Follow Your Processes to Prevent Chaos

Processes are important for many reasons. They improve productivity. They make quality better. They improve predictability.

They also help prevent chaos. Think about what happens when a driver chooses not to follow a process. We know that this can cause trouble if the violation is self-serving: speeding, running a red light, etc.

But most people don’t realize that it causes problems even if the person is trying to be helpful or kind. When you try to let a person go in front of you, if it is not extremely clear, what normally happens is that people wait longer. The person being given the break may not even realize what the other driver is doing, so gaps in traffic come and go.

In the video below, I talk more in detail about this and give a few specific examples.