lidenskap.blog

In our team workshop last week I shared some technology beliefs, principles or statements (don't know what to call it).

They help me approach (digital) technology in this uncertain, complex and fast-moving world.

All technologies serve a purpose. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes you must dig deeper to discover it and it can also change over time. Find and understand the purpose.

Technologies cause new problems for every problem they solve. The problems of today are caused by yesterday's successes, and the technical solutions today will cause the problems of tomorrow.

All technologies are combinations of existing technologies. Look for surprising innovations and benefits in the combination and remix of different technologies.

All technologies come from social interactions and exchange of ideas. Not the lone genius. Go out and observe and talk with different people.

Technologies thrive in ecosystems of highly interdependent technologies that support each other. The success of one technology often depends on the success of others in a mix of collaboration and competition. You see this with all the partnerships and collaborations being established by tech companies. They compete in one dimension, but collaborate in another because their technologies benefit each other.

The more powerful a technology is, the more powerfully it will be abused.​ Unfortunately, new technologies will also unleash new ways to lie, cheat, steal, spy, and terrorize.

We tend to fit all new technologies into the old frame we already know.​ It's just harder to imagine how the known and comfortable frame can and should change to exploit the benefits from new technologies.

Nothing is as easy as it looks like. Period.

Technology in the future will be a series of endless upgrades. Nothing is finished. Nothing is done.

No matter how it looks first, it is always a people* problem (* = process, people, organization). Yep, usually the things that make or break technologies are process, organization and people challenges.

Successful technologies are the ones we only notice when they don’t work. They have become invisible. We don't even call them technologies anymore. Just look around you in the room you are sitting in now.

The coolest and most disruptive technologies of all have not been invented yet.

What do you think?

When we are going to do something we have done before, we know what we don't know. 

We know where and why delays are likely to occur and we usually know what to do if something goes wrong. We can plan the steps ahead. In this world, clarity and process optimization is good.

Wicked or complex problems on the other hand are different. There is no one right answer. There are no agreement on what the problem really is. 

You face many stakeholders with conflicting objectives. No solutions are right or wrong. You can make the outcome better or worse, but you are never done. Forcing clarity in this world will inevitably hinder innovation.

Getting married is not complex, but having a happy marriage is. There is a manual for getting married. But there is no "best practice" for a happy marriage. It's the sum of many small parts which makes it difficult to make a detailed plan. You cannot copy someone else's work and expect the same results because no two complex problems are alike.

All the analysis, plans and methodologies used to build a car are useless if your problem is car traffic. A car slowing down will cause ripple effects in the traffic difficult to predict. The issue with traffic is not the cars, the buses, the bicycles, or the pedestrians. It is in the relationship between them.

Building the Titanic out of LEGO bricks is not complex. You can simply follow the instructions. The whole equals the sum of the parts.

What about development of digital products that you haven't built before, either at all or in your context?

Market conditions change. Technology is changing. People's behavior change. We don't quite know how we are going to do it. We don't know what people want. You don't know what you don't know until you do something and get feedback. That's when the actual development starts.

Leading in complexity calls for something other than plans and best practices. Sense what's happening. Get some data. Take small actions based on the data and see what happens. Learn from it. Do more of what works, and less of what don't. Find the small changes that have a large positive effect.

Easier said then done. We are humans and we fear uncertainty. When we face uncertainty, we often manufacture excuses for not getting started. We don't start walking until we find an approach that's guaranteed to work.

It's hard to say to your stakeholders that you don't know exactly if it will be a success, when it will be finished and what it will cost.

What we can do is to deliver something early and often and let people try it and give feedback. 

We can also share what we believe (our hypothesis), what we will do to verify it, how we will measure it, what we observed, what we learned from it and what we will do next based on that.

In complexity, how do you measure success? You get what you measure you know ...

Problems typically have multiple causes and can be addressed in many ways.

Frame the problem. Write down the problem you are trying to solve and list the people who are involved. Is the problem clear? Is a solution "baked into" the problem framing? How do you know the statement is true?

Then start to look outside the frame. What's missing from the current problem statement? Look beyond your own expertise. Avoid framing a problem to match whatever technique you are most proficient in. Look to prior events. Did something happen before the period of time you are looking at? Look for hidden influences. Are there higher-level, systemic factors at play that influence the people involved?

Rethink the goal. What is the goal you are trying to achieve and why? What would success look like? Are you pursuing the right goal? Is there a better goal to pursue? Are key assumptions actually true? What is the goal behind the goal?

Examine the bright spots to identify positive exceptions that can give you a new perspective on the problem, and even point you directly to a viable solution. When do we not have the problem? When was the problem less severe? Have the problem already been solved at least once? Who else deals with this type of problem? Who seems not to have this problem, even if they are in a similar situation? What are they doing differently?

Take a look in the mirror. What is my role in creating this problem? Is it possible that my (or our) own behavior is, on some level, contributing to the problem? Scale the problem down to your level. Is there a part of the problem I can do something about?

Take their perspective. Invest time in understanding other people. Discover how they see the world - and in particular, how they see it differently from you. What's their needs, emotions, and general point of view? What are their problems? Goals? Beliefs? What information do they have? There is often a reasonable explanation behind the actions of other people: something that you might have done too, had you been in their shoes.

Move forward. The last step in the reframing is to validate your framing through real-world testing. Describe the problem to stakeholders and get feedback. Get outsiders to help validate your problems. Test and find out if the problem is real or important enough for your stakeholders to really want to solve it.

At the end of a reframing, schedule time for a new one. 

The problem change over time. Repeat. 

Create routines and practice the mindset.

"What's your problem?" By Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg

On his sixty-eight birthday, Kevin Kelly decided to give his young adult children some advice. 

To his surprise, he had more to say than he thought, and he kept going until he had about 450 bits of advice he wished he'd known when he was younger. Timeless knowledge, advice he have heard from others mixed with his own experience.

Here are my favorite advice from Kevin's book which I may pass on to my children one day.

• Don't be afraid to ask a question that may sound stupid, because 99% of the time everyone else is thinking of the same question and is too embarrassed to ask it.
  
  
• The best way to learn something is to try to teach what you know.
  
  
• Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don't focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.
  
  
• Perhaps the most counterintuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you will get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.
  
  
• In all things - except love - start with the exit strategy. Prepare for the ending. Almost anything is easier to get into than out of.
  
  
• It is much easier to change how you think by changing your behavior than it is to change your behavior by changing how you think. Act out the change you seek.
  
  
• To succeed once, focus on the outcome; to keep succeeding, focus on the process that makes the outcome.
  
  
• The purpose of listening is not to reply, but to hear what is not being said.
  
  
• To get better at speaking, watch a recording of yourself speaking. It is shocking and painful, but an effective way to improve.
  
  
• Pay attention to who you are around when you feel your best. Be with them more often.
  
  
• Reading to your children regularly is the best school they will ever get.
  
  
• The biggest lie we tell ourselves is "I don't need to write this down because I will remember it".
  
  
• That thing that made you weird as a kid could make you great as an adult - if you don't lose it.
  
  
• When a child asks an endless string of "Why?" questions, the smartest reply is "I don't know, what do you think?"
  
  
• To write about something hard to explain, write a detailed letter to a friend about why it is so hard to explain and you will have a great first draft.
  
  
• To have a great trip, head toward an interest rather than to a place. Travel to passions rather than destinations.
  
  
• The natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance. What you own will eventually own you. Choose selectively.
  
  
• You can be whatever you want to be, so be the person who ends meetings early.
  

"Excellent Advice for Living" by Kevin Kelly