Brother -
Sometimes things just don’t make sense. They are so illogical that it is difficult to explain to others - and when you try - you get red in the face, and your hands start to shake.
Today, I write to you while recovering from some shaky hands. I am a prisoner of process. Being held at the will of others adhering to a well-intentioned process, but in return are missing the bigger picture.
I was denied exiting Belarus last week on my way home to the Netherlands. I was told to re-quarantine in the country to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus despite having two negative PCR Covid tests in a span of six days.
That’s correct. To prevent the spread of the virus in the country… I was sent back in vs. being let out with my negative test in hand. I had unknowingly broke a new ordinance that foreigners must quarantine for ten days upon arrival (in addition to their negative PCR test).
I wanted to fight it. After my passport was confiscated at Border Control, the guard brought me into a holding area with no information. I waited for over an hour as I watched the clock tick and my plane start to board as it was about to take off without me. I finally mustered some courage to ask the guard what was happening before being told, “You no-fly today.” It was clear - this was not worth fighting.
Sometimes though, Brother, you need to fight illogical processes. Usually not with a foreign government, but in business where you will have more influence.
Recently my company decided to implement a quality control procedure on customer emails. Someone somewhere created a process that suggested that the Regional Head (e.g., me) approve every marketing email sent to customers. Their logic - if the “big boss” needs to sign off on the email, there will be fewer mistakes, right?
I’m sure they thought it was genius at the time, but in reality, it is fucking stupid - and let me tell you why. We have nine languages and over 1m active customers in my region. We send hundreds of different emails every week, and soon my inbox filled up with over 200 approval chains a week. I was drowning and started to blindly open and click approve without reading a single email. One of my engineers even offered to write a program that would automatically do this robotic task for me (I considered it).
Soon the team stopped measuring the quality of the emails, but the fact that 100% of emails got approved by “the boss” in the process. As they celebrated a 100% process compliance rate, they missed the bigger picture that the quality of our emails didn’t improve… but decreased.
This is not an original story - and you’ll see this happen all the time in the companies you work with. Imagine, if this process gets implemented in a “fast-growing” and “innovative” tech company - just think of what you’ll find as a boring accountant (no offense).
The point is, Brother, use judgment, and ask yourself what is the outcome you are trying to achieve? Critical thinking is a gift that no one can take it away from you once you have it. It will serve you in business and in life.
As for my illogical email procedure, I was finally able to get it changed after pushing for a couple of months and being asked to build a business case on why it wasn’t a good process… but that’s a story for another day.
Let me leave you with the Serenity Prayer.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference
Enjoy the dance,
Nate