Blind completion of any activity, focusing only on a “do this, than that” approach, can result in disastrous outcomes. Actually, the product of your efforts should be the priority.

Process is a foundation of efficiency and reaptable, sustainable quality, but process in and of itself does not dictate good results. For this common sense must be included in the mix.

Rules are made to be Broken

A simple overused phrase has been a personal mantra for years. I do not interpret this literally but rather it is indicative of the need for flexibility versus blind conformance, for optimal results.

As usual I have an exagerrated example of this. The rule is stop at a red light. Say you were approaching an intersection with a red light, no other traffic in sight from any direction execpt behind you a vehicle obviously travelling at an excessive high speed.

Would you stop and be hit from behind or break the rule and steam through the intersection to avoid being rear ended. Only one right answer, common sense says, break the rule.

Why?

Taking action to achieve a goal should always be punctuated by understanding of the purpose. Blind adherence to a process without linkage to supporting rationale, that is understanding the reason for doing it, is often a wasted effort.

Linking cause and effect allows for reasonable varience in practice when the outcome is clearly better ( e.g., avoiding an accident). Completing a task for the sake of doing it serves little purpose.

To avoid this problem, always ask yourself, what purpose or goal does this action support, even for prescribed tasks. If the reason is not obvious, maybe a variation is needed.

Focus on why you are doing it, not what.