How Process Can Stifle Creativity

Source: VeraSage Institute

The following is a complete blog post, reproduced with permission, from an entry by Ron Baker.

I'm a huge House fan. I was watching a repeat episode last night; the one where he's committed to a mental institution.

House and the patients are sitting around in “group therapy,” and to one person House suggests why what he's saying won't work, and he should do this instead. The doctor chides House saying, “Greg, we have a process.”

House replies, “Oh yes, we can't let results get in the way of process.”

Ok, it's a TV show, I know. But art imitates life, and House is a knowledge worker extraordinaire.

This is one of the problems I have with Lean/Six-Sigma consultants who think everything is a process, limiting the creativity to find better ways to achieve the desired results – efficaciousness in our new vocabulary.

From VeraSage Institute, http://www.verasage.com/index.php/community/2011/01/, January 1, 2011.