This past week at work I have had so many urgent task priorities that I have been unable to process beyond the particular specificity. By definition, to process is to apply a series of actions or steps toward a foreseeable end result or toward a progressive continuation. In the context of the urgent tasks, I have applied a process to attain an end result. In the context of the multiple moving parts, the complementary side-by-side tasks, the cycles, and the flow, progressive continuation has (in this past week) come to a screeching halt. By focusing on the task, I am losing sight of the big picture.

By definition a process is systematic.

To systematize is to step back in order to keep up.

To step back is to assess, prioritize, plan, then act.

Process improvement requires a systematization of the whole; not just of each individual task.

One perspective's whole is another perspective's individual task.

Process improvement results in gains in both efficiency and productivity.

Process improvement must constantly evolve.

Considering this process of nesting processes, it becomes obvious that to better improve an individual task process I must come to a deeper understanding of my overall responsibilities; and to come to this depth of understanding I must also see how the results of my individual tasks and overall responsibilities flow into and intermingle with other incoming contributions; and to improve the process further I must follow this streaming productivity (at least) to where it then 1) flows into a larger, faster-moving stream, or 2) empties into a basin, or 3) (due to other streams flowing into it) becomes a torrent of productivity in which (in all 3 cases) my tasks and responsibilities have melded in so thoroughly as to be unrecognizable.

I could continue this analogy to encourage the torrent---(productivity) and flood control---(efficiency), and to discourage leisurely flow into the calm, placid waters of a still, silent basin---(bureaucracy, status quo, business as usual), and I will to an extent, but I also want to narrow my focus by widening my perspective. I want to begin to differentiate leisurely flow from rapid flow because it appears that many of us mistakenly perceive the complexity of bureaucracy and the busyness of tedium as productivity; (i.e. rapid flow). It is not. I want to follow my flow from its source to its end: Will it be consumed as sustenance contributing to a torrent of productivity? Or will it be swallowed whole by a sea of silent quiescence?

It is difficult to track an individual contribution. Perhaps the key is sustenance. Is my contribution maintaining its individual substantiality as is? Not growing or adding to a greater whole? And then what about the greater whole? Is it then moving on to be consumed as sustenance? Or is it in turn swallowed whole? There are many points along the path where it is simpler for me to keep my head down believing the flurry of activity that surrounds me is a torrent of productivity when in actuality, just around the bend, we may be swallowed whole.

As I am thinking this through I have also come to realize that there are many individuals who would prefer that their individual contribution maintain its individuality and not meld into a greater whole because after all it is all about “me” the individual. It is this mindset that supports, strengthens and perpetuates bureaucracy and business as usual, and it is this mindset that skews reality and keeps us from seeing (or even imagining) what is just around the bend.

Inevitably though, an individual contribution will lose its shape and definition regardless of how it is promoted, and it typically does so just before it goes around that final bend so the individual does not see (or have to admit to him or her self) that “me” inevitably is fused into the greater whole anyway; so at this point many choose to grab hold and ride a different individual contribution and then continue to repeat the process for a lifetime.

Wouldn't it be better to widen one's perspective by narrowing one's focus?

Wouldn't it be better to see beyond me by following a personal individual contribution to its ultimate and inevitable demise that either contributes to a torrent of productivity or drowns in a sea of silence?

Wouldn't it be better if upon my demise I had contributed to more than just the status quo?

Wouldn't it be better to step back in order to keep up?