rules, reactance & gaming
TRANSCRIPT
Rules, Reactance
&Gaming
@cgosimon
What is a rule?
Any instruction that restricts behaviour or limits
choices
Why do that?
1. When the interests of the people doing the work are known to be or believed to be unaligned with the those for whom the work is being done or tasked with managing the work
Like This
Rule based systems work best when coupled with a
parallel system that suppresses self esteem
Creating Robota
2. When the scale of the organisation is such that it is believed that local optimisations may be at odds with global optimisations
The expectation is that by following the rules the workers will create desirable system level
outcomes
And thus the outcomes can be managed through checking and enforcement to rule
compliance
(Bringing actions inline with intent)
The Problem
with Rules
Reactance
Speeding
The Intent of Speed Limits
Major contributing factor to road accidents
Contextually Appropriate Speeds:
Decrease Total Accidents
Reduce Severity of Accidents
Speed limits set according to total risk
Benefits only arise through compliance
What they’re going for
What they got
Radar
Radar Detector
Radar Detector Detector
Radar Detector Detector Detector
Radar DetectorDetectorDetectorDetector
This is getting silly
(Clearly radar is a dead end)
Lasers
Laser Jammer
http://www.dontgetcaught.com.au
Um, what was this all about again?
Reactance has shifted the Focus of the agent onto not
getting caught and “management” onto
catching them.
Time to try something new...
The Responsibility Process™
Thanks to Christopher Avery
Responsibility
JustificationLaying Blame
Denial
ObligationShame
(Is this going to make you buy a bigger car or a smaller car?)
I’m detecting a theme here - are they targeting a Tribe perhaps?
(Or did they create a tribe, by providing an enemy?)
Not only do we not have alignment
Everybody has lost sight of the goal
An alternate approach
Results?
Country Deaths per 100,000
Australia 7.98
UK 3.59
Postscript...
If your actions appear incongruous with your intent
Then the authenticity of your intent will be questioned
Gaming
“So I’ve raised The Velocity of my Team from 20 to 100, but the customer is still complaining that the
project is still going too slowly.
Do you think I should raise the Velocity to 150?
Do you think the Team can take that kind of pressure?”
Geeks love to solve puzzles and play games
It’s in their nature
Which problems do you want them to solve?
If you combine Reactance with Gaming, you get what people often
refer to as “Bad Behaviour”
Self Organise This!
Problem is...
Hyperproductivity?
All of this assumes that your rules made some kind of sense in the first place
The Absent Rulemaker
Creating a Cargo Cult
If Rules are so bad
Then why do we use them?
Well, they work pretty well here...
Simple(The Known)
Complicated(The Knowable)
Ordered Domains
Unor
dere
d Do
mai
ns
Disorder
Complex
Chaotic
Cause & EffectObvious, predictable& repeatable
Cause & EffectSeparated by space & time and/or requiring analysis or expertise
Cause & EffectOnly coherent in retrospect, but not repeatable
Cause & Effectnot perceivable
But our work isn’t simple...
Are you suffering
from Hero’s perhaps?
Gaming(Again)
Simple(The Known)
Complicated(The Knowable)
Ordered Domains
Unor
dere
d Do
mai
nsComplex
Chaotic
ContinuousImprovement
Guidelines to Goodness
Focus on Communication of Intent
(The Outcomes, not the Activities)
No, really(Marine Corp Doctrine states that each Marine should
be made aware not only of the intent of their commanding officer, but also of the intent of the
commander at least two levels up)
The importance of your intent is gauged by others relative to the perceived
personal cost to you required to relay the message
(expensive transactions)
Communicate Expensively
Don’t be afraid of Doctrine
(Doctrine is a framework within which Intent is more easily communicated)
Teach your Culture
Separate Communication (of intent)
from Commitment(to a course of action)
encouraging dissent in the middle
Develop Equanimity in Leadership
Use Decision Rules to assist Scale
(Separating the Logic of the Decision from the execution of the decision)
(Rules In Prevalence)
Limit your RIP
Acknowledge that rules have a carrying cost
Remove demotivators
Any rules you have should be as informational as they are directional
Stale rules should be abandoned
Assumptions should be challenged
Limiting RIP
Move from a robustness mindset(Trying to be perfect)
To a resilience mindset(Early detection and fast recovery)
Hire Humans
(Flip the culture bit)
And move from this...
To This...
Thanks!Simon Bennett @cgosimon
Managing PrincipalLASTing Benefits
