Things can get ridiculous when you are stuck with a process but don’t know the purpose behind it. I’m sure we all have been required to do something when we don’t know why, but often we do it anyway.
We recently made a trip to Ecuador. Although we ending up travelling for nearly two days to get there, the delays were not man made. Coming back however, we encountered a definite separation of process and purpose.
In Guatemala City our plane landed and we were supposed to continue on the same plane and flight number. However, we were required to disembark and go through security again. Although we did security in Ecuador (x-ray and metal detector), we had our luggage scanned and another metal detector. In addition, right at the gate, someone went through our luggage and we had a pat down by a security officer. Even though it was redundant, I do get some of the paranoia and each country making sure security is done to their own standards.
The breakdown came when the officer was going through my wife’s luggage and he found a tube of toothpaste. It was the only liquid or gel that she had in her luggage so when he told her it had to be in a ziplock bag, I was really surprised. The reason for putting all of your liquids into one clear ziplock bag is to limit the number of liquids and to allow the inspector to see it clearly. Obviously he could see her toothpaste and it was the only liquid in her suitcase. Then a further disconnect from purpose was when she pulled out the ziplock bag that we got at the airport in Calgary when we first left on this trip. The inspector said it wasn’t good enough because it had a hole in it. Complete disconnect from purpose. Just a small thing, but very frustrating and time consuming.
When your process gets disconnected from purpose, things no longer make sense. To you or anyone else.
What can you do to make sure you keep your actions connected to your purpose? Maybe there is some way that you can help your company keep their process connected to it’s purpose. As always, I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
