, there is a very good chance that I will come up with an outdated solution. The real issue then is not how much I know but what I can do with what I know.

Consequently the moment I stop learning, my knowledge is becoming outdated by the second. The secret then lies in not only continually updating my knowledge but integrating the small little things I learned today into the huge mass of knowledge I carry within me.

Returning to the second law of entropy; the moment I add one small piece of information to my knowledge system the entire system reverts to ZERO until the critical process of integration and generalization of the new information has occurred.

So go ahead take a few minutes to ponder upon the apparently small little thing you learned to day and let it change your world.