Once we brought Rory home, we quickly realized we would need to establish a routine to overcome the exhaustion and what seemed like never ending needs of a newborn. Instilling a sleep-eat-wake rotation every three hours was pertinent to establishing a sense of sanity in the chaos of new life. For naptime, we would swaddle her up tight, sing her a soft song, and she would go right to sleep.

Then one day the swaddle and soft song didn’t work quite the same.

Did we need to work on our swaddle technique? Maybe. Did she notice I was singing off key? Always.

Perfecting our swaddle-sing process was not the issue. Our swaddle blankets were no match for Rory’s growing body, desire for free roaming hands and sweet cries. You see, when we were getting used to the process, Rory had already changed. She was on to something else.

How often do we get caught in the same situation? We are so determined to six sigma the crap out of everything. We want to flawlessly follow a new product development cycle, perfect our projections formula, or mass produce our social media content all while the world around us – our competitors, our customers, our promotional channels make moves. Process is really important. Like a newborn, business is chaotic and exhausting without it. But we can’t get caught getting too comfortable. We need to look for cues that it’s time to adjust. Even better, anticipate them.

So lesson one of this Tuesdays with Rory mini series is -- process is necessary, but don't get too comfortable.