sea of systems
DESCRIPTION
A handy guide to systems thinking and organizational learning in ITTRANSCRIPT
Sea of Systems
A Handy Guide to Organizational
Learning and Systems Thinking in IT
By James Van Wood
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If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long
for the endless immensity of the sea...
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Gene Bellinger, founder of systems wiki and director of Systems Thinking World, summarizes Sea of Systems: “I reviewed James's "Sea of Systems" and found it to be a very well-written introduction to systems thinking tailored to Information Technology environments. The document is quite well structured and written though what makes it most useful is that rather than trying to cover too much about systems thinking it focuses on a few aspects and their explicit relevance to Information Technology environments. In this way the reader very quickly gets a sense of the relevance of systems thinking without being inundated with a lot of material which might overwhelm them and turn them off. For those in an Information Technology environment not familiar with systems thinking the paper is well-worth the read. A point with which it is expected you will agree by the end”. That is the essence of what I have created, a guide that offers an introduction to systems thinking, which is easily digested by any role in IT and useful without being too heavy. The 2013 edition of Sea of Systems builds on the 2011 edition with enhanced and expanded explanations of Deming cycle, reflection, system archetypes, systemic mapping and systems thinking.
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Table of Contents
Intended Audience .................................................................................................................. 6
Requisite Knowledge ............................................................................................................... 6
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... 6
Foreword................................................................................................................................ 7
Loving Life in the Sea of Systems ............................................................................................. 10
1. Pitfalls .............................................................................................................................. 12
1.2. Moving Forward = Slowing Down .................................................................................. 14
1.3. Developing Sustainability in IT ....................................................................................... 14
1.4. Developing a Learning Culture in IT ................................................................................ 16
1.4.1. Learning From Mistakes ......................................................................................... 17
1.4.2. Understanding the Greater Holistic View .................................................................. 18
1.4.3. Recognizing Patterns Throughout Systems ............................................................... 18
1.5 A Brief Introduction to the Systems Paradigm in IT ........................................................... 19
1.5.1. Context – New Back-up System ............................................................................... 20
1.5.2 What Does Systems Thinking Tell Us About the Upgrade? ........................................... 20
1.5.3 Fit for Purpose Back-up System ................................................................................ 21
1.5.4 The Unanticipated Effect of Demand ........................................................................ 21
1.5.5 Intrinsic Organizational Complexity .......................................................................... 23
1.5.6 Lesson Learned ...................................................................................................... 23
1.6 A Brief Introduction to the System Archetypes ................................................................. 24
1.6.1 The System Archetypes of IT .................................................................................... 25
1.7 Balancing Process with Delay ......................................................................................... 26
1.8 Shifting the Burden ....................................................................................................... 26
1.8.1 Lesson Learned ...................................................................................................... 28
1.9 Fixes that Fail ............................................................................................................... 29
1.9.1 Lesson Learned ...................................................................................................... 32
1.9 A Better Approach ........................................................................................................ 32
1.9.1 Mapping out systemic influences ............................................................................. 33
1.9.2 Inside-out → Outside-in .......................................................................................... 34
1.10 The Importance of the Systems Paradigm in Innovation .................................................. 35
1.11 Reflection .................................................................................................................. 35
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2. Innovation......................................................................................................................... 38
2.1. The Changing Role of Management ............................................................................... 40
2.2 Transforming IT by Enabling Innovation ― a Case Study .................................................... 42
2.2.1. Context ................................................................................................................ 42
2.2.2. Innovative Potential ............................................................................................... 43
2.2.3. Enabling by Participative Initiatives .......................................................................... 44
2.2.4. Expected & Unexpected Benefits ............................................................................. 46
2.2.5. Lesson Learned ..................................................................................................... 46
2.2.6. Systems Thinking Exercise ...................................................................................... 47
2.3. Developing the Innovative IT Management Style ............................................................. 49
2.3.1. Time to Rethink Innovation ..................................................................................... 49
2.3.2. Innovation the New Power of the People ................................................................. 50
2.3.3. Are Your IT Managers Enabling Innovation? .............................................................. 51
2.3.4. The New Objective for Innovative IT Managers ......................................................... 51
