Process and Outcomes
2017-04-14 18:53:13.307215+02 by
Dan Lyke
1 comments
As we argue back and forth about United beating passengers, and
measuring success in other
organizations and circumstances, a passage from Amazon's 2016 letter to
shareholders:
As companies get larger and more complex, there’s a tendency to manage to
proxies. This comes in many shapes and sizes, and it’s dangerous, subtle, and very
Day 2.
A common example is process as proxy. Good process serves you so you can serve
customers. But if you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing. This can
happen very
easily in large organizations. The process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You
stop looking at outcomes and just make sure you’re doing the process right. Gulp.
It’s not
that rare to hear a junior leader defend a bad outcome with something like, “Well, we
followed the process.” A more experienced leader will use it as an opportunity to
investigate
and improve the process. The process is not the thing. It’s always worth asking, do
we own
the process or does the process own us? In a Day 2 company, you might find it’s the
second.
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: Process and Outcomes made: 2017-04-15 15:14:53.678705+02 by:
DaveP
Which makes it a little ironic that for the first time in 20 years, I've started shopping less at Amazon,
because of problems they're having with their shipping. I had Prime before it cost, and before it was
called Prime, and cancelled it this year, because "guaranteed two-day shipping" now takes three
days more often than not, especially when something is being delivered by an Amazon driver.
I imagine they'll clean up their act at some point, but at the moment, they're having some real
process issues and have mostly lost a customer who's been buying from Amazon since the
beginning.
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