What Mashed Potatoes Can Teach You About Teamwork

MasterChef…it’s one of the television reality series I watch. Mostly because I like competition, but especially I like to see people who are really passionate about what they are doing competing!

On a recent episode, the home-chefs were challenged to make the classic dish of mashed potatoes.

I personally prefer mashed sweet potatoes and not just because they are orange like the Bengals – it’s almost football season ya’ll – WHO DEY! Apologies…I digress.

Back to the mashed potatoes…so during the short twenty minutes they had to make their all-time, better be smooth and buttery and melt in your mouth mashed potatoes, there was one contestant the judges, well, began judging. They were appalled watching her make her mashed potatoes because her process was not “proper”. How dare she actually use a masher to mash her potatoes!

Watching this mash-catastrophe got me thinking about what I had told a client a few weeks prior and what I would have told Gordon Ramsey and his judgey judgerson sidekicks; the process doesn’t matter when the end results are the same.

Did you catch that? For those who really know me, they may have just passed out from shock since I’m your typical Type A, take-control, born Capricorn leader, who does not generally appreciate things done, “not my way”. Let me repeat this major moment: the process doesn’t matter when the end results are the same.

I have learned when end results match what is expected or requested, the process leading up to achieving those results doesn’t really matter. Give it up for maturity! Woot woot! This realization did NOT come easily and it takes three steps to really make it work. Let’s move past the potatoes and get to the meat already!

How to overcome judging a different process when working with others:

1. Release Control. It’s an interesting word and concept. There are things in your control and things out of your control. When you are working on a project or in an office with others, you have to acknowledge that the process someone else chooses to use, to accomplish a task, is essentially out of your control. If you are able to mentally release the need and the bigger WHY behind your control, you’ll be better able to align with the people you work with. PS – Just in case you aren’t thinking about this, they probably don’t like your process either. SHOCKING, I know!
2. Accept the Difference. Once you release control, you will find it much easier to “agree to disagree” and accept the difference in your processes which will allow you to move the project or task forward. Mind you, acceptance of a difference in process doesn’t mean you agree with it (for all of you who have to be constantly right – oh wait, that’s me!), it simply means you are willing to allow the freedom for someone to do the task how they feel most comfortable and in their own way. This sets you up to work together in better harmony.
3. Seek to Understand. It is a very Wei Wu Wei thing for me to state; seek to understand. (Wei Wu Wei is quoted saying: “Wise men don’t judge: they seek to understand.”) Well, Wei Wei was right. Instead of judging a process different from yours, seek to understand it. If you approach working with others from a position of learning instead of judgment, you may learn something that will help you improve your own process or you may be able to teach them a way to improve theirs.

My husband and I have had many the process arguments, usually tied to household chores like how to load the dishwasher or which way the toilet paper roll goes on. I so wish I were joking! This is my public notice to him and you, the next time you delegate a task or engage with a colleague on a project, remember this truth, it will help you tremendously: the process doesn’t matter when the end results are the same.

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