The End of Process

I HAVE FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE in the "process of innovation" including many years sitting in discussions where I worked on annual budgets exceeding $25m. Like Ross Mayfield, I often noted how "organizations are trapped in a spiral of declining innovation led by the false promise of efficiency". This happens for many of the same reasons. "Workers are given firm guidelines," Mayfield says, "and are trained to only draw within them. Managers have the false belief engineered process and hoarding information is a substitute for good leadership. Processes fail and silos persist despite dysfunctional matrices. Executives are so far removed from exceptions and objections that all they get are carefully packaged reports of good news and numbers that reveal the bad when it's too late".

Euan Semple extracts a few paragraphs from Mayfield that I cite below. As a quick trawl of Google shows, there are health care practitioners who think a guideline is a process.

If a knowledge worker has relevant information at their finger tips, can form the right group to handle an exception, leverage the social context of information and contribute to memory as a natural by-product of getting work done -- what is the role of process?

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I do believe the arguments for engineering organizations are being trumped by new practices and simple tools. The first organizations bringing it to an end will have a decided competitive advantage.

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Euan Semple from Ross Mayfield -- "The end of process"
Clay Shirky -- "Process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity."
John Hagel -- The Only Sustainable Edge ISBN 1591397200
Thomas Malone -- The Future of Work ISBN 1591391253
Dave Pollard -- "What is the role of process?"

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