Interesting link for the day. Barry Schwartz talks about wisdom and what it means to do a good job.

Barry Schwartz on our Loss of Wisdom

The reason I link it here is because everything he says is very applicable to the field of business processes.  He give an example where the official job description of a janitor does not actually describe the job.  This is not that surprising because when asked to describe a job or a process people often find they don’t really know the job.  He also talks about the dangers of over-reliance on rules with an example of lemonade and group of  social workers who obviously overreact to the situation but blame it on the need to follow rules.  In BPM we emphasize the need to use rules, but this is a great example of the downside to rules.  He says rules allow people to stop thinking.  He says we need more wisdom (but he does not say how to do this).

My question for the day: we can codify rules and incentives, but how can we make a business process which enhances (or at least rewards) wisdom?  What does “BPM for Wise People” look like?