Chocolate Chip Cookies and Orchestra Directors

You may be wondering how chocolate chip cookies could possibly relate to an orchestra director, or how those two even remotely pertain to business or process effectiveness. Alas my friend! There is indeed a method to the madness. Look around. There are processes everywhere- in the office, at the grocery store, getting your car repaired, at a restaurant, and yes, even in baking chocolate chip cookies. A few of these processes create powerful intended results very efficiently. Most however are endlessly wasteful in time, money, and resources. Some even produce unwanted outcomes. I believe there are 4 keys to creating effective processes (more details to come in a later blog post). One of these keys I will introduce to you today as a super secret sneak peak: Assigning an overarching owner to your process, an orchestra director if you will.

Your director ensures that all of your pieces play together in harmony, at the correct time and in the right order. Without an overarching owner, you may as well be listening to trash cans rolling down a hill or screeching cats. The director is responsible for overseeing the end-to-end activities, ensuring priorities of different steps are aligned, tracking key indicators of the process health, leading necessary changes, and for the managing the outcomes of the system. Do yourself and your business a favor by assigning an owner to your process who is capable, accountable, and responsible.

© 2017 by The Process Maven