Perspectives: People or process, which is most critical in aiming for excellence and why should we c

While remembering my somewhat unique birth (I can share that story later), I had an epiphany in regards to the intertwined relationship I find between people and processes. I was reflecting on the fact that I have encouraged people to 'improve processes,' yet the new paradigm going forward is to use processes to 'improve people,' which should be indeed the end goal. In the words of my good friend Tony Planos; "...and then what?" (i.e., what's the end goal?).

Changing your perspective in regards to what is most important will completely change your approach in pursuing excellence. Are the people you interact daily more essential to business success than process, or are the processes more critical to business success that the people who make it possible? The good news is that they are not mutually exclusive and both depend on each other in the pursuit of excellence and business continuity.

We may perceive as a problem that we need to gain the full buy-in from our team or that we don't seem to make progress when leading any improvement, but I would like to encourage you to change your approach by shifting your perspective. Keep the end in mind; the ultimate and most rewarding goal is not to 'improve processes', instead seek to 'improve people.' Although both process and people are interrelated, improving people will harvest the most gains towards enhancing processes.

As leaders, we want to think that there is always a better way of getting things done, or that there has to be a better approach by which we would yield higher results. If we just had the chance to implement the 'new' changes, if only the initiative will fully immerse the new 'changed processes' throughout the organization, the impact would be phenomenal! But, will adopting this view deceive us into believing that 'improving processes' and not people, is the answer to achieving excellence?

We spend tremendous amounts of energy fixing the processes we identified as broken, damaged or outdated while disregarding the people behind said operations. Nevertheless, we have yet to see a process awarded a 'Novel Peace Prize' for its contribution to humanity, an organization that went from good, to better, to best by recognizing the 'magnificent processes' of the decade that made it possible, or even a group of processes that received a 'Badge of Honor' for their valor and dedication. You see, people are the driving engine behind the processes and not the other way around.

I'll like to leave you with this, the astronauts from Apollo 13, and the ground support crew who went out of their way to innovate a solution from within their limitations were a great example of this. They had their operational processes inscribed into their memory, as this was not an easy mission. The strict procedures are a hard drive for this sort of operations, as they help minimize variation and error. But when things changed, alternative (and very creative) processes were used to come up with a solution, which would, in turn, save the lives of this three astronauts.

In short, let's transfer this lesson to how we operate within our organizations. When things change (and change is inevitable) let's keep the end in mind, always use processes to grow our your people and teams. After all, the right people are an organization's most valuable asset when in pursuit of excellence.

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