3. Leverage ........................................................................................................................... 53
3.1. Sustained Competitive Advantage ................................................................................. 55
3.2. Proverbial Foot Shooting (Limits to Growth) ................................................................... 56
3.3. The Learning & Living IT Organization............................................................................. 57
3.3.1. Team Learning ...................................................................................................... 59
3.3.2. Shared Visions ....................................................................................................... 60
3.3.3. Mental Models ...................................................................................................... 60
3.3.4. Personal Mastery ................................................................................................... 61
3.3.5. Systems Thinking ................................................................................................... 62
3.4 Understanding IBM's Three Roles for CIO Success ............................................................ 63
3.4.1. Driving Technology Innovation to Make it Reality ...................................................... 64
3.4.2 Raising the ROI in IT ................................................................................................ 64
3.4.3. Expanding the Business Impact of IT ........................................................................ 65
3.5. How to Tackle IT? ........................................................................................................ 66
3.5.1 Kick-off .................................................................................................................. 67
3.5.2 Personal Mastery = Personal Choice ......................................................................... 67
3.5.3 Engage Shared Visions ............................................................................................ 67
3.5.4 Focus on Team Learning .......................................................................................... 68
3.5.5 Upgrade Mental Models .......................................................................................... 68
3.5.6 Understanding Interconnectedness .......................................................................... 68
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4. Outcome Through Orchestration ......................................................................................... 70
4.1. Bringing it all Together ................................................................................................. 71
4.1.1. The Big Picture ...................................................................................................... 73
4.1.2. How to Use PDCA Effectively ................................................................................... 74
4.2. Organizational Learning and Systems Thinking ― Foundation ........................................... 75
4.3. Change-Platform ― Change .......................................................................................... 75
4.4. Participative Initiatives ― Focus .................................................................................... 77
4.5. IBM's Three Roles ― Balance ........................................................................................ 77
5. Phased Approach ............................................................................................................... 79
5.1. Phase One ― Increasing Business Focus ......................................................................... 80
5.1.1. Responsive Indicators ............................................................................................ 81
5.1.2. Responsive Symptoms............................................................................................ 81
5.1.3. Phase one Focus on IBM's Key Roles ........................................................................ 82
5.2. Phase Two ― Increasing IT Value ................................................................................... 83
5.2.1. Aligned Indicators .................................................................................................. 83
5.2.2. Aligned Symptoms ................................................................................................. 84
5.2.3. Phase two Focus on IBM's Key Roles ........................................................................ 84
5.3. Phase Three ― Increasing Innovation ............................................................................. 85
5.3.1 Enabled Indicators .................................................................................................. 85
5.3.2. Enabled Symptoms ................................................................................................ 86
5.3.3. Phase three Focus on IBM's Key Roles ...................................................................... 86
6. Building our Ship ................................................................................................................ 88
Index .................................................................................................................................... 90
Useful Links .......................................................................................................................... 94
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Intended Audience
Sea of Systems is aimed at the CIO, CTO and IT Executive level, as well as at IT Managers and Professionals working within type I and II service provider1 organizations or IT organizations that provide services to clients within the same organization or group. However, the examples, concepts and ideas expressed throughout the guide may be used in a wide variety of organizations and situations and indeed may benefit a far greater and larger audience than intended.
Requisite Knowledge
Sea of Systems assumes a minimum requisite knowledge of ITIL® V3, PRINCE2® or PMBOK® Foundation, as a result not all terms and methods are explained in detail.
Acknowledgments
Author / Editor James Wood, National Australia Bank, Australia Co-readers & Reviewers – 2013 Gene Bellinger, Systems Thinking World, USA Co-readers & Reviewers – 2011 Alfredo Moscardini, The University of Sunderland, UK Christopher Van Eenoo, Commonwealth Bank, Australia Gene Bellinger, Systems Thinking World, USA Gary Franks, Melbourne Water, Australia Nicolas Stampf, BNP Paribas, France Zdenek Kaplan, Ceska pojistovna, Czech Republic
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. May 23 2013.
1 Type I & II service provider refers to standard ITIL® V3 terms, where a type I service provider provisions services within one Business unit or department and a type II service provider provisions services to more than one Business unit within the same organization or group (a shared service). Type III service providers are not featured in this guide, they operate externally and provision services to multiple external customers.
