Two types of procedures

Procedures are inherently linear, sequential and straightforward. Anything that messes around with recursive or serendipitous movement is not a procedure, it's a process. Procedures depend on a world of persistent objects where nothing changes by seeing it differently. Procedures take action, make things happen and substantiate models of cause and effect.

When we're enamored with procedures, it seems like the only significance differences between procedures are those between:

• good and bad procedures
• valid and invalid methods
• accurate and inaccurate measures
• proficient and inept execution
• compliant and deviant applications of techniques

When we come from a place of processing, there are very different differences in our awareness of procedures between:

• procedures functioning in isolation and procedures contained within non-linear processes
• procedures on shaky ground and procedures in the process of getting grounded
• procedures impaired by objectivity and procedures benefiting from reframing facts, changing lenses and revising outlooks
• procedures limited to linear progress and procedures used in processes of emergent change, reversal and other circuitous explorations
• procedures paired with "just the facts ma'am" and procedures aligned with deeper questions, mysteries and captivating unknowns
• procedures for completing tasks routinely and procedures from revising which tasks need to get done by when and in which way
• procedures given to unstoppable excess and procedures curtailed by feedback, context, and other informative repercussions

When we rely on the first kind of procedures, we will make problems worse if the breakdowns are multi-leveled, organic, cyclical and complex. Our hammer in hand can only successfully nail problems which are equally straightforward, inert and merely complicated. Where the nature of the problem ought to guide us in our choice of procedures, too often we're opposed to the processing, far from getting grounded and caught up in excessive deployment of the toxic type of procedure. Most problems call for us to embrace processing and contain procedures within them to make an enduring, positive impact. As we embrace processing, we will find there are two kinds of processing as well.