I’ve long believed that “process” is the excretion of misalignment. One question I explore at length in #TheMessyMiddle is how you scale alignment as you grow without tripping over yourself.
Process is how we force alignment that doesn’t happen naturally. When teams grow and complication ensues, you embed systems for accountability, more managers, and more meetings. Corporate obesity kicks in.
A few things to keep in mind as the steward (and killer) of process in your organization:
(1) Install process for your team, not for you. A lot of stupid meetings and other mechanisms are born out of a leader’s anxiety and ultimately cause destructive bottlenecks. Only impose a process that empowers and verifies, then measure its efficiency for the team.
(2) Spend more time on achieving alignment than imposing process. How often are you merchandising your roadmap? Are you repeating yourself enough? Probably not. Natural alignment expedites progress and boosts product quality more than process ever will.
(3) Audit processes frequently and try A/B testing the way your team works without them as a way to cut them down. Do you still need that Tuesday scrum meeting? Could a mtg be a Slack checkin instead? Try, kill, try again.
It’s healthy to question the habits and “norms” that you start doing without thinking. Thoughtlessness is a clue for stuff that needs to be reconsidered. Shameless but heartfelt plug: Much more on this topic in new book: amazon.com/Messy-Middle-F… 😉
