“I’m passionate about process” – said no one ever.
I was recently asked to present to a group of my peers what my teams charters are. As I created the org chart, the mission statements, and detailed “what we do” slides, I found myself… bored.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually very passionate about the content my teams work on day in and out; as I’m sure anyone that’s ever worked with me would attest. But we are IT infrastructure and middleware architects and system engineers who run frameworks that …. UGH, I can’t even get through the description without losing interest!
I had to stop and ask myself, why am I passionate about the stuff we do but unable to describe it without completely losing focus. That’s when it hit me… My WHY. Like most people, I want my work to matter; I need my efforts to have an impact. But how often have we all found ourselves doing work that fails to deliver on the promised impact?
Early in my career, as my manager walked out of our work area having announced a new direction, one of my peers quietly chanted, “dig a ditch, fill it up, dig a ditch, fill it up, why? because we’re [company name]!” I remember laughing as he sang out the company name. Our earlier efforts were wasted and we were heading in another seemingly arbitrary direction. I found it humorous then but untenable a few years further into my career.
I’ve watched a lot of people give their time and talent to their job only to have that work discarded due to changing priorities, misaligned strategy, and misunderstandings. This is not just frustrating, its down right tragic.
Fast forward to today and why I’m talking about process. Process can be described as steps to create a result, consisting of inputs, actions, actors, and outputs. I’m not changing the world or saving the planet but by focusing on well defined inputs and outputs, actions and actors – I’ve been able to drive business value from the people the business pays to provide value.
In other words – well defined processes create structure, order, and enable consistent repeatable outcomes. And that is what my team does. We create processes – evangelize those processes – define frameworks to enable the work to have the impact the business needs.
My focus and drive isn’t on the bottom line (although that is an outcome). It’s on connecting people to meaningful work and ensuring that work has impact. You have talents that express your unique value and the company you work for should enable you to express that value. You could get a paycheck from any company, but being paid for your time isn’t enough. Make sure the one you choose isn’t wasting your talents.