Process or Product? other?

When a child is told to cut out shapes and glue them to paper, something beautiful often happens. Something unexpected. A child will often turn the glue bottle upside down, and squeeze it with all their force -- tongue sticking out and everything. The child just watches as a blob of white school glue amasses on the paper. They say that children do things like this because they are process oriented.

Unencumbered by the need to force a specific result, the process-oriented child enjoys the moment. That person is not so concerned with the end product. Are you process oriented? or are you more concerned with the final product? Is there another option?

Process-orientation sounds beautiful, but for some it has another meaning. In the recent Wired interview, Elon Musk (through whom I vicariously live), gave a peek into his hiring process. For him, it's a red flag when a prospective employee mentions that they value "process." For Musk, following a process is tantamount to laziness of thought. He continues:

"The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitutes for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative."

The alternative to Process and Product is to be a person who sees the big picture and can think creatively, putting together the nuts-and-bolts with the end in mind. It is hard to find these people. There aren't many of them, so we can't all hire them. I strive to be one of them and hope to gather them around me as well.

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