If, as we are led to believe, that to progress you have to differentiate yourself from others, why do we spend so long standardising things?

Processes that could be simplified and standardised should be; it makes no sense to differentiate for no reason, especially if that reason solely to be the ‘owner’ of the process. However, people are different and we often celebrate difference in ability and attitude by putting people through identical processes

Be strong enough to ask for personalisation in your development. If you don’t what will differentiate you from others?