Really enjoyed the bloomberg interview. Strikes me that accountability sinks is such a vivid metaphor that it crowds out the rest of the insights. What would be the vivid metaphor for the other insights?
You could hear a mix of confusion and intense curiosity in the conversation. You could almost hear them lean in when you talked about the importance of information theory over optimization...
> But in my view, if there’s going to be any real chance of success for cybernetic ideas in the mainstream, it’s going to be based on the very simplest version
My next book (half-written) will be based on VSM but approached workshop-style. Most radically, the approach is not to model the organisation at all, which as Beer acknowledges in Diagnosing scales badly, and it privileges a singular viewpoint in a way that may not be helpful in a complex setting. Instead, in a participatory process, it uses VSM as a framework by which people make sense of their experiences of the organisation. Relational imbalances, shared constraints, and motivation for change bubble up through dialogue.
Three months later, I have a decent complete draft now. If I could persuade you to give it a read (I should say that you're mentioned a couple of times), could you drop me a line at mike.burrows@positiveincline.com? Thanks :-)
I'm working through the recently published https://itrevolution.com/product/flow-engineering/ which explicitly acknowledges cybernetics as an inspiration. The cyberneticians seem to be having a moment!
(fortunately not an academically priced book) is the closest to a solution.
He talks about how leaders, by giving control of an area and letting those with the information make the decisions, you can improve outcomes. And as I keep saying to anyone who will listen, he has implemented this on a nuclear submarine, so how much more can we do this when making software that does everyday tasks?
On the vexed question of implementation, I have only just been made aware that Germany has made plans to deal with its reputation for excessive bureaucracy ... by introducing legislation to reduce bureaucracy (Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz), the Bureaucracy Relief Act IV. So there must be Bureaucracy Relief Acts I, II, and III that I have hitherto overlooked. Fourth time's the charm. I don't know which bureaucrats will administer the de-bureaucratization, and I do wonder whether the information balance sheet has been properly balanced. There is also some blame cast on the EU, which of course has never before been influenced in any way by Germany itself.
Really enjoyed the bloomberg interview. Strikes me that accountability sinks is such a vivid metaphor that it crowds out the rest of the insights. What would be the vivid metaphor for the other insights?
I don't currently know although I'm trying to work on it!
You could hear a mix of confusion and intense curiosity in the conversation. You could almost hear them lean in when you talked about the importance of information theory over optimization...
> But in my view, if there’s going to be any real chance of success for cybernetic ideas in the mainstream, it’s going to be based on the very simplest version
My next book (half-written) will be based on VSM but approached workshop-style. Most radically, the approach is not to model the organisation at all, which as Beer acknowledges in Diagnosing scales badly, and it privileges a singular viewpoint in a way that may not be helpful in a complex setting. Instead, in a participatory process, it uses VSM as a framework by which people make sense of their experiences of the organisation. Relational imbalances, shared constraints, and motivation for change bubble up through dialogue.
that sounds much more, to coin a phrase, viable (and I guess it's more in the spirit of Later Stafford, team syntegrity[tm] and the like.
Three months later, I have a decent complete draft now. If I could persuade you to give it a read (I should say that you're mentioned a couple of times), could you drop me a line at mike.burrows@positiveincline.com? Thanks :-)
I'm working through the recently published https://itrevolution.com/product/flow-engineering/ which explicitly acknowledges cybernetics as an inspiration. The cyberneticians seem to be having a moment!
Really interesting !
Reminds me of Give Control and Create Leaders - David Marquet in Turn The Ship Aroundl
https://davidmarquet.com/turn-the-ship-around-book/
(fortunately not an academically priced book) is the closest to a solution.
He talks about how leaders, by giving control of an area and letting those with the information make the decisions, you can improve outcomes. And as I keep saying to anyone who will listen, he has implemented this on a nuclear submarine, so how much more can we do this when making software that does everyday tasks?
On the vexed question of implementation, I have only just been made aware that Germany has made plans to deal with its reputation for excessive bureaucracy ... by introducing legislation to reduce bureaucracy (Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz), the Bureaucracy Relief Act IV. So there must be Bureaucracy Relief Acts I, II, and III that I have hitherto overlooked. Fourth time's the charm. I don't know which bureaucrats will administer the de-bureaucratization, and I do wonder whether the information balance sheet has been properly balanced. There is also some blame cast on the EU, which of course has never before been influenced in any way by Germany itself.
https://www.bmj.de/DE/themen/buerokratieabbau_rechtsetzung/buerokratieabbau/buerokratieabbau_node.html