Re-framing how we think about processes

Processes are trails.

Our primary expectation of trails is to safely get us to our destination.

When we learn a new discipline, we usually learn a series of steps and in-between outcomes, culminating in the desired result. When we do something for the hundredth time, we’ve likely established a process.

Yet, we often find it difficult to explain a process once it already seems natural to us.

The solution lies in re-framing our minds when we explain.

Instead of Now we define our Personas, let’s say Now, we describe our customer to better understand his needs. It’s the same thing, only the focus is on the utility, not terminology.

So why keep on saying things like Let’s perform an annual HR evaluation? Isn’t Let’s learn how our employees perform and feel about the company just better?

Such change of language is minimal, but powerful enough to turn chores into meaningful tasks. By putting sense first, processes become more human and less automatic.

Focus shifts from carrying out exact steps to the actual usefulness of outcome.

Thinking this way, we are not mere performers of a process anymore; we are enablers of something.

Subtle, yet powerful.

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” — G.Orwell 1984