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I've hated almost every* high-process environment I've been in. To me, "process" feels like overhead. Overhead is anything not contributing to the value proposi

I've hated almost every* high-process environment I've been in. To me, "process" feels like overhead. Overhead is anything not contributing to the value proposition of the company's products or services. Overhead is the friction and heat of a sloppy machine. So a couple job hops have been to smaller/newer companies that haven't gotten baroque yet. * The exception was one company that knew it. The attitude was like, "yeah, we're kinda overbureaucratic, but we're gonna be _good_ at it." And indeed, the process slowed down the overall work a bit, but the process was kinda well done and not painful.

mszcz 5y ago
I think that it's all relative (of course! ;) and you have to tailor the processes to what you're trying to achieve (duh!). However, in my humble opinion, the most important thing about processes is to always, _always_ remember _why_ a certain process exists, it's spirit and goal. If creation or modification of a process does not actively discuss or recall the reason for a process's existence then imho trouble will occur eventually. If the reason behind the process is not given proper visibility and importance then, in my opinion, eventually you'll end up with Five Monkeys Experiment [0] kind of situation - everyone follows some process with no idea why, even if the reason for that particular process has long evaporated. [0] https://intersol.ca/news/organizational-culture-and-the-5-monkeys-experiment/ https://intersol.ca/news/organizational-culture-and-the-5-mo...
AnimalMuppet 5y ago
Sometimes high process is necessary. (I've worked in an FDA-regulated environment. They're really trying to not have medical devices kill people. That's worth doing.) But, even when it's necessary, that doesn't mean that I want to work there. High process forces me to become a bureaucrat. I do not want that in my life (or in my career).
- anamax 5y ago
  > Sometimes high process is necessary. (I've worked in an FDA-regulated environment. They're really trying to not have medical devices kill people. That's worth doing.) There are lots of ways to kill people. You don't want to approve something that will kill someone but you also don't want to delay something that will save someone.

mszcz 5y ago

I think that it's all relative (of course! ;) and you have to tailor the processes to what you're trying to achieve (duh!). However, in my humble opinion, the most important thing about processes is to always, _always_ remember _why_ a certain process exists, it's spirit and goal. If creation or modification of a process does not actively discuss or recall the reason for a process's existence then imho trouble will occur eventually. If the reason behind the process is not given proper visibility and importance then, in my opinion, eventually you'll end up with Five Monkeys Experiment [0] kind of situation - everyone follows some process with no idea why, even if the reason for that particular process has long evaporated. [0] https://intersol.ca/news/organizational-culture-and-the-5-monkeys-experiment/ https://intersol.ca/news/organizational-culture-and-the-5-mo...

AnimalMuppet 5y ago

Sometimes high process is necessary. (I've worked in an FDA-regulated environment. They're really trying to not have medical devices kill people. That's worth doing.) But, even when it's necessary, that doesn't mean that I want to work there. High process forces me to become a bureaucrat. I do not want that in my life (or in my career).

anamax 5y ago
> Sometimes high process is necessary. (I've worked in an FDA-regulated environment. They're really trying to not have medical devices kill people. That's worth doing.) There are lots of ways to kill people. You don't want to approve something that will kill someone but you also don't want to delay something that will save someone.