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The Intentionally Emergent Enterprise
Jim StogdillOpen InfraShare Summit
BostonMay 15, 2013
Q: The corporate enterprise and silicon valley both have the same technologies available
to them.
So why do they deliver innovation so differently?
Top Down Bottom Up
ObserveOrient
It’s not the OO loop.
Q: So, why is maneuver in the corporate enterprise so
difficult? Why can even simple projects feel like
pushing rope?
Photo Jan Banning http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/bureaucracies-around-the-world
A:
organization characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority.
bu·reau·cra·cy:
Bureaucracy is a low band pass filter with delay.
Meta Context Part I
The Industrial Age
From: http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2009/3/24/4131366.html
http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Overview/Rouge_Plant.htm
From: http://www.mkbergman.com/date/2006/07/
$
From http://www.humanthermodynamics.com/watt-engine.jpg
From: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/Ellis_island(1).jpg
From: http://history.cultural-china.com/en/34History7223.html
From: http://www.goldenswamp.com/2009/08/22/educations-reductionist-flaw-is-like-the-digesting-duck/
http://www.wormatlas.org/hermaphrodite/neuronalsupport/mainframe.htm
Wiring the worm
Meta Context Part II
The Information Age
http://www.lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=13526&page=2
http://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/internet_history_70s.htmlhttp://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_kahn.htm
http://www.velocityguide.com/internet-history/lawrence-roberts.html
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/chap2.htm
http://www.fmsasg.com/SocialNetworkAnalysis/
http://www.web-censorship.org/congratiolation-piratpartiet-pirate-party/
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2027/2449663234_ea24706dc8_o.png
http://www.opensource.org/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seeclickfix-plus/id348529764?mt=8
http://www.how-why.com/ph510/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/18/national-security-strategy-cyber-attacks
http://www.ukuleleman.net/uploaded_images/Bush%20Faces%20of%20the%20dead-795931.jpg
Image Source: http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kx11ssrFCN1qb0ukuo1_400.jpg
It takes a network to build a network.
Q: So, does the network age allow us (even require us) to adopt technology-enabled
post-bureaucratic corporate models? And build the
technology to support them?
!= SDLC
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd380647.aspx
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Company: Planned, Hierarchical, Reductionist,
Bureaucratic…
Market: Emergent, Networked,
Expansionist, …
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Internal characteristics are becoming “post-
bureaucratic” with more permeable
boundaries.
Surroundings
Market: Emergent, Networked,
Expansionist, …
Enterprise Core: planned,
hierarchical, reductionist
Edge: Impedance matched hybrid.
Intentionally emergent.
one
one
C2 A2
Info
Decisions
one
one
Info
Decisions
C2 A2
“It is no exaggeration to say that if we had had to rely on conscious central planning for the growth of our industrial
system, it would never have reached the degree of differentiation, complexity, and flexibility it has attained.
…
Any further growth of its complexity, therefore, far from making central direction more necessary, makes it more
important than ever that we should use a technique which does not depend on conscious control.”
Friedrich Hayak, The Road to Serfdom
Constructal Law:
For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it.
-From Design in Nature
More and more of the “currents” imposed on the modern corporate enterprise are informational and digital.
Emergence happens best when it’s planned.
Traditional Enterprise / Post-Bureaucratic
Bureaucratic
Coercive
Planned
Reductionist
IndustrializedHierarchical
High Hurdle
Proprietary
Cost focus
Capital budget approval
Post-BureaucraticEmergent
Revenue focus
Expansionist
Open
Adoption
Networked
Low Hurdle
Variable cost/self funded
Participative
The Paradox of Control
Gall’s Law: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
Q: Assuming a Normal distribution, how many developers must have the opportunity to self select for (or invent) a project in order to have a 90% confidence that at least 1% of the actual participants will be 5 σ above the mean? You know, the crazy smart ones.
The ones youwant
The skunk works of One
“One” starts here
Building the long tail of IT contribution. On purpose.
Generativity = “a system’s capacity to produce
unanticipated change through unfiltered
contributions from broad and varied audiences.”
Make choices, investments, and policies that increase generativity.
Some things that contribute to generativity
Open Source
Software
Open Standards
Runtime Platforms
Low hurdles for initial
project start
Small world networks
Simple rules
20% time Variable Cost
Open Data
Open API’s
…
Community
Q: At your workplace, what changes to policy,
architecture, technology, or culture would enhance long
tail emergence?
Q: How can we better impedance match our organizations to the
decentralized and emergent world we are immersed in?
Recognizing that the scope of IT has become too great to effectively centrally plan and manage, information
technology policy makers must work to explicitly enable emergent development in the enterprise. Emergent
capabilities won’t be expected to replace the systematic development of core line of business applications, but it
will complement them by enabling locally relevant innovation. Such a strategy would enable “long tail”
contributions throughout the enterprise and ultimately would also improve the way large programs are delivered.
The goal is apparent agility even if the enterprise’s supporting IT substrate evolves at a more measured
pace.
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