Meryl's Notes Blog

I meant to comment on Bruce Mau’s item numero tres last week when it was posted on Textism’s "Annotated Manifesto for Growth", but alas I got snowed under (OK, bad idiom when you’re from Texas, but you know what I mean). It says, "Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there."

Textism’s response went way over my head. No doubt that whatever he said was a counterpoint since he argued against everything Mau said in his own unique way. I had to re-read Mau’s process statement a few times to get what he was saying through his PhD style writing (in other words, show off). Let me put it in English as I understand it:

Picture a cup on the table. You want to pick up the cup. The cup is the outcome of the process.

The steps you take to reach the cup is the process.

Mau says that the "walking" (process) drives the "picking up of the cup" (outcome). Now, pretend you don’t know what is the outcome. You’re walking and walking and walking and pick up a plate. Nope, that’s not the outcome. But if you don’t know what is the outcome, then how will you get there? Mau says we’ll know what we want to be there. How? By twitching your nose and conjuring magic?

On the other hand, when you know the outcome, you design the process to get there in the most efficient way possible. Thus, you’ll find the shortest route with the fewest obstacles to get to the cup. If the family dog manages to steal the cup and move it to a new location, then you can adjust the process to get to the cup in its new spot.

It’s like saying a company will hire staff, buy equipment, and get to work on something without knowing its business goals. If you don’t know what you’re targeting, then you more apt to miss by taking a blind shot.

Conclusion: The outcome drives the process.

The Economist has an inspiring article, "God meets Mammon: the profit of turning thugs into programmers" about a Jesuit who gives up his millions and instead of saying his vows, vows to work with gangs. Brother Holub recruits the gangsters from one of Milwaukee’s South Side and starts with a drug treatment program since 90% of the gangbangers are drug addicts. Next comes getting a job and studying to get a high school diploma. Roughly 80 make it through the program and 25 of those enter programming. The programmer wanna-bes attend Homeboyz Interactive (HBI) to receive technical training and after completing the training, they switch to the HBI Consulting side to gain experience.

Doubt its success? Of the 150 who entered the HBI program, ZERO have left! HBI Consulting is expected to earn US$1 million profit based on $2.3 million revenues. Let’s hear it for the boys! This is the kind of program we could use throughout the country.

Thank you, Steve, for giving me the motivation to update these notes. I still have to clean up the CSS file, which is a mess from all the tinkering. I got too tired once I was almost satisfied with the new look. What do I mean by “almost?” I am NEVER satisfied with anything I do. The mark of a perfectionist will never fade away.