Reshaping Your Mindset #10 — Control the Process, No...

> TL;DR: Results are not controllable; processes are. Get the process right and the result follows. Requirements engineering is the clearest example: control elicitation, analysis, review, baselining, change control and tracing, and quality, delivery timing and customer satisfaction arrive on their own. The right way to control a process is to work dynamically on the "empowered team loop" — neither micromanaging nor letting go. Results Are Out of Your Control, Processes Are Not Here is the proposition: control the process, not the result — because the result is not controllable while the process is. Control the process well and the result takes care of itself. Someone will object: my boss is results-oriented, he only looks at outcomes. True, and many bosses are like that, which is fine. But a boss does not need to control the process — he only needs to see a good result. When you do the work, you absolutely do need to control the process. The chief scientist of the lunar exploration programme put it memorably: the journey to the Moon is 97% course correction. A spacecraft cannot fly in a straight line to the Moon; only by continuously adjusting to its actual state and deviation...