Life as a process or result. Process and result

Many people teach how to set specific goals tied to a specific date that can be measured and so on (the well-known SMART). I myself have been setting similar goals for a long time. With this approach, a person focuses on the result of achieving the goal, and the process of achieving the goal itself is missed. And it is not entirely clear what to do with this goal later, after achieving it. By limiting the goal to a specific result tied to time, we thereby limit the duration of the joy that we will experience when achieving the goal.

What happens if you set a goal, focusing more on the process of achievement than on the result?

I will try to demonstrate the difference between setting a “goal-result” and a “goal-process”.

A couple of examples of different goal setting:

Example one:

The goal is to earn $10,000. What after that? Is it possible to earn less again, or should you set a goal to earn more? Let's say $15,000. In the second case, we again fall into the trap of “what’s next” and again find ourselves on the carousel in pursuit of a new meaning for the same goal.

How could this goal be formulated differently? I want to live in abundance, I want to not deny myself anything, I want my income to increase by 15% per month. There are no questions, this goal is not specific and is unlikely to pass the SMART test, but it becomes clear what to do with it later. Being rich does not mean earning a certain amount of money. This means having wealth and savings that are constantly growing and multiplying.

People, setting a goal to earn a certain amount of money or buy an apartment or a car, think that they will become rich. But this is not true at all. After achieving such goals, people do not become rich, and those who still earn the amount of their dreams cannot understand why they did not receive the expected happiness and what to do next.

Regarding the question: “What is important for business?” There is an opinion that what is needed first is the result, and the process is a secondary matter. If you ultimately achieve your goal, then, they say, it doesn’t matter by what means it was done, or how much it cost you. That is, the process itself is NOT important, but the goal is important.

But is it? If the price of success is, for example, a broken family, broken relationships, can we then talk about success at all? Hardly.

Let's look at this question a little deeper and make sure that

It is wrong to contrast process and result. In achieving any goal, both are important.

If we compare business with sports, and such a comparison is quite appropriate, because the element of competition and competition is present here, then we can say that the result of the race always depends on how the process was set up, that is, on the training. An athlete, while training, dreams of an Olympic award. But if training is not interesting to him, if he does not enjoy victories over himself, he is unlikely to “reach” his dream, since, figuratively speaking, he will not have enough “breath”.

If we take into account the fact that many modern businessmen are taught to base their business on a hobby, a favorite activity, then it is obvious that they will pay considerable attention to the process.

If you like the work you do, then you will be more creative in solving problems. It happens that while working for results, a person does not yet see the fruits of his work, but it is interest that fuels him, it is the fascination of the process that helps him overcome difficulties.

Leaders who value purpose above all else may treat their employees with disdain. Yes, in business sometimes you need toughness, and ultimately, the meaning of any work is the result, but it is very important when the process itself gives pleasure to a person or team. Otherwise, what's the point of it? The moment of receiving the crown of glory is short-term, but the path to this reward can be life-long. And if the process itself, the path to achieving the goal itself was uninteresting, then what is the point of the reward?

Process, result and model of excellence

There are models of perfect business (models of excellence, for short), on the basis of which enterprises can self-assess. These models are also used to organize and conduct prestigious competitions, for example, the European Foundation for Quality Management Award. Similar Awards exist in the CIS and in the Russian Federation (this should not be confused with numerous awards that work on the “pay and fly” principle).

So, the perfection model is built in such a way that processes and results are present in it in a 50 to 50 proportion. That is, a perfect business is perfect when its processes are equally well developed and there are sustainable positive results.

What do they proceed from when creating such models in a 50/50 ratio? From the fact that if there is a worthy result, but the processes of the enterprise (business) are not set up in a perfect way, then the repeatability of the results is very doubtful. It turns out that an enterprise (business) that demonstrates excellent results (including over a long period of time), but is also unable to demonstrate its processes well, may not subsequently confirm the brand of a successful enterprise. Like this.

At the same time, it happens the other way around: the processes are set up, even if you demonstrate them at an exhibition of achievements, but, alas, there is no result worthy of these processes. This may either mean that these processes have just been built, and the results will have to wait a little. Or does it mean enterprise (business) process.

A situation called “process for the sake of process” is a path to rising costs, demotivation of personnel, substitution of concepts, and, ultimately, a path to bureaucratization of business and loss of competitive advantages.

This means that if both the predominance of the result over the process and the focus on processes to the detriment of results are bad, then we need to achieve the “golden mean”, a 50 to 50 proportion.

