Push It Down
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This document discusses the challenges of managing complex systems and the need for autonomy and alignment. It argues that traditional 20th century management approaches focused too much on prevention, detailed planning and control, which hinders adaptation. Instead, organizations should push decision making authority down while maintaining clear goals and vision. The presenter provides examples where giving frontline teams more autonomy led to faster, higher quality decisions. The closing reflection notes that successful examples often involved volunteers, so commercial organizations may face additional challenges in applying these principles.
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Push It Down
- 1. Push It Down Autonomy & Vision in Complex Systems 6 October 2015 @MartinBurnsSCO slideshare.net/martinb9999 uk.linkedin.com/in/martinburnsuk
- 2. 2 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Let’s Go To The Moon Images: nasa.gov, wikimedia
- 3. 3 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Let’s Go To The Moon Images: nasa.gov, wikimedia
- 4. 4 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Eli Goldratt “any optimisation of a component part automatically suboptimizes the whole. Photo: PRWeb
- 5. 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. 6 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Science 1.0: Informing Management since 1776 Discover Implement Control Work the Plan Plan the Work
- 7. 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. 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 Cranfield Stephen Bungay, The Art of Action
- 9. 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. 10 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. A Common Dilemma AutonomyAlignment
- 11. 11 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. High Alignment Enables High Autonomy Image: Wikimedia Autonomy Alignment Goals:What and Why Operational Control: How Auftragstaktik: Mission Planning Helmuth Von Moltke the Elder “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”
- 12. 12 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The Spice Girls Question
- 13. 13 © 2015 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Vision on a Postcard
- 14. 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. 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 Reflection My successful examples were all from organisations with highly motivated volunteers. Chances are, this is not your current context. What does that suggest….
- 16. Senior Transformation Consultant mburns@rallydev.com Martin Burns @MartinBurnsSCO Slideshare.net/martinb9999 uk.linkedin.com/in/martinburnsuk Ca.com
Editor's Notes
- Francois Dubois Gert Schneider Tim Cholmondly-Smyth
- Europe had huge technology & Experience in 1961 UK built the booster France the 2nd stage, Germany the 3rd Italy the satellite test vehicle
- Why do they do this? Because you lead them that way.
- Linear, Unchanging Perfectible: Ideal spheres on perfectly smooth surfaces Wholes are sums of the parts
- This must never be allowed to happen again A rule for every possibility "No matter how detailed the plan, it cannot make the uncertain certain. – Goldratt But when the situation is unpredictable, so must the response
- But there’s a risk here. The risk that as you give greater autonomy, people do the wrong thing, based on the Science 1.0 thinking that drives their thinking and yours.
- To be able to operate like this requires a vast amount of contextual knowledge so that people on the ground can make the right decision