The hard charging, results focused leader is a well worn business stereotype. Browse LinkedIn and you'll see professionals proclaim that they're "able to deliver", "goal oriented", or "focused on the bottom line". Expressions like "the end justifies the means", "a win is a win", or "any landing you can walk away from" also embody this belief that all that matters is what we end up with when the dust settles.
Combine that with what often seems like a general distaste for "process" and it's easy to see the allure in a results orientation. Moving from end-state to end-state with a measurement only for results achieved gives us an impression of concrete movement through an ambiguous world, like moving a game piece from square to square across a board.
A focus on results, however, flies in the face of so many human experiences that we crave. When playing a game, for instance, we don't want to just find out the score at the end -- we want to play the game. We want to exert our creative energies within a defined set of options in pursuit of an overarchingly understood goal.
Think about watching sports. Again, we don't just want the score at the end, we want to see how the teams got there. If we can't experience it for ourselves then we clamor for highlight reels and sports-writing, or even something so humble as a box-score. The baseball almost as old as the game itself and still just as useful for its ability to tell us how a game was played that led to the result we see in the score.
Our natural love for processes becomes even more evident in our story-telling mediums. We know in books and movies that good will triumph, leading couples will come together, and ne'er-do-wells will be put in their place. And yet we go to see the how of it all again and again. We bemoan plot holes, savor plot twists that expertly breakdown and reassemble our understanding of events, and we even go so far as to warn others when we might reveal key parts (spoiler alert!).
A focus on results, however, flies in the face of so many human experiences that we crave. When playing a game, for instance, we don't want to just find out the score at the end -- we want to play the game. We want to exert our creative energies within a defined set of options in pursuit of an overarchingly understood goal.
Think about watching sports. Again, we don't just want the score at the end, we want to see how the teams got there. If we can't experience it for ourselves then we clamor for highlight reels and sports-writing, or even something so humble as a box-score. The baseball almost as old as the game itself and still just as useful for its ability to tell us how a game was played that led to the result we see in the score.
Our natural love for processes becomes even more evident in our story-telling mediums. We know in books and movies that good will triumph, leading couples will come together, and ne'er-do-wells will be put in their place. And yet we go to see the how of it all again and again. We bemoan plot holes, savor plot twists that expertly breakdown and reassemble our understanding of events, and we even go so far as to warn others when we might reveal key parts (spoiler alert!).
And yet when we put our same human selves in business settings, we often seem to lose interest in the how of the work, until the how becomes critical. Headline scandals at places like Volkswagen and Wells Fargo shock us not for the results they achieve, but for the processes by which they achieve those results.
I think some of the natural love for processes is beginning to spread in the workplace. Witness the rise of storytelling training for big corporations, emphases on "narratives", the need for brands to have "stories" to connect with customers, etc. When done well these approaches can be transformative because of the deep-seated process-loving kernel in all of us; when not done well they push away customers repulsed by a lack of authenticity.
If you want to see the world around you more clearly, pay attention to the processes by which you get the results you see. If it's not a compelling story for you, figure out a different way to assemble the pieces of the narrative and you'll unlock not only depths of energy within yourself, but also a well of connections with those around you.
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