Some thoughts on process, by one and for those who can feel constricted by process:
- There are no points for reinventing the wheel. Processes that are known to work win.
- Simple also wins. A convoluted process (like the new one you might create) is hard to follow and won’t tend to be sticky.
- Small is beautiful. “Find the perfect job” isn’t a process. Sending a few emails a day to the right people could be. It’s possible to get even smaller than that.
Most of all, though, it’s worth getting curious about when and why we might be resistant to learning, following, or trusting processes.
Perhaps it’s more fun to think about outcomes, or all the yellow-brick roads we might follow to reach them. Perhaps it’s fear of being on the hook, or being measured against a method that’s known to work (something that irks the unique and special ego). Perhaps it’s tedium, or the specter of it.
Whatever the resistance or fear, the point is that processes can help get us over or around it and back to doing the work that matters. Any given project might not work, but there’s no good reason to sabotage it from the outset by neglecting proven, simple, and smallest-viable processes.
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HT Seth Godin for these ideas
Colin Steele 