Thread by @swardley

X : How do you do strategy?
Me : First, I start by observing the environment (including producing a map). Then I challenge and interrogate the map. Finally, I start scenario planning on the map with scribbles that represent different connections and gameplay. Why?

X : Is there a method?
Me : Rounds of challenge and scenario planning on the map. There are playbooks (I have over 100 patterns I've collected) which you can apply but it's mainly thought plus more interrogation. It's not a perfect or formal exercise.
X : What patterns?
Me : hmmm

Me : This is a list of some basic gameplay. It'll be good enough for you to explore. But, don't bother to do this until you've got mapping and basic principles sorted. If that's not the case then your only strategy is "to stop punching ourselves in the face".

X : Was that a map of the fuel crisis?
Me : It's irrelevant, an example. It happened to be a quick discussion (30 mins) on the crisis with others so that we all had a common understanding of what was happening.
X : So, what do you think ....
Me : I wasn't talking fuel crisis.

X : But ...
Me : Look, we live in a fracked up systems where we don't understand our supply chains, we don't value what matters and people try to manage this with stories. It's all madness.
X : Isn't that what consultants are for.
Me : Oh god. They are the madness.

X : How do you mean?
Me : If every management and strategy consultant went on strike for a year, what would the impact on society be?
X : Well ...
Me : None at all. If every HGV driver went on strike for a year?
X : Collapse of society?
Me : Pretty close.

Me : If our systems were actually based upon value to society then HGV drivers would be some of the highest paid people along with teachers etc. Management and strategy consultants should be on minimum wage.

X : But ...
Me : ... nothing. Recognise that first the problem exists. Once we agree there is a problem then we can look for potential solutions. Of course, it would be a good idea to map the problem out as other people might have additional information / viable solutions.

X : But do you really think it's a problem?
Me : That some of the least valuable people to our society are the most highly paid by our economic system or that our economic system has become extractive on capital rather than generative ... yes, I think those are problems.

X : By sharing mapping and all the patterns, aren't you trying to make this happen and undermine the management consultancy field?
Me : Yes, that is my plan.

Me : By slowly getting people to realise there is a landscape and that you can imperfectly map it and therefore learn from it, I hope to enable people to get rid of what I consider to be a fairly useless industry. It's not that it couldn't have use but it mostly doesn't.

X : Those are broad statements.
Me : I'm long in the tooth and I see what parasites do. Take the National AI Strategy - gov.uk/government/pub… - it's written as an effing bonanza for management consultants flogging rebadged "AI" systems ... you can tell they were all over it.

X : What's your proposal?
Me : There was a reason Cab Office / DCMS pushed a view of "No cloud, No AI" just before the mighty marmalade started to decimate all the good work that had been done. There are more fundamental problems of data sharing that must be resolved first.

As it currently stands, you can see we're going to end up with 43 different custom built AI systems for each of the 43 police forces with no sharing between them and hence no major reduction in time that it takes to process evidence. Oodles for consultants but naff all use.

X : You seem quite passionate about this?
Me : It's my country and I'm a patriot. There was great work done around GDS, spend control and transparency. We went from nowhere to leading the world. Yes, I'm furious we slipped up so badly in so many areas. Pockets of hope ... always.

X : Is this a problem with the civil service?
Me : God no. There are fantastic people in the civil service. This is all an issue of leadership, of reliance and dependency on major consultancy firms, of lack of situational awareness, of lack of learning and imported market dogma.

X : Autonomous vehicles for delivering highly explosive materials?
Me : That's the point of scenario planning and challenging on a map. It allows people to discuss and bring up other issues. PS, this thread wasn't about that map, it just happened to be an example at hand.

X : Missing from the map... The tax-distribution connection.
Me : By all means take that map and make it better - onlinewardleymaps.com/#pt9xXdfsPxJxR… - this was simply an example I grabbed whilst discussing another issue - the question of strategy.