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Foreword
In business and governance, the environment of the 21st century is observably different to what it was even ten years ago. We are seeing the beginnings of a true global economy where all parts of the economic infrastructure are interconnected. Small events in distant countries can affect events throughout the world. Countries, even the most advanced Western nations, can no longer act in isolation. In a chaotic world, the effect of minor events is no longer confined to one nation or company. Small events are just as likely to produce very large effects and even threaten stability. A new perception of the world, its problems and solutions, is needed to manage and govern a country or region or a business efficiently. Different skills and procedures are necessary to facilitate development in this worldwide context. The urgency of the situation is highlighted by the dependency of organizations on advisory bodies and consultancies. But the same problems are endemic amongst consultants. All consultants work to a paradigm–a set of shared beliefs. There have been several major paradigms in the Western world over the centuries. The work of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle was the basis for the Greek paradigm, which was adopted by the Romans and when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, the Christian Church then spread throughout Europe. A paradigm shift occurred in the 17th century, which led to the classical or scientific paradigm, which has lasted for almost four hundred years and is still the dominant paradigm of today. This paradigm rests on the work of two great scientists–Descartes and Newton. The scientific method of Descartes introduced analytic thinking. This proposed that to understand a problem, one could break it down to its many components, each component could be solved independently and the total solution can be obtained by combining each component solution. This is often called reductionism. Newton followed the work of Descartes with his study of motion and co-invention of the calculus with Leibniz. He proposed laws, which were thought to be universal and eternal. Thus Newton's ideas led to what was called 'Determinism'. What came to be known as the Classical, Scientific or Newtonian paradigm was a deterministic, linear, reductionist view of the world, which believed
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in perfect harmony, equilibrium and eternal immutable laws. These laws could be verified through repeated experiments by a neutral observer. Although the paradigm was devised for the study of physics, it was adopted by other disciplines including economics. One consequence of this mechanistic, reductionist paradigm was the separation of knowledge into separate disciplines which eventually led to the concept of an 'expert' that has persisted for the last century. Till now, the Scientific method has been the established approach for problem solving. 'The scientific method is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate (that is reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary) representation of the world'. The scientific method is relevant to business processes and practices and can provide useful modeling techniques. However new types of problems that are increasingly complex are evolving. They are problems that appear to require a different approach using a different set of tools. Systems thinking revolves around the idea of a system which can loosely be described as a set of objects that have a common purpose. In many ways, as will be seen, it is the antithesis to Scientific thinking although we believe that both can co-exist. Systems theory is also associated with Cybernetics, which can be defined as the control and regulation in the animal and the machine―referring to the interaction between brains and other kinds of systems. Its central tenet is that the way an organization is organized will affect its behavior. The principal aim of an organization is to survive, most often in a hostile environment. To do this, it must be organized in a certain way. The choice of which way is that of the Viable Systems Model. The systems paradigm differs from the scientific paradigm in the sense that it treats the system as a whole and does not rely on the analytic procedures of the former. In this new paradigm, it is the connections between the parts that take precedence over the parts themselves. The behavior of the whole is certainly more than the sum of its parts. Another critical variable is 'purpose.' The scientific paradigm was based on the belief that parts of the system, whilst having their individual functions, did not have independent purposes. This mechanistic view of systems encouraged Leibniz in his definition of 'windowless monads'. In contrast to this, the new systems paradigm is based on the premise that each part of the system has its own purpose but this cannot be achieved independently of the purpose of the whole.
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According to Ackoff, an entity is purposeful if it can produce: 1. The same outcome in different ways in the same environment and 2. Different outcomes in the same or different environment The systems paradigm has been defined in various ways but there are certain key elements, which exist in various degrees of importance, in all definitions including: interconnectedness, holism, homeostasis, feedback, recursion, and variety. The Sea of Systems guide to systems thinking in IT offers a practical guide to the systems paradigm, which can be used to build a solid foundation for future development of IT organizations. It also provides an introduction to the new paradigm of organizational learning in the workplace as a way to develop and sustain a competitive advantage in IT. Professor Alfredo Moscardini Sunderland, Great Britain, June 2011
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Loving Life in the Sea of Systems
Thank you for downloading Sea of Systems! It allows me to share a refreshingly different way to see the world, a way that is more natural, more aligned and just downright more commonsense than what we have been led to believe. Because when we want to find out how something works we believe we must take it apart. We do it all the time, it's second nature, starting right back at high school, when we learned how to dissect a frog to discover its inner workings. In the office for instance, what do we do with big problems? We split them up into smaller problems, making them easier to manage, analyze and keep under control. "Let's take this thing apart", "let's get to the bottom of it", "let's sort ourselves out first before we tackle the rest", "let's take it a piece at a time". All familiar sayings, I know I hear them almost every day, and I'm sure you do too. What's wrong with that you might ask? Makes sense, don't want to bite off more than we can chew. Well it's not so much about throughput as it is about perspective, because when we cut things up into manageable chunks we lose their cohesive purpose and we lose their perspective in relation to the whole. We risk losing our perspective on the world, because everything has
become compartmentalized, we go to work and play a role, we come
home and play another role, now I'm doing this, now I'm doing something
else, this isn't the time or place for it, everything must be in its place,
where it belongs. Is it this or is it that? We pigeonhole and categorize just
about everything.
