Pondering Political Process

Process is simply the steps we take to get something accomplished.  If you have worked a job of any kind you have probably felt like the person in the picture above. It is part of life to have to learn a process someone else has developed.  It is usually a challenge because all brains work differently, yet in life, we are required to learn processes that just do not seem to make sense. 

The reason for process is to produce an accurate and trustworthy result or product whether it is customer service or a computer program. I was a medical technologist for decades and the science of medicine demands  strict and accurate processes. Years ago when I had started a new job, I was learning the process of maintaining patient ID as we took samples to be tested from a single tube of blood drawn from the patient and created test tubes to be distributed throughout the lab for testing, I became confused. I needed to be absolutely correct. Mistaken patient ID in testing can cause catastrophic events.

I noticed there were three machines we used for testing in a row on a counter top. Yet when we sorted, we ID labeled two sample tubes for each patient and placed both side by side infront of the equipment. I saw a process error. We were creating a extra opportunity for error that was unecessary. Being new, it took a while before I raised a question, "Why are we making two tubes per patient when all three machines sit side by side?" I got blank stares. Seems no one knew why. They were doing their sorting processes the way they had been taught was correct, and correct was important. So important you didn't mess with the process.  It was what we did to make sure things were right.

A year or so later, after getting to know the oldest tech in the lab pretty well, I said, "Do you have any idea why we set up two sample tubes every day for these tests when the three machines are six inches apart from each other?"  

"Oh yes!!" Francis said gruffly. She always said things gruffly. "At the old hospital the blood sugar machine was in a different room." She hurriedly turned away. She was always in a hurry.

I couldn't help but remember this and other process improvement head scratchers that I encountered as I moved into the area of Quality Assurance and Process Improvement in my field.  I thought of it again as I absorbed all of the acrimony over children being separated from their parents at our Southern border.  Why was there such high passion on every side of this human drama we were being shown? Why were so many people absolutely sure they knew their position was correct?  It seems as if politics and humanity were clashing in a full charge of right versus left, but are we looking at the problem correctly?

I discovered that many people feel deeply secure in the immigration process, not because they know the process, but because they feel it's correct and correct is important, so important you don't mess with the process. The process (law, code, rules) has become what protects us from chaos and what saves us from calamity. The thought that the process has a problem is a clarion call for process defense because the process has been created by those we all have elected and trusted over many years.  

Most of us are busy as hamsters on a wheel with our own lives and the processes that rule them. We have our issues but most Americans trusted in the way government planned things out, until the process of immigration management suddenly became a living story on our televisions and our podcasts. Parents sitting comfortably with their clean and sweet smelling children snug in their little beds suddenly were confronted with the cries of little brown pre-schoolers wailing through snot bubbles for their mommies and daddies and pictures of preteens in a cage. The reality of children torn from their parents set off a gut level revulsion that exhibited itself in crazy ways.

In a state of shock, human beings do not make good decisions. I certainly do not. In the face of pain and suffering we  often hide or hunt for bad guys when we should be searching for what has caused our discomfort. Many of us are moved to defend the immigration processes viscerally, as holy law, while many of us are outraged that our country would ever plan such inhumane things for children. Personally, I do not believe we are divided into saints and sinners, Democrats and Republicans, racists and freedom fighters.  I think we are confused by this sudden intrustion of true human suffering into our comfortable confidence that our Country always does the right thing. We are terrified that the exposure of this process problem means our Country has been doing a very wrong thing for a very long time. 

Process was made for people to measure their steps. Process should be continually reviewed for accuracy and error!  That's how everything in life gets better. However we must beware!  Sometimes a beloved  process can be like the raft we keep slapping duct tape on for one more summer.

Americans are nothing if not possessive of our children. No matter where we live in these 50 States, we do not want the government or anyone else telling us how to do our kids. It is an American luxury.  Our American Dream is for our children and children's children to be free to govern themselves.  Yet we must face it, most Americans have been emotionally ignorant of the human costs at our Southern border to other people's children, until we heard a seven year old snubbing to a ICE officer to please call her Aunt.   

Of course the process must be safe. Of course adults should be assessed for criminality, but can we agree that elected officials of all political parties have ignored this part of the process too long? Can we agree that the law enforcement model has not met our expectations in the refugee aspect of families fleeing to America in desperation?

After all, the immigration debate may have only changed locations like the machines in the hospital. We could have processes, laws, rules and instructions that need to be viewed from other than a strict law and order perspective now. Now that we know. Perhaps we will go in the other direction. I don't know.


We, the people, create processes that rule this Country. Processes are our duty and process improvement is our responsibility.  We as Americans have a large responsibility. We must work with our heads as well as our hearts to find a better way.