When any organization starts to grow, processes are inevitable. That is the only way to scale the team efficiently and continue to spend time on the important stuff. But with the advent of processes, comes the real danger of viewing the world through colored glasses. There are now multiple layers of abstraction between you and the situation on the ground. Every time a piece of information passes through another layer, it gets filtered further. And so, you find yourself in a real-life version of Chinese Whisper where the final version of the data bears little resemblance to the intention behind the original.

This is not because of willful manipulation by anyone. It is just the fallible nature of how we humans communicate. We add, remove and modify context based on our own experience and understanding. Some obfuscation is unavaoidable but there are some ways we can reduce the extent of it.

• Define clear values for the organization. These are principles meant to guide and should not be confused with processes. They need to be reiterated and their meaning constantly diversified to fit changing times. A marker of a good value is one which doesn’t need to change but only expand in meaning with the passage of time.
• Every time a process is introduced, talk about the intention behind it before laying out the metrics it is measured by. This is a very common pitfall that can lead a team to subconsciously alter the process so as to reach the target but at the cost of defeating the original purpose. For instance, downgrading the priority of an issue in order to meet SLA requirements, when in reality, we should be evaluating why the SLA breach happened, fix the root cause of the issue and put necessary systems in place to help the team meet the SLA.
• As we go higher up the ladder, the more important it becomes to have a group of people who will tell us the honest truth. And the foundation for this is an open blameless environment. This is one of the hardest things to achieve.
• Never get complacent with our own sense of morality. When you stop questioning yourself on ethical dilemmas, that is when you slowly start wearing blinkers.
• And finally, the seed that drives all these steps – a profound wish to better oneself each day after day.