It remains to understand how to digitize processes and results, how to determine these proportions between processes and results, based, for example, on the already mentioned excellence models. But that, as they say, is a completely different story...

Choose a job you like
and you will never have to work a single day in your life
Confucius

Last year I had such a case. I studied with one boy. He studied in the 11th grade. A great guy, friendly, intelligent, very pleasant to talk to. Sings and dances at school. But he wasn’t very good at mathematics, to put it mildly. Once upon a time he prepared with me for the State Examination in mathematics in the 9th grade. And then I came again at 11. The goal is to pass the Unified State Exam in mathematics with at least the minimum score.

Okay, we'll work on it with him. The moment came when we came to solving prototypes. We started with B1. I reminded him all about percentages and showed him the solution to two or three problems. "All clear?" - “Yes, everything is clear.” - “Okay, solve 20 variants of B1 prototypes for the next lesson.”

He comes next time. "I've done everything?" - "Yes". - "Any questions?" - “No, everything is clear.” - “Okay, let's see.” - Not a single correctly solved task! NOT ONE OUT OF 20!!!

Another example. Already this year. Also an eleventh grader. At the first meeting I ask him: “How many problems do you usually manage to solve on tests?” - "All". - “What about the marks?” - “2 or 3.”

For me, such cases have been a mystery for a long time. How so? They are wonderful guys, not stupid, not lazy, they want to study and they want to get good grades. What's the matter?

I received an answer unexpectedly at one training session on time management. It turns out that there are two types of people: “process people” (processors) and “result people” (resultants).

For "people of results" the main value is the ultimate goal of the work. They are most effective when they know the answer to the question: why do this?

These are people for whom the main thing is to get results. They strive to complete any task as quickly as possible (sometimes even at the expense of quality). Such people say: “The winner is always right. End justifies the means".

At school, this is a student who strives to get a good grade, and no matter in what way, not necessarily in an honest way.

An example from adult life is people who don’t care where or who to work as long as they get paid a lot. They do not hesitate to leave any job if they start paying little.

"Process people"- somewhat different. It’s not that they don’t strive for results, we all strive for results, but for them the value is the process itself.

Such a person can in some cases say that the process is the end result for him. He says: “The main thing is not victory, but participation.”

For such people, salary is not as important as a good team, some benefits that arise in the process of work, interest, etc.

At school, this is a student who likes to solve difficult mathematical problems or read “War and Peace” not because it is assigned, but because it is interesting.

Another example: women who love to embroider. For them, carefully placing stitch after stitch is so nice, such a pleasure!

And the children who selflessly play football for hours! Do they play just to score goals? No, they like the process of the game itself. Children in general, no matter what they play, are completely devoted to the game, completely in the process, and enjoy it.

However, as you grow older, especially at school, a person begins to be strongly focused on results. Result, result needed! And it often turns out that the student no longer enjoys the process of learning itself, but strives only for grades. They are praised for them, and they are criticized for them. And parents first of all ask: “How much did you get?” Instead of asking: “What did you learn in class?”

Those guys I talked about at the very beginning have the idea that the main thing is the result, that is, solved problems. But the fact that the problems were solved somehow is not true - this is not the point.

What is the correct thing to do here as a tutor?

Firstly, you need to know the subject well and imagine where the student might make mistakes in order to detect them very quickly.

Secondly, you need to understand what is happening (this is what I try to explain in this article). The guys don’t mean anything bad, it’s just how they understand the task (I had to solve these prototypes, so I solved them, but I’m not interested in understanding the intricacies).

Thirdly, it is necessary to convey to the student that his goal is to learn to solve such problems in order to achieve a more global goal in his life. In the case of eleventh graders, this means passing the Unified State Exam at the required level.

Many years ago I read Leo Babauta about minimalism and step-by-step implementation of habits, 1 piece per month. Once - and over several years, introducing 12 habits a year, Leo became a completely different person. Absolutely different. Very successful, good looking, manages to devote time to his blog, wife and children.

Leo Babauta is the author of the books “Focus Freely”, “No Procrastination” and others. Author of the ZenHabits blog. He tried for a very long time to change his life, but he only succeeded when he radically reconsidered his approach to change.

He is for small portions, small changes, constant daily implementation, clear identical triggers, minimalism and calmness.

