[ This article is also available in Español ]

To make people adopt any process, the most important part of the “preach” or “sell” is why to do it, not how to do it. When the audience is inspired enough, they’ll be willing to learn the process, optimize the process to fit the goal and most importantly go the extra mile (beyond what’s written explicitly) to achieve the objective(s) or maximize the impact.

That’s why guerrilla warfare works; even in the face of massively disproportionate formal army. Because a formal army has meticulous sets of processes in place, but usually lacks the inspiration part in the right places.

As the owner of any process, first of all, you should be solidly inspired. If that’s missing, everything else will fall apart; regardless of how many management consultants worked on it. To ensure that ask yourself the why question. Dig deep enough to content yourself with the answer. Then you’re ready to make and deliver the best version of the how part.

If you’re delegating a process to someone else to own, make sure she is satisfied with the answer of why; not just agreed to take over. How do you know? She will dig into the why part and question you about it. She will be eager enough to learn how part and execute accordingly.

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