Of course the paradox is that today we are more connected than we ever
have been, and we know we can no longer act in isolation. Yet our existing
toolset is based on antiquated principles and thinking that is hundreds of
years old, I'm referring here to "modern" scientific thinking and
reductionism, which is our default method for dealing with just about
everything―take it apart and let's see.
Somewhere locked away deep inside us there's a belief that if we pull
things apart until we find their smallest little components, we will finally
come to understand how they work. The central tenet of systems thinking
tells us the opposite is closer to the truth, because in order to discover how
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something works we must understand how it interacts with its
environment. It's all connected, it's as simple as that.
You begin to see now that this is about changing our minds and changing
our behaviors, it is making the necessary shift in thinking to be able to act
consistently and appropriately with our environment and with the sea of
systems that surrounds us every day.
James Wood FBCS CITP Melbourne, Australia, May 2013
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1. Pitfalls
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There are many pitfalls when it comes to organizational learning. As Peter M Senge explains in The Fifth Discipline, these pitfalls are called learning disabilities and in particular those of IT are often too great to overcome without a systemic and systematic approach. Quite often we think of learning as something that happens to individuals. As children we grow up attending schools to learn individually, as adults we attend training courses to improve our knowledge and skills, again mostly as individuals, sometimes it is our curriculum vitae that benefits the most. Indeed, sometimes learning is used for individual advantage, and indeed sometimes people withhold knowledge in order to benefit from it personally. Let's face it knowledge kingdoms are rife in IT and where knowledge equals power they will prevail. To complicate matters we have invented terms like 'intellectual property' and 'copyright', doing so we have inadvertently caught ourselves in a knowledge struggle, which has its most stubborn entrenchment in IT. It requires a systemic and systematic approach to organizational learning to win that battle. How many IT organizations can boast such an approach to organizational learning? Not many, at least from what I have seen, they are usually far too busy in the trenches for that. There are flavors of organizational learning in certain IT disciplines, for instance, PRINCE2® or PMBOK® project management methodologies and Agile Development benefit from organizational learning. But they fail to address the systemic approach, because as we know these disciplines do not encompass whole IT organizations. We need learning gains in all areas of IT, not just in project delivery and development silos moreover, nowadays these areas tend to be outsourced, so how to extend the benefits of organizational learning throughout an IT organization? I would like to make it clear that the knowledge-driven workplace is not about individual knowledge nor learning, it is about the 'collective knowledge' of the organization―where the workplace becomes empowered by the organizational learning environment that surrounds it.
The pitfalls of organizational learning are often exacerbated by the subconscious mind and without applying a systemic and systematic approach it can be difficult to achieve the required mental-shift throughout an organization
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1.2. Moving Forward = Slowing Down
However much we all enjoy the dynamics of a fast-moving IT support environment, and some environments are so fast that there simply isn't time to think—we should acknowledge the fact that it is becoming more and more important to slowdown. We have achieved many things, resolved a lot of incidents, provided services above and beyond the call of duty, but as Aristotle once said, 'the purpose of action is contemplation'. To move forward we need to slowdown and we need to change the way in which IT is working. I am not referring to revamping our ITIL® processes nor kicking off a Six Sigma program, I am referring to the way we work and learn together in IT. It is when we slowdown and take time for reflection that we begin to see systemic patterns of behavior throughout IT systems as opposed to isolated strings of events that often lead to symptomatic or partial problem resolution. The complexity involved in today's organizations and business models has reached a level of intrinsic interconnectedness that we have not seen before. There is no indication that this complexity will plateau or decrease in coming years, so in IT we need to prepare by introducing a systems thinking approach to help us orchestrate and manage the escalating complexity. We must understand all the interrelationships and connections between our systems and between our systems and the whole.
To move forward we must slowdown and develop a systems thinking approach throughout IT as a foundation for future development
1.3. Developing Sustainability in IT
No matter how good the service is and no matter how well the service appears to be meeting demand, sooner or later the laws of system dynamics will come into play and causal loop feedback will catch up with us. Quite simply put: 'it can't last forever'.
