grokking the org
TRANSCRIPT
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GROKKING THE ORG
An attempt to make sense of the curious behaviours of big organisations
Mike Laurie
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Andrew is in the queue at Sainsbury’s.
His card is blocked by a fraud detection algorithm blocked his card.
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Monique calls a mobile telco to set up a new contract.
She gets cut off after 45 minutes of conversation.
When she calls back, she needs to go through the whole process from scratch.
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Anji just moved house, so she changed her address with the bank.
Months later she notices that she’s no longer receiving mail from the bank.
After calling them, she realises they’ve misspelled the name of her street.
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Today's problems come from yesterday's solutions.
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Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem
Virginia Satir
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Frontline coping tends to favour the service provider, not the customer.
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Anatomy of a blueprint
WHAT CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE
BACK OFFICE INTERACTIONS
IT SYSTEMS
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Anatomy of a blueprint
WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
WHAT EMPLOYEES DO
SCARY TECHNICAL BITS
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WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
WHAT EMPLOYEES DO
SCARY TECHNICAL BITS
Anatomy of a blueprint
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Anatomy of a blueprint
WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
WHAT EMPLOYEES DO
SCARY TECHNICAL BITS
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None of this tells us WTF is really going on.
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Anji just moved house, so she changed her address with the bank.
Months later she notices that she’s no longer receiving mail from the bank.
After calling them, she realises they’ve misspelled the name of her street.
@mikelaurie - follow me on twitterM #SDinBiz #Grok
@mikelaurie - follow me on twitterM
Jay ForresterIn general, the difficulties of an organisation arise not from outside influences (as almost all of us would like to think), rather than what we do ourselves.
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What is the biggest obstacle to the success of your business?
The economyCompetition in the market
Not being able to increase prices/feesRed tape
Taxation, VAT, PAYE, National Insurance, business ratesCash flow
RegulationsLate payment
Obtaining financeRecruiting staff
Shortage of skills generallyAvailability/cost of suitable premises
Shortage of managerial skills/expertisePensions
No main obstacle0 0.045 0.09 0.135 0.1815%0%1%2%2%3%5%5%6%6%7%8%8%11%18%
self-serving bias
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systems dynamics notation
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glass
water flow
water levelinformation
desired water level
flow(controlled by a
policy to achieve a goal)
goal
feedback
stock
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WHAT YOU SEE ISALL THERE IS
Daniel Kahneman
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If you want to understand the purpose of the system to customers, don’t ask the
business, observe what the system does.
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tree growth
livingtrees logging
treedeaths
lumberinventory customers
sales oflumber
plant seedlings
nursery
sell seedlings
My mental model of… The London Log Company
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My mental model of… Spotify
customers
song requests
spotifyaudio
server
song streams
spotifymerchant account
spotifyinvestors
subscriptionfees
artists
labels
transferrights
streamingroyalties
streamingroyalties
royalties
dividendpayments
spotifyengineering
Spotifyaccounting
salarypayments
funds
platformimprovements
uploadmusic
uploadmusic
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Modelling examples
Insight Maker TfL Escalators MIT Sloan Simulations
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Why do any of this?
• Gain a shared understanding across functions • Prototype new operational models • A better understanding of where to intervene • New frames for old problems • Anticipate possible unintended
consequences
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Some patterns & theories
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Constraints control performance
SALES 50 ADVISORS
1K NEW LEADS
PER WEEK
CLIENT MEETINGS
REPORT WRITING
PRODUCTS SOLD
CAPACITY: 35 HOURS PER WEEK
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INTUITIVE HEURISTICS
“when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, without noticing the substitution.”
Daniel Kehneman
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BIKESHEDDING
AKA Parkinson’s Law of Triviality
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MULTIFINALITY
Organisations don’t have a single purpose, they participate in a value exchange where all parties benefit
Ludwig von Bertalanfy
customers
song requests
spotifyaudio
server
song streams
spotifymerchant account
spotifyinvestors
subscriptionfees
artists
labels
transferrights
streamingroyalties
streamingroyalties
royalties
dividendpayments
spotifyengineering
Spotifyaccounting
salarypayments
funds
platformimprovements
uploadmusic
uploadmusic
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Marketing Legal IT HR Finances
CONWY’S LAW
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Theory X Theory Y
dislike work don’t want responsibility
must be coerced require supervision
are intrinsically motivated accept responsibility require little direction
solve problems imaginatively
Assumes that employees…
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Didactic Dialogic
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CUSTOMERS
SERVICE
VALUE
DEMAND
FAILURE
DEMAND
VALUE DEMAND V.S. FAILURE DEMAND
The failure to do something right first time for the customer leads to unnecessary
demand
John Seddon, Vanguard
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Feedback loops
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“I never decide if an idea is good or bad until I try it.”
Rick Rubin.