Harnessing the power of process at work

At the workplace, I like to think of the ego as a ‘productivity hustler.’ That’s what it is doing. It is always hustling us, trying to control what we’re doing and by when it is going to be done. Essentially, the ego at work - our built-in productivity hustler - is obsessed with outcomes.

This is a common trend across the board. Questions like ‘That’s interesting but does it work?’ and the pervasive focus on ‘metrics’ are emblematic of the outcome-driven culture that drives organizations today.

And I’m not saying that’s bad. Outcomes are important. It’s vital to have goals so we know what success looks like. Unless you know that, you’re working in the dark.

But quantifiable outcomes – bookings, shares, likes – have become so important they’ve trumped the essential, fundamental joy of work: revisiting the why and the how of the task which are oftentimes just as important as the ‘what’ and the ‘when.’  

Asking ourselves why we’re doing something clarifies our purpose.

Focusing on how to do it, even do it well, helps us discover love for the process.

There’s a nice quote I read somewhere that said, ‘Fall in love with the process and the results will come.’

I think across the board, corporate cultures obsessed with metrics should step back and infuse some of this ‘love of process’ into their people. Why is this important? Because a love of process:

1. Brings us back to the fundamentals of the task, usually the most important factors of the task’s eventual success
2. Helps us work with mindfulness and clarity, thus increasing the quality of the task
3. Brings us closer to that sublime state of job satisfaction that we all dream about at work.

Yes, the way to job satisfaction, even self-actualization, at work is not only to have a big, bold vision and to chase after it, but also by falling in love with the process of whatever it is we do.

Are you a writer? Forget about writing a book for second. Fall in love with the rhythms of language and the process of creating meaning with sentences.

Are you a researcher? Forget about getting published. Fall in love with the customer’s life and the process of mining insight from it.

Are you an interior designer? Forget about creating the most awesome space in the world that’ll make you this week’s social media sensation. Instead, fall in love with spaces and the process of turning a space into a zone of meaningful activity and leisure.

Process, craft, method.

These are golden words in any trade, any workplace. No one talks about these things anymore because they’re not showy enough, not ‘outcome-oriented.’ But loving the process of your work is, ironically, the surest way of doing a quality job and finding peace at work.

Here are three ways of paying attention to and enhancing process for a better, more self-actualized personality at the workplace.

1. Plan to do more with less. It’s common to have a big job list. In fact, the bigger the job list, the better it is because one is then supposedly being more productive. But in reality, one simply ends up spreading oneself thin. Doing less - and doing more with less - is more effective. Step #1 of enjoying process is all about stopping the glorification of ‘busy’ and embracing ‘less is more.’
2. Go deep into the task. A lot of times we meet people at work who want you to ‘cut to the chase.’ What’s the end game? What’s the bottom-line? When leadership is interested only in the end game, middle management emphasizes outcomes over proper effort and that is how junior management becomes blind to process. As a result we raise a generation of professionals who are not acquainted with the fundamentals and who don’t learn the secret to finding joy in their work because they are so busy focusing on ‘outcomes.’ So step #2 of enjoying process is to take your time and go deep into something, to really understand it. Results will automatically get aligned in your favour when you take the time to learn and do things right.
3. Observe the experts. We’re so busy downloading online tutorials these days we’ve forgotten to learn from others, from people. At the workplace, speaking with peers and learning from leaders is one of the best ways to gain more knowledge and be ‘in the know’ of things. Find people who are supposedly good at what they do and learn from them. Ask them to teach you. Then practice and teach someone else.
4. Create a culture of values, not success: If you’re in a leadership position and have the ability to influence others, then you can get your organization to rediscover the joys of process by creating a culture that is value-driven as opposed to success-driven. So if you’re going for an important meeting, get your team to focus on communication, cooperation and creativity (instead of simply telling them ‘we must nail this meeting’) and by doing so you are aligning people to process and values as opposed to simply the goal.

At Amanvana, we’ve created a place that forces people to slow down and focus on the ‘process’ of life as opposed to the ‘stuff’ of life. We encourage our guests to turn away from always wanting to ‘do’ something and simply ‘be,’ something we have forgotten how to do in cities and something that rekindles love of process.

What do you think about falling in love with process as opposed to falling in love with results? Can it create change in how we approach work and relationships at the office? I’d love to know your views.