The Importance of Process (and When to Ignore It.)

HELP, WE’RE TRAPPED

A few weekends ago, my husband and I went on a date night to an escape room. The premise: a man has been murdered, and you have to figure out which of the first-class passengers murdered him, how they did it, what room they were in, etc., in order to get a code to exit the door. If you do not exit the door in time, the killer kills you too.

Ultimately, we failed. We had figured out all but one number in the combination. Was this because we couldn't work as a team? No. Was this because I was on call and therefore not as focused? It's a factor. Was it ultimately because we skipped a step and tried to guess one of the digits in the code because we were pretty sure we had it figured out? Yes. We had one number off. I wouldn't consider that a complete failure, but a failure nonetheless. We didn't win.

During our adventure, there were three rooms we had to enter, find clues in, and use those tools to come up with the code. When we were in the second room, there was a locked box we could not, for the life of us, figure out how to open. With that said, we were successful in getting through to the final room. Using the clues in that room and the rooms previously, we came up with our code. There was only one number in the code that we were not completely confident about. Had we opened the box in the second room, we would have had the correct code.

We ended up being off by that single number. So again, while not a complete failure, we were very close to the finish line, but we didn't win. However, had we taken the time to open that box, we also likely would not have won. We had to weigh our options: enter the code with our most likely guess or run out of time and miss the deadline.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH WORK?

I feel like this type of dilemma often appears in business. You have a deadline, you're running short on time, so you make a leap of faith and hope it works out. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. On the other hand, sometimes you choose to follow every step meticulously, and then the other party has already moved on.

That is why teamwork is so essential in a company because you cannot always make these decisions on your own. My boss is a go-getter. It is why he is so successful in his job. He works on a whim and is very successful doing so. I don't do whims. I follow processes. So, if you ask me, we almost always follow the process all the way through, even if it creates some delays. If you ask him, we roll the dice sometimes. Sometimes he's right to roll the dice, and our communication with each other is incredibly key here. He will make an argument to me on why we should expedite an individual through the hiring process faster (legally but faster), and if it is reasonable, I will agree. If I don't find it reasonable, I won't do it. Ultimately, he gives me the power to make that decision because process is my job.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

When making any business decision, I think it's incredibly important to consider every clue you have around you. Who is the person you are dealing with? What is the position you are trying to hire them for, or what is the issue that needs to be solved? What are the reasons to choose path A and avoid path B? Why should you choose path B and not A? You can only truly make a choice when you have all the information and have competent, trustworthy people as your teammates. I'm fortunate to have that.

MY CHALLENGE FOR YOU! (EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A BUSINESS TEAM)

So, my challenge for you, the reader, is to look at your team. This can be your job, your family, your trivia team on Wednesday nights; it doesn't matter. What are each individual's strengths and weaknesses? Do you trust them? Do you complement one another?

How strong is your team? I want to see your responses no matter where you found this article. Whether your team is at work or your team is your family, I created the attached file to help you find your strengths and weaknesses as a team and realistic ways to work on them! I've even included an example of my own.

View my example here.