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Push It Down
Autonomy & Vision in Complex Systems
6 October 2015
@MartinBurnsSCO
slideshare.net/martinb9999
uk.linkedin.com/in/martinburnsuk
2 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Let’s Go To The Moon
Images: nasa.gov, wikimedia
3 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Let’s Go To The Moon
Images: nasa.gov, wikimedia
4 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Eli Goldratt
“any optimisation of a component part automatically suboptimizes the whole.
Photo: PRWeb
5 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
W Edwards Deming
“Left to themselves in the Western world, components become selfish, competitive, independent profit centres, and thus destroy the system
Photo: deming.org
6 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Science 1.0: Informing Management since 1776
Discover
Implement
Control
Work the Plan
Plan the Work
7 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Gen Stanley A McChrystal
“For a soldier trained at West Point as an engineer,
the idea that a problem has different solutions on different days was fundamentally disturbing.
Yet that was the case.
Photo: Wikimedia
8 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Combat is an interaction between human organisations.
It is adversarial, highly dynamic, complex and lethal.
It is grounded in human behaviour & conducted between organisations that are themselves complex.
It is not determined, hence uncertain, and evolutionary
Business is an interaction between human organisations.
It is competitive, highly dynamic, complex and risky.
It is grounded in human behaviour & conducted between organisations that are themselves complex.
It is not determined, hence uncertain, and evolutionary
Source: Lt Col J P Storr, The Nature of Military Thought, PhD Thesis, University of CranfieldStephen Bungay, The Art of Action
9 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
20th Century Management: Built for Stability
Typical Robust Responses to uncertainty & failure:
More Prevention More Detailed Plans & Procedures More Control & Rules More “Permission” & Accountability
Better Resilient Responses to uncertainty & failure:
Rapid Adaption to reality over plans Move authority to the information Fewer, more general principles
Photos: Pixabay & Wikipedia
10 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
A Common Dilemma
AutonomyAlignment
11 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
High Alignment Enables High Autonomy
Image: Wikimedia Autonomy
Alig
nm
ent
Goals:Whatand Why
Operational Control: How
Auftragstaktik: Mission Planning
Helmuth Von Moltkethe Elder
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”
12 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The Spice Girls Question
13 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Vision on a Postcard
14 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Outcome: Better Decisions, Faster
Photo: Flickr.com “We found that, even as speed increased and we pushed authority further down, the quality of decisions actually went up.
We had decentralized on the belief that the 70 percent solution today would be better than the 90 percent solution tomorrow.
But we found our estimates were backward — we were getting the 90 percent solution today instead of the 70 percent solution tomorrow
15 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Takeaways
1. Modern Organisations operate as Unstable Complex Systems
2. Management Systems built to optimise stability: fail badly
3. Push decisions down to where the information is & accept the apparent ‘inefficiency’
4. Enable sound decisions with clear vision
Closing ReflectionMy successful examples were all from organisations with highly motivated volunteers. Chances are, this is not your current context. What does that suggest….
Senior Transformation Consultant
mburns@rallydev.com
Martin Burns
@MartinBurnsSCO
Slideshare.net/martinb9999
uk.linkedin.com/in/martinburnsuk
Ca.com
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