X : We need to adapt to our new reality.
Me : A question?
X : Should we start with organisation or operating model first?
Me : Neither. Start with doctrine i.e. basic principles of your company. This will lead you to landcape which will lead you to structure + operating model.
X : Don't we need to get the structure right though?
Me : Structure against what? If you don't understand the landscape that you operate in then how do you structure around it? How do you decide what your operating model is? Awareness comes first and that needs those principles.
X : Explain?
Me : Pretend you're running a tea shop (I'm a Brit, I like tea shops). First thing you need to do is to know who your users are - the public, the business for example (there are more like regulators etc).
... but just knowing the users is not enough, you need to know what they need i.e. a cup of tea, maybe something more like entertainment or a nice piece of fruitcake
... but just knowing what they need is not enough, you need to know what goes into making a cup of tea, the chain of chains that it is built upon. You need to know the details ...
... but knowing the details is not enough, there is a world of difference between a custom built kettle and one you buy from argos. so you need to understand what is being considered ... this is what we call a map ...
... now that we have a map, we have a common language where others can add components we are missing or discuss how we should think about those components ...
... because we have a common language, we can now challenge the assumptions because we are expressing our assumptions in the map. The key is to challenge the map (not the person) ... it's the map that's wrong ...
... as we build more maps, we discover we have duplication and bias between maps. We can literally see it by comparing maps and because we've now become good at challenging then we can remove it ...
... with our understand of the landscape, we can start to apply appropriate methods. All methods have a context where they work, there is no one size fits all ...
... we can embed challenge, communication (maps) and learning (i.e. which method goes where) through the use of pre and post mortems. We call this "spend control" and it's all about learning from those maps (i.e. data) rather than using data to justify a story we like.
... you have now completed all phase I of the doctrine. You have some awareness! Congratulations!
You have earned the right to talk about concepts like organisation, operating model and strategy ... just don't try and do them yet. You've got more principles to fix first.
X : What about phase II?
Me : Have you done phase I?
X : Not quite.
Me : Ok. Was the tea shop example useful.
X : It's pretty good.
Me : Ok. Well, in which case I better put some maps together to explain phase II. Note to self ... #to_be_continued#phases
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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.