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Transcript
Hello, friend.
So one thing that sometimes messes with leaders or that leaders can get wrong and organizations can get wrong, the concept of process versus outcome.
You see, sometimes when it comes to what we’re trying to accomplish, we can start focusing on the process versus the outcome.
See, what’s most important is the outcome. But sometimes we get stuck on that process part. And it can happen with leaders when it comes to when they’re directing their team or people they’re leading and they have the outcome they want, but they feel like they have to control the how to get there. They feel like they have to control the way they do it.
Individuals can focus on process instead of outcome
And that really kind of becomes micromanaging because they have the outcome, but then it becomes I want you to do it this way and this way and this way. And when you do that, that hurts, of course, motivation.
That hurts. That removes that sense of autonomy. It makes people less likely to try hard and take initiative.
It makes people more likely just to do the minimum when that happens, when you micromanage, when you feel like you have to control every aspect. Because what’s most important is not the process, it’s not the way it’s done, what’s most important is the outcome.
As a leader, you should be setting the outcome and letting the process or the way they do it kind of vary depending on them and works best for them. If you set a high standard, a high goal for people to accomplish, and then you release them to do it, they can often do amazing things.
When you feel like you have to control every detail, again, you’re micromanaging, but it also shows a lack of trust in them, which in itself demotivates.
Now, of course, sometimes there are standards or things you have to have, like for safety or maybe legal reasons, or just when we do a blog, this is kind of how certain aspects that we want in our blogs. Those are pieces that you may have.
But there’s a difference between that and micromanaging and focusing so much on the process instead of the outcome.
So when it comes to how you lead, make sure you have, of course, make sure you set good expectations. Make sure you have that general culture of trust. Make sure people feel safe speaking up or saying, “I’m not sure what to do or I made a mistake and so on.” That’s kind of part of the culture you should be having anyway.
You want to focus on the outcome. You want what the result’s going to be. Focus on that, set the expectations, what’s needed, what’s to be seen, and release your people to do that, to get it done.
Depending on the person, you may have to offer more guidance or suggestions at times, but in general, you focus on the outcome and not the process.
Organizations can start focusing on process instead of outcome
Similarly, leaders, the organizations they run, can start focusing on the process versus what the outcome they really want. The focus of what they do, the focus of their attention, what they try to make sure happens, is not the outcome, but the process of doing it.
Captain Marquet in his book, Turn the Ship Around, said part of the submarines and the ships, they had inspections and they would inspect to make sure they were ready.
Now the ultimate goal that he talked about was being war ready, ready to defend the United States, ready to be, ready at the moment’s notice to defend our country, to be war ready. That was the goal.
But what often happened with these inspections is people focus, their focus was making sure we complete those inspections and pass. The focus wasn’t let’s make sure we’re as war ready as we can be, it was to pass the inspections.
And so the focus went off from what the goal is supposed to be to the process, to the checklist, to make sure we met every part of the checklist.
The danger with that in general is that following the checklist can sometimes keep us from our goal. It can hurt us. It doesn’t take us as far as we could be.
For example, for him, Captain Marquet, his goal was, of course, to be war ready, but to be excellent in everything they do. And he said, by being excellent in everything we do, then we’re going to pass the inspections. But the goal wasn’t the inspections itself, or that wasn’t their focus, I should say.
The focus can be the checklist versus the point of the checklist
But this happens often in organizations and educations and businesses is that all these rules and checklists are created, and bureaucracy. We’ve talked about bureaucracy in the past and how damaging it can be.
But so we create these rules, we create these checklists often for good reason. Like these are created for good reasons with good intention. Because sometimes like the idea is if we do X, Y and Z, then we’ll get P or whatever letter we’re going for. We’ll get the result we want if we do this process.
Process focus keeps us from innovating and experimenting
But the problem is sometimes that process, that checklist becomes the focus. And it becomes more about hitting that checklist than reaching our outcome, what we really want. And the thing is when we focus…
I probably say, “and the thing is” a lot probably, sorry…. but the thing is when our focus is the process, it makes us very inflexible, because our outcome is X. That’s what we want.
But if we focus on the process, we’re not experimenting. We’re not trying new things. We’re not open to new ideas necessarily because our focus is just making sure we meet every check mark on that checklist, on the process.
How it can hurt personal goals
It’s like sometimes setting personal goals. You may set a personal goal for exercise, but if you put a whole lot of your process in it: this is exactly how I’m going to get in shape, is X, Y, Z, B, Q, P, I’m gonna do exactly this, I’m gonna run this, I’m going to do these weights blah blah blah… and that’s in a sense in your goal, your process, that makes you very inflexible.
And if you don’t just meet one aspect of it, then in a sense you kind of failed your goa,l even though you can keep going, that idea that you failed it is, can be harmful depending how you look at it.
But it also makes you inflexible. Well, maybe instead of running maybe I can do the bike. Maybe I can do this.
Sometimes process can be good, but if we’re not careful and we put the wrong focus on it, then it can also be harmful.
How it can hurt business goals
Let’s say you’re doing marketing, and maybe you have a checklist for blogs or a checklist for the marketing material you put out. And it’s good. You want certain things that, hey, we now have our logo, and it’s this, and blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Good.
But if we’re not careful and we make it too extensive and we make it so much the focus of everything having to be this, then that checklist becomes the focus and not the result of the marketing piece we put out.
Because as we’ll see in some other examples I’ll mention, sometimes we can get the results by doing other things, innovating, trying new things, experimenting. But if our focus is the process and that checklist, then according to that checklist we fail because we didn’t hit X, Y, and Z on that checklist.
