I do think a process can be helpful. If you can put together a large set of experiences and knowledge to help create a set of “best practices”, a process can be very useful.

I also think that in many situations a process is almost necessary in order to allow a large group of people to work efficiently together. There are plenty of examples of companies that have been brought down for having no processes in place… I was just having this discussion the other night. In many small companies processes are unnecessary, and in fact can do more harm than good. But, as a company grows, a process is often what holds the company together and helps them perform.

However, where the problems come in is when people rely on the process over anything else (such as common sense). A process needs to be flexible enough that it’s more of a guidebook rather than hard rules that must be followed. In other words, as things happen it is useful to check and see if it fits with the process. However, if something doesn’t fit with the process the answer shouldn’t automatically be “this is wrong” but rather “why doesn’t this fit with the process?”