Undermine Competitiveness

When Dell outsourced a part of its business to Asus, Dell gave Asus targets it needed to hit, and problems that it needed to solve.Asus then developed the processes for doing the work- even as Dell's processes for doing the same work atrophied.Asus honed and expanded those processes so that it could complete more and more sophisticated work. Dell didn't see that as it was focusing so heavily on resources and reducing its crucial processes, that it was actually undermining its future competitiveness
Many parents are making the same mistake, flooding their children with resources— knowledge, skills, and expe- riences. And just as with Dell, each of the decisions to do so seems to make sense. We want our kids to get ahead, and believe that the opportunities and experiences we have pro- vided for them will help them do exactly that. But the nature of these activities- experiences in which they're not deeply engaged and that don't really challenge them to do hard things—denies our children the opportunity to develop the processes they'll need to succeed in the future.
当戴尔将一部分业务外包给华硕时，戴尔给了华硕它需要达到的目标，以及它需要解决的问题。华硕随后开发了完成这项工作的流程——尽管戴尔完成同样工作的流程已经萎缩。华硕磨练并扩展了这些流程，以便能够完成更多更复杂的工作。戴尔没有看到这一点，因为它正专注于资源并减少其关键流程，这实际上削弱了其未来的竞争力。
许多父母正在犯同样的错误，给他们的孩子灌输知识、技能和经验。就像戴尔一样，这样做的每个决定似乎都有意义。我们希望我们的孩子出人头地，并且相信我们为他们提供的机会和经历会帮助他们做到这一点。但实质上这些活动——他们没有深入参与的经历，也没有真正让他们挑战困难——剥夺了我们的孩子发展他们未来成功所需的过程的机会。