Potentially unpopular opinion on the tech industry.
We're already good enough at doing.
#devops, #nocode, #agile are all mainly focused on building things better and faster.
That's not the bottleneck anymore. We should switch our focus to what comes before and after
\1
What comes before?
Context and Situation - WHY are we doing this?
and after?
Learning and Improvement - how are we going to get better over time?
\2
Agile practices were born into a time where building and shipping was a lot harder and more time consuming than it is now. The tech landscape also moved much slower.
A couple of hours every two weeks is no longer the right balance between execution and reflection.
\3
My belief is that, now the environment is more complex, we should spend a LOT more time on the planning (before) and debriefing (after) parts of execution.
We need much better situational awareness and understanding of the systems we inhabit to make better decisions.
\4
Try this structure for planning:
Situation: WHY is this the highest priority thing we should do?
Mission: WHAT are we trying to do?
Execution: HOW are we going to achieve the outcome?
Adjust M & E as necessary until you have something exciting, valuable and achievable.
\5
Then try this for debrief:
Process: Objective timeline of events
Perspective: Subjective view of what happened. What was good, what was bad.
Prioritise: 80/20 analysis of impacts. Identify new objectives
Plan: Back into SME using what we've learned as input into Situation.
\6
Explicit separation of these parts is one way the military and other high performance organisations ensure that lessons are learned and the whole system is improved over time and heading in the right direction.
velocity > speed
\Fin.
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Today's newsletter from @TaylorPearsonMe is excellent. It's about The Farthest Down the Chain Principle.
I haven't heard it called this before, but I do know about the principles under other names: Mission Command or empowered execution.
Important ideas - time for a thread!
Let's start with OODA.
There are 2 or 3 really good intros to OODA out there that don't oversimplify, and Taylor's is one of them. It's also another OODA loop video with insanely low views for its value! (I'll share some more later on).
The OODA loop was the culmination of Boyd's synthesis of millennia of military strategy and scientific principles. It truly contains multitudes, and if you're operating in an kind of complex environment, it's required knowledge.
I got a @onepeloton 3 weeks ago. Since then I've used it almost every day, and seen some pretty startling results.
I've lost nearly 5kg (not been drinking this month too) and my avg power output today over 45 mins was almost equal to a 20 min max effort in wk 1 🤯
Takeaways:
I am just a complex systems like any other. I want to pull out a few observation that I think apply to intervening in any system.
1) Make change easy and engaging.
I hate running. Even in the Royal Marines when I got relatively decent at it, I never really enjoyed it. Trying to take up a running habit has been a bust!
OTOH the whole experience of using the bike draws me in.