Foundation Not Formality: Why Certain Processes Should be Uncompromisingly Followed

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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -- George Bernard Shaw

If you can’t deviate from a process, you can’t be creative. Project management processes actively stifle creativity whenever an idea requires out-of-the-box thinking and discipline discourages flexibility. Processes are designed to limit individual creativity but not everything can be derived from a standard template. So, how do we ensure that our processes reconcile with reality?

Take note of the similar voice of discontent when you look at the comments in the first paragraph of this article compared with the George Bernard Shaw quote. Some of us squirm when we feel we are being compelled to buckle under some bureaucratic mandate. Of course, some people squirm more than others! These feelings aren’t just nascent adolescent rebellion, but valid concerns.

We laud the stories that abound both in business and other areas of life in which the exploits of the rule breaker are adventurously told. Think of Zorro who overcame aristocratic oppression in a fabled California. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr. who worked to overcome racial segregation and discrimination through non-violent means. Consider Thomas Edison, who experimented with filament…

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