# Step-by-Step Instructions By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-09-30 One thing not found on this blog or within our book is step-by-step instructions for analysis. This isn't an intentional choice to maintain power or generate sales. If anything, not including step-by-step instructions does little to help us gain power or generate sales. Most people today want these step-by-step, self-help instructions about how to do something. Everything is boiled down into a process that promises to solve all kinds of problems. Rarely, if ever, do step-by-step instructions work to do something when humans are involved. How does one go about becoming a great artist? Some say one must study all the other great artists, mimic them, and then find one's voice. Sure, but there are endless examples where this process didn't work out. What about something more structured where creativity isn't involved and one has power and authority, such as organizational redesign? If one is the CEO, one has the power and authority to do whatever one wants concerning the organization's design. However, the step-by-step processes to do this never work out. Someone is more valuable than someone else to the organization. Someone is close to retirement. Another person's dad is a key customer. The list continues until one has "phases" that are only constructs of things one has named to provide order to the chaos. Dig into the details and see that the process never goes according to plan. The same goes for marketing plans, sales approaches, lean six sigma projects, and accounting audits. Step-by-step instructions are poorly constructed maps with a sea monster shown in areas where no sailor has gone. Focus less on the maps and processes. Instead, start with a well-informed plan by study and historical accounts, and be ready to improvise and think things through at a moment's notice. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Strategy]] [[Knowledge]] [[Thinking]] [[Organization]] [[Power]] [[Process]]