Improving Processes, Part II

O would some power the giftie gie us
to see ourselves as others see us.

 - Robert Burns, To a Louse

Right. So if you need that translated, Rabbie was saying this, in English: 

O would some power the gift to give us
to see ourselves as others see us.

There are a couple of things that are just hard to do for most people.  One, is to change our perspective and see what others see in us.  The really hard part is similar to that: to look at ourselves honestly, and see what we really are like. 

Any time that self examination comes into play, most folks will avoid it as much as possible.  We can tell wee little fibs and stories and justify actions by many interesting machinations.  Yet when we strip those aside, what are we left with?

That is the really hard part in any form of process improvement.  When we look at ourselves, as individuals or as a group, the challenge is to set aside what we wish we were doing or like to think we do, and focus on our true actions.

If our real processes and the official process don't match, we need to ask ourselves, "Why not?" 

Indeed, to see ourselves as we really are, or as others see us, can be an event that we don't want to face.  Without doing that, we can never improve.