Lean management or agile? The right answer may be both - mckinsey.com/business-funct… ... may I be the first to congratulate McKinsey on finally arriving at 2006. Still not quite right though ... here's a hint, try three.
Anyway, the good news is :- 1) McKinsey is waking up to "use appropriate methods" 2) McKinsey is normally at the vanguard of the laggards
... hence it'll only be 10-15 years before the rest realise. About 25 - 30 years for new management practices to spread is quite normal.
I do wonder if anyone should tell them that "use appropriate methods" is just one of about 40 basic principles (i.e. doctrine) that matter? Or maybe that's pushing it too far?
X : Where's that map from?
Me : This one? Really? It's one of the common examples I use. It's from 2012 and covers the building of HS2 (high speed rail) in a virtual world. @GoAgileGov has the details.
X : Is that the first time maps and different methods were used?
Me : Hell no. That goes back to 2005/06. You can probably find videos of me speaking on these topics at various conferences.
X : Why don't you write a book on the subject?
Me : I have, several times. The latest unfinished version is here - medium.com/wardleymaps
X : I mean a proper book
Me : I'm an old gamer. Rather than writing a book, I'd rather build a worldwide guild and let them work it out.
... I'll be blunt, it's far easier for me to use nothing at all to build a worldwide community of many thousands of motivated people to conquer a space than it is for me to write a book. I'm terrible at writing. Books and stories are way too hard.
X : What about academic work?
Me : Academia? LSE, Harvard Kennedy, Moscow Institute of Technology ... there's people out there teaching and researching on mapping. It's far easier to build something you find useful, give it away and then let others say whether you're deluded.
X : What if mapping is wrong?
Me : Oh, let me stop you there. Mapping is definitely wrong (it's a model). Also, all maps are imperfect by nature. So, it's wrong and imperfect and that's fine. The question is always whether it's useful.
X : Is mapping useful?
Me : I think so. The only person who can decide whether it's useful for you is ... you.
X : How do you build communities of thousands with nothing at all?
Me : Happens all the time. You learn the craft on games like World of Warcraft (WoW) or EVE online. It's a skill though, it takes work.
X : Any tips?
Me : Sure. Send your executives to train on WoW for a year.
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X : What is the deep state?
Me : Depends. You have various conspiracy theory forms and then there's the general term used to describe networks of power operating outside traditional democratic processes. This includes the influence of corporate interests, financial bodies, think tanks, wealthy individuals, lobbysts firms and institutions on government policy. Why?
X : Is Trump going to war on the deep state?
Me : I suspect you'll find that Trump brings his own corporate interests, financial bodies, think tanks, wealthy individuals, lobbysts firms and institutions that will have influence on government policy outside of the normal democratic process.
X : What does that mean?
Me : It means the deep state doesn't usually go away, it just changes i.e. a different group have influence. Unless Trump is planning on a radical program of transparency. Now, that would be interesting. Never seen Trump as a transparency champion.
X : Did you research healthcare investment?
Me : Back in 2023. A group of clinicians mapped multiple perspective of healthcare - including AI, clinical decision making, healthcare value chain - then we used those to determine where to invest from a societal and market benefit.
Me : ... from the table, if your focus is on society then your priority for investment should be measurement of health outcomes (against Patient Reported Outcome Measures) and sharing of medical data. If you're after market growth then try personalised medicine and preventative healthcare.
X : How do you produce those tables?
Me : Pick a field ... like healthcare. Ideally get 40-60 people together with experience i.e. clinicians. Ask them to write down post-it notes of what matters ...
X : What is the most essential skill for AI in the future?
Me : Critical thinking in humans. Alas, we don't usually teach this at school because we're too focused on producing useful economic units.
X : Useful economic units?
Me : Turning humans into automatons for the workplace.
X : Do you have evidence for this.
Me : I took a group of educational consultants, academics and teachers in 2023 and mapped out education from multiple perspectives ... purpose, micro-credentials, asynchronous & synchronous learning, learning models, social learning ...
... we then used the maps to identify where to invest for both societal and market benefit. We then aggregated the results, into the table attached.
If your focus in on societal benefit, then invest in lifelong learning and critical thinking. If your focus is on making money then invest in educational AI and digital access.
It amazes me that the most important metrics (lines of code, story points, cycle time, devex satisfaction) in development are the two that are never discussed, let alone measured ... mean time to answer (mttA) and mean time to question (mttQ).
Whenever we start with building a system or managing a legacy environment, we need to ask questions and get answers. Those are skills which can be hindered or supported by the toolset around you ...
... in the very worst cases, engineers are forced into reading code to try and understand a system. Upto 50% of development time can be spent on reading code ... a process we never question or optimise. That is madness.
X : Thoughts on a return to office policy?
Me : It happens for two basic reasons:- 1) loss of status symbols (top floor office etc). Many execs need these to say "I'm the boss" 2) headcount reduction (i.e. people will leave) due to a weakness in the finances.
Why?
X : What about productivity and innovation?
Me : Those are "reasons" given but they're all bogus and don't stand up to scrutiny. However, there is a third.
X : Colloboration?
Me : Stranded assets - offices etc. No exec likes looking at an empty building they spent £300M on.
X : Basically - status symbols, weaknesses of finances and political capital?
Me : Sounds about right.
X : Did you see Amazon has a return to office policy -
Me : Oh. That's concerning.geekwire.com/2024/survey-by…
X : Our strategy doesn't align with our business.
Me : How do you mean?
X : We create these strategy documents but they never really get implemented as the day to day business takes over.
Me : That's common. Can I ask a question?
X : Sure
Me : ...
Me : Do you map?
X : I've heard of your technique but we don't use it.
Me : Ok, so your business operations is not based upon a map of the landscape?
X : No
Me : And your strategy is not based upon a map of the landscape?
X : No
Me : What made you think they would align?
X : They are supposed to align and we wrote our strategy on our understanding of the business.
Me : Your wrote your strategy based upon stories. There's no means to create a consensus of your landscape, to challenge what your are doing. There is no mechanism for alignment.