One of the reasons organizations develop processes is to organize the work being done along desired patterns.
It gives everyone involved a blueprint of their share of the work and an idea of where their work is in relationship to others. In the case of a production line, it is almost evident. It is often less evident in the case of knowledge work, there teams sometimes feel a bit like on an island with a sea between them and others. They see the work coming and going by drift bottles. This approach assumes that it suffices if everyone knows their job.
When it comes to creative work, there usually will be fewer pre-defined processes. People and teams will be invited to self-organize across team boundaries. This assumes that people know how to align the processes they’ll need to combine forces as well as those enabling them to do the work.
Another reason processes organizing tasks in chunks are appreciated, is that they teach routines. Which is how processes contribute to learning skills. Subdividing a process into steps, adding constraints to how tasks shall be handled, reduces the cognitive load on tasks by simplifying them. The simple fact, that fewer details need to be considered, allows focusing on a specific skill at a time.
However, this isn’t possible in every case. While some creative work can be organized and handled stepwise, there are enough complex events left with unpredictable outcomes.
That is for example true for most team meetings. The feeling of being able to predict the outcome is a human reaction to the desire for certainty. It takes benefit of good preparation and well-established relationships. Established relationships mean that people use implicit rules existing between them. These rules serve as processes organizing the way the meeting evolves. They also led to routines as people got used to them. However, the latter are habits more than skills.
When activities are complex, they also require a more complex set of skills. Skills that most often cannot be easily extracted from the process. Such skills require a sound understanding of the skill and its context itself. They require the willingness to develop a method assisting the learning, even if it isn’t straightforward. And when it comes to execution, they require focusing on being present and trusting one’s learning. Execution then happens knowing that one can’t predict the outcome and trusting one’s preparation and skills. It is based on handling the situation to the best of one’s ability in that situation.
What this says is, that it makes no sense to evaluate one’s performance while performing. The focus needs to be on performing.
That is where routines can come in handy. That is what we do before the meeting to make sure we feel ready and at ease to perform. It can be as simple as coming in a few minutes early, taking the time beforehand to empty one’s mind of other things, or checking that all the gear is where it should be. Everyone needs to figure out what type of routines helps them to shift into a performance mindset.