In 2005, he was overweight, did not move much, had a lot of debt and various problems. In 2006 I had healthy eating habits, ran marathons, and in 2007 I paid off my last debt. There were many other changes. This is what his morning looks like now:

He introduced these habits step by step, in very small portions, positively reinforcing them, without rushing, without worrying if he couldn’t consolidate them. I have already written the most important thing about establishing automatic habits from my own experience - he writes in his books about the same thing. Only he actually implements everything the way he writes about it. But I just tried - partially, but doing a lot of things the other way around.

Having lost the desired 5 kg, tired of diets, even if you give up a little slack - once again, you come back. And they also have additional kilograms from depression, because again nothing worked out, and it seems that this is completely unrealistic.

Your whole life turns into setting goals - a breakthrough - achieving a result - fatigue - a setback according to the result - overcoming yourself, gathering strength through “I don’t want” - several years of trying to make the next breakthrough.

How much more environmentally friendly it is in relation to yourself, more harmonious and natural, more pleasant, easier to add healthy and useful habits into your life.

Imagine if you knew that you needed to get results in 2 weeks - brush your teeth 50 times for 3 minutes.

No matter what the load it was and how much resistance it caused... 50 times. But there are still so many other things to do. You would probably procrastinate and every day you would suffer more and more that there was still so much left.

But do we think about this action every morning? No, we often don’t remember, we do it automatically, minimum energy, no pressure. If you have a good brush and use an irrigator, then all this will also bring pleasure.

On our attitude towards all the desired changes haste and the categoricalness resulting from it are strongly influenced.

We are in a hurry to make sure everything goes according to plan, we are in a hurry to implement everything that is planned next after the current event. If something gets stuck, it’s a hindrance; we’re in a hurry, we’re in a hurry to live a perfect day or wear a dress of the desired size for the New Year. Therefore, we react categorically and irritably to any obstacle, instead of going calmly with the flow, carefully and with interest (well, since it happened) consider any unexpected event and perceive it as a new episode of the game, as something potentially useful, or maybe even much more useful than what we had planned. When you're not in a hurry, everything is calm, easy, interesting, simple. The process itself becomes enjoyable.

Yes, numerical characteristics and measurements are important. But you can measure not the result - not kilograms, or even body volumes in centimeters, but the process of movement - the introduction of new healthy habits from month to month.

And everything will lead you smoothly, without stress, to your desired goal.

What is the difference between a process and a result? What is a process approach?

How to learn to make improvements using a process approach?

What distinguishes the process from the result?

Result- this is what we have at the end of our actions. For example, the result could be:

• the amount of money earned during the period;
• the time it took us to run the distance;
• the amount of gasoline consumed over a certain time;
• weight that was lost after finishing the diet;
• number of on-time arrivals to work and much more.

All the results obtained are indicators that we obtain as a result of certain actions. What actions? What leads us to these indicators and why did we get these particular indicators and not other indicators? Can we manage these indicators, improve them and how to do this? We can, and to do this we must understand through what sequence of actions we get these results. And it is this sequence of actions with certain characteristics that will be process. The process answers the question: “how will we act?” Therefore, in order to get a different result at the output, we must change the process, i.e. apply a process approach and then a properly structured process will be able to provide us with the required result.

Let's look at examples of processes in conjunction with their results:

For the result “amount of money earned over a period,” the process may represent, for example, consistent actions to attract new customers or expand the product basket for existing customers. Different approaches to promoting products give different results. That is why, to increase sales, managers are trying to determine the most effective methods of interacting with customers and train their employees in these methods. These methods, scheduled in the time of their transfer to employees, can reflect the development process of employees to develop certain sales knowledge, and the employee’s work, built on the results of training, will determine the process of interaction with clients, allowing to influence the result in terms of the amount of money earned for the period.

For the result “time to cover the distance,” the training schedule can serve as a process. This graph should indicate how the athlete trained, i.e. what exercises, for what duration and with what regularity he performed.

For the result “the amount of gasoline consumed over a certain time,” the process can be the route of movement of the car with the indicated average speed on the sections of the road traveled.

For the result “weight lost at the end of the diet,” the process can be information about the required food intake during the diet.

For the result “number of on-time arrivals to work”, the process will be the sequence of actions preceding arrival to work. Actions must be clearly defined and digitized in time.

As can be seen from the examples, to describe processes, in most cases, it is necessary to know the sequence and time of the actions performed. As a rule, with the correct display of the process, the result can be predicted with a high degree of probability. To correctly present and read the process, it is recommended to use a schematic display, which allows you to superimpose the main stages of the process with their characteristics on the time axis.