[rpdillon]

There's a difference between process and discipline. A lot of what you're describing is discipline: you have an internal compass that keeps you oriented on the stuff that matters: helping your wife with the house and kids, doing home maintenance, and taking care of periodic tasks. Basically, you make a to-do list and execute on it.

Process, at least in the corporate context, is about a bunch of stuff you do regularly to check on whether on not the stuff that matters is being attended to. Getting your kid dressed is not a good analog to the 'process' that is being referred to in this sense. Process is a tax on hiring people that don't have that internal compass, or on operating in an environment that stifles that internal compass. If the to-do list isn't there, isn't being followed, or doesn't work in some other way, process exists to find out that there's a problem so everyone can sit down and talk about what to do to fix it.

Put simply: you're defining a culture in your household that is healthy. It's exactly what the author hopes for in a company, and that's not process, it's discipline.

[nostrademons]

Process isn't about stifling the internal compass, it's about making sure that everyone's compass aligns. I've known many engineering teams where individually everybody is incredibly smart, hard-working, dedicated, and focused on what matters, but what matters is different to every person. As a result, the team got nowhere. Process is essentially shared discipline: it's getting everybody aligned so that when they focus and work hard, they get somewhere as a group instead of undoing each others' work.