Importance of Process Knowledge

On a fine Southern California Sunday morning I decided to impress my friends & family by showing my cooking skills. Just to set the record straight, I hardly cook at home and this is not an activity I enjoy doing, so I was fully aware of my challenges. My wife did try to caution me which ended up having an opposite effect of pumping my adrenaline even higher. Long story short, I couldn’t even produce a simple dish after hours of my experimentation. When I reflected on it, I realized I was missing on an important piece of the puzzle. My kitchen was well equipped with variety of pots and pans and I had the luxury of umpteen number of recipe books and cooking instructions around me. Yet I felt handicapped. The feeling stemmed from my lack of the process knowledge. I had the tools (fancy pots & pans) and the instructions (recipe books) but no technique (tacit knowledge built through experience).

In a fascinating essay, Mark Andreessen points out America’s lost process knowledge of basic manufacturing & blames it on inertia and a failure of will. On one hand real output in US manufacturing is at an all-time high and US dominates in advanced manufacturing technologies but when it comes to producing basic commodities it revealed an uncomfortable truth during coronovirus pandemic. US factories struggled to build basic items like swabs, masks and protective gear when faced with an unprecedented emergency. By contrast countries like China, Taiwan, South Korea were able to quickly retool their factories, mobilize vast pool of experienced engineers and were able to scale production of items like masks by four to tend fold.

In an attempt to maximize profits our companies outsourced millions of manufacturing jobs and in turn have not only destroyed livelihoods for many but also communities of best engineering practices.  We need to rethink our tendencies to treat manufacturing activity as “commoditized” and manufacturing work as “low margin”. As Mark Andreessen puts it “building is hard”. It requires sustained practice of the trade and over time quietly accumulating process knowledge.

The same principle applies to our teams. If you are a leader of your team, give your team members an opportunity to build the process knowledge. Do not look at things only through the lens of cost savings, efficiency or ROI. Keep the importance of process knowledge in mind. If your teams lack the process knowledge, they would soon become handicapped and eventually cease to produce best innovative work. Best practices are circulated over time and through careful nurturing become the foundation of high performing winning teams.

When it comes to our kids it's no different. As parents we can give them all the luxury and the false sense of protection from the hardships of life. But will that make them stronger? We can continue to act like helicopter parents, endlessly possessed by acing the tests and boosting the GPA but will that help them succeed in life? These kids will miss on building the tacit knowledge of Doing Things. The process knowledge of exploring things on their own. Just like my kitchen experiment they will end up having all the tools and easy guides but handicapped in their imagination to explore new horizons.

Lack of process knowledge, a seemingly minor thing but the one which can make profoundly huge difference over long run. 

I encourage you to add any critic, comments and views from your own experiences.

Abhay Dixit is a chip designer by profession and loves to write on technology and leadership. He is passionate about technology, product development and its impact on societies. He is based in San Diego, CA and has been working with Qualcomm Technologies Inc for the past 15 years. In his spare time Abhay likes to volunteer at local elementary schools teaching math & science Olympiad classes and robotic projects. Follow him on twitter at @abhayconnect