In the past, I have been told I love processes. Of course, that made me see red. How dare someone else tell me what I love? Ridiculous.

And yet, that person¹or persons was right. I do love processes. 

Last week I was in yet another meeting where I was accused of wanting to follow process as though it were something shameful. I have gotten used to it over the last 20 years or so in the business world, but for the first time I figured out why it bugged me so much.

You see, I have always felt a responsibility to follow processes. I don’t think my colleagues always understand why I feel that way²I am not sure I understood either.. It isn’t that I think the powers-that-be are somehow smarter or better at being deciders than I am or my teammates are. I am quite comfortable with my ability to be a decider and see my decisions through. Instead, it is clear to me that processes keep all the stakeholders involved where they expect to be involved. To me, if you are a stakeholder, you should be respected as a stakeholder.

And yet, I was today years old³53 years, 2 months, and 24 days when I realized I didn’t have to be ashamed of loving the structure and beauty of a process because those who don’t are wrong⁴ and just a little bit selfish..

Let me explain.

In a flash of insight, I understood the reason I love processes is they are the application of digital engineering onto human systems. If you ever studied circuit design⁵And I know the number of people who have is a smaller percentage of the general population than I would like, you understand that there are these things in a circuit called gates. Think of whatever you are trying to create as moving along a path like current flowing through a circuit. Eventually in business processes, you come to a place where you can’t go forward until someone else gives you the go-ahead. You are stuck, just like the current flowing, until the voltage applied at the gate and the current proceeds forward⁶Or backward depending on the polarity of the electric system, but we can skip that detail for now. If your work requires you to follow a process, you can’t go forward to the next step until you gain permission. That permission comes from stakeholders who are affected by the outcome of your work. It doesn’t only apply to aviation or engineering, it applies anywhere that your work is going to affect someone else’s work. Or someone else’s values. Or someone else’s business. They have the key to the gate because before you started your work, they knew you moving onto the next step would change their situation. So they get a chance to look at it before it flows on to the next gate.

As I sat in the meeting⁷Thankfully a virtual meeting so no one could see my face, I realized that resisting process is about wanting control. If I don’t follow the process, then I do not acknowledge someone else may have a voice on if my algorithm is the one to be used. Someone may have a chance to change my words before they are sent off into the universe⁸That would be called an editor. Someone else has, *shudder*, power over me.

Yeah, I hate that too. I have written about it before, and I know my inner fifteen year old still doesn’t like to be told what to do.

But I love processes.

Like a Viterbi Trellis⁹I really do see life as a series of engineering algorithms., the process can be seen before you begin. A process means I know ahead of time who has the power. Who is a stakeholder. Who also is affected by what my work does in the world at large. I know this before I begin making my Letter or my Circuit or my Algorithm. I have agreed they get to hold the keys to the gate and decide when I get to go to the next step.

If, in the middle of the work, I decide I shouldn’t give them right of approval or right of refusal, I am changing the rules in the middle of the game. I don’t think that is cool.

I think I cringed so much in the past about being called a process lover because I didn’t see why I liked the structure of a process so much. Perhaps, it was insecurity on my part. Since I was responsible for the team following the process, maybe I thought the team was right to say I shouldn’t have the authority to open the gate or leave it closed. I did have that authority, and looking back, I should have embraced ownership more and cared less about someone criticizing process.

Anyone who helps shepherd a group through a process needs to know why the answer is, “It is someone else’s decision,” and be ready to explain. I don’t believe in absolute power, and I don’t believe not explaining is an option. If you can’t, or won’t, explain the why, it is just tyranny to force your decision on others¹⁰There are times when tyranny is the right move. As a mother, I am something of a tyrant. I try to be honest that I am making a choice because I can.

The best thing about yesterday, and the thought process of exploring the beauty of processes, is I like that I like processes. I think it is respectful. I think complaining about process is really complaining about a lack of control. While a lack of control is annoying, complaining about the existence of the process, and not why a process is hated, is disingenuous. To me. I have little patience for it.

So go ahead and call me a process lover. I can take it. Never again will I feel small because someone tells me they don’t want to follow the process. They are telling me they want control, and that control isn’t in my power to give them. I can help them navigate through the maze of gates, but they chose to enter the maze. If they choose to exit instead of finishing the game, it isn’t up to me to stop them.