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In the above services system model acceptable service quality is limited by capacity, ultimately having an adverse effect on provisioning the service, for instance, not being able to fulfill agreed service levels. No matter how hard the service provider strives to fulfill their obligations, sooner or later the services system model will grind to a halt. In a large service organization that doesn’t benefit from an integrated demand management system this kind of systemic problem can be very difficult to pinpoint let alone resolve. Before action can be taken to resolve the problem the client may well have just moved on. That is the advantage of service on demand, the ability to flex up and down as required. We need systems thinking to understand and to provision with the flexibility that not only matches market demand but leads it. When we observe the world through the often intricate and subtle nuances of systems we start to understand sustainability and just how tenuous the world of service provisioning really is. Another important aspect to consider is that the competitive edge gained through good services may not be enough to sustain an IT organization. Quite often the only solution is to outsource those services that appear to be causing the most pain for the Business2
. Good products, services and processes are portable, they can be provided cheaper and often in higher quality by leveraging the scale of an IT Outsourcer. This may or may not be the right solution and no matter how good the IT Outsourcer is they may only ever address the symptoms of the underlying learning disabilities that hinder sustainability, thereby potentially becoming
2 Business in the context of this guide refers to the greater collective Business organization including: HR, Risk, Compliance, Finance, Company Services, Organization and other group or shared services apart from IT
Acceptable
Service Quality
Demand for
Service
Capacity
of Service
Provider
Balancing / Limiting Growing / Reinforcing
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negatively systemically reinforced in both organizations, customer and service provider―a recipe for disaster. Outsourcing may defer the cost and risk of providing IT services in-house, but it doesn't address organizational learning nor systems thinking. On the contrary it may have a detrimental impact with far-reaching consequences for both organizations, which may continue to plague the value proposition of IT far into the future. The laws of system dynamics and a lack of systems thinking sometimes lead to the downfall of IT organizations. The 'Four Ps' of the ITIL® service management framework (People, Processes, Products, Partners), help IT organizations to design new services aligned with Business requirements, but they do not necessarily help IT organizations to develop sustainability. With the ITIL® service management framework, just like PRINCE2® or PMBOK® project management methodologies or Agile Development, the intention is certainly there, but they fail to address the fundamental learning disabilities that prevent organizational learning and systems thinking from taking place and thus developing true sustainability. If an IT organization cannot keep up with the rate of change it will fall behind. In today's global economy, products, services, core and non-core IT and Business processes can all be copied. Organizational Learning cannot. It has become perfectly plausible that Organizational Learning is the only way to create a truly sustained competitive advantage. Moreover, an IT organization's ability to learn faster, smarter and better than its competitors may be the only determining factor in its future success.
The ability to learn faster, smarter and better than the competition must become a high priority for every CIO and technology leader
1.4. Developing a Learning Culture in IT
As people we tend to pick up bad habits along the way, but when an IT organization picks up bad habits it can be disastrous. The kinds of bad habits that are particularly perilous are those influencing an IT organization's ability to learn as a whole organization.
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Having an excellent grasp of organizational learning can only help, especially if the IT organization has aspirations of providing a long-term partnership with the Business based on sustainable IT service delivery. Better to forge that partnership healthily and cleanly than to be faced with a major clean-up or outsourcing project later on, or even worse―missing out on Business opportunities through an organizational culture that does not nurture and support their development. Organizational culture in IT as in any other organization 'just happens'; it can be a good culture, a bad culture, a fear culture, a blame culture, a mediocre culture―but there will always be a culture. Culture can be nurtured for the better for all involved if there is a concerted effort on the part of those involved to do so. Rather like belief - we all believe in something - if somebody's belief is good and positive, then fine; but if that person stops believing in good and positive things, then their belief will become dominated with negativity and darkness, it will just happen that way.
