When people are pooled in specialized silos more process is required to get things done. Responsibility gets diffused and transaction and coordination costs go up because there are more handovers and sign-offs as work is passed around; more meetings are needed to keep people involved and informed, and it's more difficult to gather people together; it's more time consuming to chase people for responses. Work is stop-start. There's little flow and lots of waste.
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In the software world, budgets are mostly about headcount and capital expenditure. Headcount is managed by cost per unit, where a unit is a person considered to be more or less a uniform resource capable of producing fixed output. On a cost per unit basis maybe 100 people offshore are cheaper than 10 onshore. But in my experience, more people means more waste.
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One particular chart in the State of Agile survey for 2011 tells a familiar story. Have a look.
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There is no business without customers. The customer is the most important part of the value stream but Ackoff reminds us that an enduring commercial future requires the social system of stakeholders in a company to be taken into account. Deming said the aim for any company is for everybody to gain - shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment - over the long term. Shareholders expect maximum return on their investment. Successful business requires customers, forward thinking and innovation, sound economics and ever improving operational effectiveness. Customers want their problems solved, they want help to achieve whatever it is they’re doing. Employees wish for meaningful work with opportunities to learn and be creative in an enjoyable environment that provides job security. Suppliers desire a trusting and equitable partnership. Society wants to see ethical behavior, responsibility, and accountability.
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This post is really a sidebar to my musings about purpose and vision. It's reference information rather than any real thoughts of my own, which I've pulled together because I wanted to touch on the theories behind the positive feelings we experience when we have a sense of purpose and do meaningful work.
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Simon Sinek says, "people don't buy what you do, they buy [because of] why you do it." He argues that our brain is wired to start with why. We make decisions emotionally, subconsciously, and instinctively (based on the limbic system) and then justify our decisions and actions rationally, consciously and intellectually (based on the cerebral cortex). Despite this we're inclined to talk a lot about what and how and often not really mention why.
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The prevailing management (and financial) mindset in companies today is focused on efficiency, productivity, and costs. The primary concern is to maximize all assets and capabilities so that nothing sits idle. What this really means is keeping people working at 100% utilization.
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Without a system in place what do you do? You stroll out of your farmhouse door, walk down to the orchard and pick a luscious, ripe, red apple right off the tree. That was easy. And you got some exercise and fresh air too.
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We leap into solving problems with a system of our own design because we convince ourselves they do the job faster, better, and more easily than we can do it.
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Once something is large enough and puzzling enough to be designated a problem, we have a tendency to rush in, exaggerate its complexity and solve it with an overcomplicated system. The trouble is, complicated systems produce complicated responses to problems. They don't produce solutions. When the system doesn't do what we designed it to do, which it will, we push on it to make it work. But that doesn't work so we push it harder and harder and grow more anxious. Then we come crashing down. Not to worry. It's really not long before we're back with the urge to do it all over again. And again. And again.
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