And it happens sometimes. We can get to where we focus on that so much more than if we were actually hitting the outcome.
Let’s say we’re trying to meet a certain goal with customer service: 95% success rate. People are happy with us, and so on. Whatever it may be. 95%.
And we say, it’s going to be through this process. We have a checklist of everything we have to do to get to 95%. So what happens if we’re not getting the results we want, it’s not happening the way we want it to?
If we’re focusing on the process, we’re just banging harder and harder on the process versus adjusting, versus looking at the best way.
It should never be “just the way it is”
Sometimes when it comes to process, when it comes to policy, we just start saying, “Oh, that’s policy. That’s the way it is.”
And that’s a not smart mentality because policy should always be questioned because the goal is the outcome. The goal is to keep trying and finding the best way to reach the outcome. But if we just default to policy and use that as an excuse or just say, “That’s the way it is” without examining things or trying to make things better, we’re just hurting ourselves.
We’ve got to be constantly looking at the processes, looking at the things, what’s working, what’s not, how it can be better. So, so far we’ve talked about personal as a leader with your team, process versus outcome, focusing on the outcome.
We talked about how businesses can get so focused on the checklists and the process that we don’t, that we lose sight of the outcome and it’s about meeting that process versus the outcome, and we can become inflexible, and so we’re stuck and just keep banging harder on that process, trying to make it work versus trying new things or being flexible to reach the goal.
Organizations can then hire for process versus the outcome
The goal, in a sense, becomes a process versus the outcome that we really want and that becomes our focus. And, again, that’s really dangerous, but it can get worse, because what can happen is people, businesses, organizations, can then hire for the process versus the outcome, where we need this outcome and this is the process we want to use and we hire people to make sure that it’s implemented.
Now when it comes to the boats and the inspections with Captain Marquet and the submarine, really the inspector’s job is to make sure people meet the inspections, right? That’s their job. Do they meet the inspection? And in theory, if they meet the inspection, they’re war ready. But that’s not really their focus.
Like if someone does something different but war ready, they would still fail the inspection possibly. And I don’t know enough of the inspection to say exactly how that would work, but you kind of get what I’m trying to say, is that if we’re focusing so much on, do they meet that checklist versus are they really what the ultimate goal is?
Anyway, you kind of hopefully get the idea of what I’m trying to say.
How schools can fall into this trap (an example)
A better example would be like some school districts. School districts may have behavior management programs that they implement. District wide, every school is supposed to implement this program with the goal of getting better behavior.
So, good goal, we’ll try this program. Great. But with these programs, often there’s a checklist. You have to do X, Y, and Z. You’re supposed to have these posters on your wall. You’re supposed to have this where the students can do this. You’re supposed to do whatever it is. That’s part of what the program is.
So the district may hire people, or they do, to implement that program, to make sure that process is done. The thing and danger about that is their focus is not, are the kids better behaved?
If a classroom is not following that completely, but they have a different method or just a way they relate with the students and stuff and they’re getting good outcomes, but they don’t have the poster on the wall, that person’s focus is not, “Hey, they’re getting great behavior doing this. Maybe we need to implement some more of that. Hey, let’s see what we can learn from that.”
No, their focus is, you don’t have the poster on the wall. You’re kind of failing your program because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
You kind of get what I’m saying? That may seem silly but it really happens. People focus more on “are you meeting that checklist” versus “are you getting the behavior that you want”.
And then what can we learn from that? How can we do it better in other places if that’s working the way? Maybe it won’t work, maybe it will, but it’s something we can look at.
But that’s often not the focus. The focus is you’re not meeting the checklist and the process. And the focus becomes that process and program versus the ultimate goal, which was better student behavior.
So I hope you get the idea on that, that sometimes not only do we start focusing on the process and become so inflexible that even more we can start hiring people for that process versus the actual outcome we’re trying to get.
Let’s keep our focus in the right direction
Again, process in itself is not bad. Having checklists isn’t bad. I want my pilot of the airplane to have a checklist. I want the person doing surgery on me to have a checklist to make sure they’re doing everything they’re supposed to do. In themselves, they’re not bad. But it can be when that becomes our focus.
It can be when it makes it so much bureaucracy that it’s about the process, about the steps we’re doing and how we’re doing it versus “are we reaching our outcome?” And then if we’re so much focused on the process, we become inflexible and not trying new things to meet the outcome.
Cause the main focus is, “Are we doing this process or not?” So I hope this podcast helps you some to think about that both, both as you as a leader, are you micromanaging your team? Are you focused on the outcome? Are you focused on the process?
And if your team’s having trouble with the process, are you making sure you’re sending good expectations? Are they trained? Do they have the resources they need? Do you need to sit down with them and help them think through the way they want to come through it if they need that?
But make sure we’re focused more on the outcome versus making sure they do it the way we want them to do it.
Secondly, as an organization, what is your overall focus? Are you focused on the outcome? Are you focused on the process?
Yes, in theory that process is supposed to help you get to the outcome, but it doesn’t always work that way. And again, it makes us inflexible.
So what is your focus? Are you all worried more about is somebody doing X, Y, and Z? Are you more focused on are they getting that result? Okay, how are they doing that? What can we learn? And so on.
Are you experimenting with the process? How can we make it better? Or do you just say things or just policy and just leave it without question?
Something to think about. I hope this helps. I’ll see you next time.
And if you have any questions, comments, just go to nomorebadleaders.com and leave me a message there.
