Results oriented vs. Process oriented; my 2 cents

Does your boss or even you have ever proclaimed this before?

“I don’t care how you do it as long as you bring me the result I want?”

Or

“I don’t want to know how you do it, just get it done!”

Yes, indeed I was one of those too but over the years, I changed my mind. I’m now a staunch believer of it is the process not the result that counts; it is how you do it that’s matter most, not what you have achieved in the past.

I would give you 3 scenarios:-

Scenario 1: Parents don’t care how and what their children have learnt in their school, what they want is that their children performed well in the school examinations, perhaps being the top student or straight A-s student. What do you think will happen to their children? Will you think their children will really learn? Or worse, will their children resort to any means e.g. cheating in order to achieve better result?

Scenario 2: Would you be more healthy and fit just by keep measuring the result of your weight, cholesterol level and blood pressure every day and every hour (the Results)? Or by focusing and acting on your lifestyle, your diet, regular and appropriate exercise (the Process) that would keep you healthy and fit, even you don’t measure your weight, cholesterol and blood pressure level?

Scenario 3: In a bigger picture, won’t you think that is exactly what happens to our past and present global and regional economic and financial crisis or any kind of global crisis with are facing now?

Everybody only concerns about quarterly business performances and profits (READ HERE: RESULTS ORIENTED) while nobody bother to ask HOW the profits were created.

At the end of the day, which would come very fast nowadays, the bubble could no longer hold on as it burst, leading to meltdown in the economy of countries and liquidation or bailing out of giant corporate with the tax payers money. Ultimately, who’s fault? And who’s the victim?

Do results really matter?

100 years from now, does the results that everyone obsessed with really matter?

Does the result really differ in 100 years? Won’t the result be the same for all of us; we are all 6 feet underground, ultimately.

So why are we still being so results-obsessed?

It is the process that make us difference and unique, it the process that make our life fun, interesting, exciting, fun and meaningful. Not results, certainly.

Is there still a role being results oriented?

Results are just the yardstick or measuring tape about asking the question; are we doing the right thing or having the right process? Results are just a signal or indicator of how well we are doing in the past and are we having the right process currently and do we need to change our process to get the right results?

Does focusing on results which are of historical values tell us how well we going to perform in future?

Or would it being process focused that determine our future results?

Hence, Result is just an Effect while the Process is the Cause. Results don’t give birth to another results; it is the process that breeds results!

Doing the right thing and focus on the right process will give us the right results while doing the inappropriate thing will certainly give us the inappropriate results.

Last, my 2 cents conclusion would be we should spent not more than 10% of our time and efforts in being results focused and invest 90% or more of our time and efforts in doing the right thing if we wish to see the results we desired.

Certainly not the other way round. Chasing for more and better results by analyzing and focusing on the results is like chasing our own shadow. It is always there but you will never catch it.