A well known Indian story of a priest and his trouble-making cat goes like this. Once upon a time, there was a priest who used to religiously perform his rituals every morning. His pet cat would start moving all over the sacred place and touching the sacred utensils upsetting the priest and his devotees. To prevent such disturbance, the devotees started tying the cat to a tree before the priest started his morning ritual and this became a routine. Days and months passed by. One day the priest died and his successor started following the same routine of tying the cat to the tree before performing the morning ritual to avoid disturbance. Months later, one fine day, the trouble making cat died. The priest and his devotees got into a huddle and discussed the way forward. They brought another similar looking cat and started tying it to the tree every morning to continue the “routine”… The ritual continued :)!!!
Unfortunately, in our day-to-day job, we all end up tying the “cat” and following the “ritual” as obedient “disciples“.
Try asking why such a process is being followed; and most likely you are going to get the response as “Historical Reasons“!!! ‘Lets just follow the process for now and get it out of our door‘!!! 🙂
So, as a manager, are you supposed to follow the processes that are most often outdated, irrelevant, time-consuming and outright nonsensical? Wish you had a choice!
Lets take a simple example of an approval process. Any approval for that matter! You put in a request (either through an email or using a tool) and it goes to your boss for approval. You both discuss; he approves and you get what you want. End of story? Not quiet!
Now imagine the situation of the process going further up for approval – your Boss’s Boss (big boss) approval or 2 levels up (super boss). Whats harm in it? Every boss needs to feel important! I feel important myself when I respond back with a single word “Approved” with my signature in it!!!
The problem starts when the big bosses or super big bosses delegate their approval to their team of assistants and secretaries. The assistants and secretaries now have to collate all the pending approvals in a particular format and present it to them for a quick review on a weekly or bi-weekly basis!!! If you miss the bus first week, your request can only be queued for next cycle. After all, its the sign of streamlined process!
Unfortunately, the requester now is no where in the picture. The approval “process” has taken over…
Though one might brag about having an excellent “process” in place, the only flip side is that it has just replaced the peopleconnect. In a typical start up company, mostly everything is “people” driven. You just walk down the aisle, talk to the boss, decide the what, when and how and by the time you come back to your desk, the decision is made! As the company grows, the process takes dominance!
In mathematical terms, processes are (perceived) inversely proportional to the trust the company has on you. Meaning, more processes obviously implies that better control and governance (which are euphemistic to lesser trust). On the other hand, following process is (perceived) directly proportional to your integrity quotient! Meaning, you follow process to the last bite and you are the person with most integrity!
Lets take another simple example. Imagine you have 2 levels of approvals to commence hiring a new resource in your team. The hiring process obviously mandates that you start talking to hiring agencies or shortlisting candidates only after the hire request is fully approved. Technically speaking, nothing stops you from sourcing profiles from colleagues, friends, interviewing them and finalizing the candidate while the approval process is ongoing. As soon as the hire request gets approved, you “officially commence” the hiring by putting the candidate through the ‘official system’! While you are being smart in short circuiting the delays in the process (because of the process), you would most likely be perceived as compromising your integrity as you are fudging the process (manipulating interview dates for example)!
You can run away, you can hide but you can’t escape process! That’s the reality of corporate life!
But as a seasoned manager, the least you can do is to understand the essence of a process. Given where you are in the organizational hierarchy, you may or may not have the influence to change the process, but one must always challenge the process with the process owners! Sometimes the process owners are external auditors and companies have to follow those processes just to stay in business.
In conclusion, though processes are necessary and they help bring some sanity in a large organization; the non-cleansing of processes and taking them as final commandment is suicidal to your own career. As a manager, you are hired not just to maintain the status-quo but to challenge it for good!!!
As much as you want to shriek and pull your hair over silly processes which doesn’t get you anywhere; you might find comfort in the fact that there are others in the same boat as well! The process-bashing among colleagues would earn you new friends and finally you could wish that one day, when you become the process owner yourself, you will get rid of all the silly processes and make the corporate world a better place!
Happy to hear your process tales as well. Leave your comments below and lets have a good laugh about them!
(published 11th Sep 2015)
