Processes harden into routines.
When a company decides to do something new, employees usually try several different ways of carrying out the activity,
But once they have found a way that works particularly well, they have strong incentives to lock into the chosen process and stop searching for alternatives.
Fixing on a single process frees people’s time and energy for other tasks.
It leads to increased productivity, as employees gain experience performing the process.
And it also provides the operational predictability necessary to coordinate the activities of a complex organization.