For an IT organization that is developing it is important to implant commendable and 'good' systemic habits into its organizational culture, habits that support and nurture an open approach to learning as a whole
1.4.1. Learning From Mistakes
Using mistakes as an opportunity to learn as a whole IT organization and not as a means to punish, this is the basis for building a successful learning culture in IT: It is important to understand why mistakes are made and to quickly
and effectively elevate that knowledge to the whole IT organization Open learning sessions should be used to disseminate that knowledge,
the goal is to institutionalize the open learning approach and to quickly upgrade skills across IT to avoid a recurrence of the same mistakes
By learning from mistakes in this way we are able to support and nurture an IT culture that is not averse to risk taking and therefore more open to experimentation and developing innovation, whilst taking appropriate measures to manage risk
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We also institutionalize a way to mitigate the risk of a further recurrence of the same mistakes throughout the IT organization
1.4.2. Understanding the Greater Holistic View
Understanding the holistic view within the wider frame of the greater Business organization should always be paramount: We understand the concept of de-fragmentation and de-duplication of
data, yet we seldom understand the concept of systems thinking in IT Business organizations consist of a complex set of systems that are
ultimately designed to serve one purpose (to survive) IT organizations usually consist of a complex set of services designed
to serve the purposes of individual Business systems What has happened here is that we have intrinsically introduced
fragmentation into the approach of IT This limits an IT organization's ability to serve the one purpose of the
Business Until we can achieve a true systems thinking approach at all levels in
the IT organization we cannot serve the Business
1.4.3. Recognizing Patterns Throughout Systems
Recognizing patterns of events that recur within whole systems as opposed to isolated individual episodes is fundamental in making real progress: Decisions made in Business organizations often have far-reaching
consequences that we rarely understand in IT
Given that a Business organization is like a living ecosystem we should realize that its interconnecting complexity cannot be simply fragmented into individual Business systems, without possessing a 'complete' and whole understanding of how the ecosystem thrives
To be truly effective IT organizations must start to recognize the
patterns of events that take place throughout Business organizations This goes hand in hand with slowing down and understanding systems
thinking
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The aim is to help the greater Business organization to understand the recurring negative systemic patterns and to eradicate them permanently
If this sounds a little foreign to you: don't worry it will become much clearer as we continue to explore the sea of systems.
The ultimate goal is to create an IT culture that is based on understanding the intrinsic interconnectedness of the sea of systems throughout the whole Business organization
1.5 A Brief Introduction to the Systems Paradigm in IT
Throughout the guide the terms systems paradigm and systems thinking are referred to, the following Back-up System example helps in making the mental-shift required for a good understanding. The following example may be an over-simplification but it is effective and can be applied to much more complicated and demanding systems challenges. Often in IT the intrinsic interconnectedness of the systems environment and the greater Business organization is underestimated, the systems paradigm helps to improve our broader holistic understanding by teaching us:
1+1+1+1 = 4 9 Gene Bellinger, founder of Systems Wiki and Systems Thinking World, goes further to say that 1+1+1+1 = Surprise! It is not until we map-out the relevant systemic influences that we can begin to predict what effects they might have on the system.
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1.5.1. Context – New Back-up System
Due to asset life-cycle renewal an existing Back-up System was upgraded to the latest version of computer hardware (HW) and software (SW). As the upgrade didn't involve any functional changes to business applications, a non-functional business analyst conducted the preliminary study and the upgrade was carried out by the infrastructure support group. Business Users were notified about the change and it was scheduled and successfully completed within a normal weekend upgrade window.
1.5.2 What Does Systems Thinking Tell Us About the Upgrade?
At first sight there appear to be four components that comprise the new Back-up System.
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4
However, after considering a systems thinking approach we may draw the picture again.
1 + 1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 = 9 Media
Web
Application Server
Database
Back-up
Application
Back-up
Media
Web
Application Server
Database
Back-up
Application
Back-up
Media
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With systems thinking the interconnections between the components of a system and between the system and other systems become equally and in some cases more important than the system's constituent components alone
1.5.3 Fit for Purpose Back-up System
With the upgrade and testing completed successfully the new Back-up System was declared fit for purpose and handed-over to operations. From Tuesday through to Friday at 18:00 the Back-up Application produces an incremental back-up of the Database. It takes 30 minutes to complete and finishes before the official end of day processing at 19:00. The new Back-up System turned out to be twice as fast as the old one and the new version of the SW introduced functionality that was not previously available―as the upgrade was considered 'infrastructure' the uplifts in performance and functionality were neither discussed with nor communicated to the Business.
1.5.4 The Unanticipated Effect of Demand
After a few weeks of normal operation a group of Finance users discovered that the new system provided an accurate source of intraday data when they accessed the Web Application Server at 18:15, and by running a complex set of queries were able to determine daily profit margins before the official end of day processing started, previously they would not have had access to that data before the start of the next business day. Word soon spread from Finance to Sales & Marketing and before long the demand for intraday reports had escalated enough to affect the performance of the new system impacting its Service Level Agreement (SLA), utility and warranty3.
3 In the ITIL® service management framework 'Utility' refers to the features of a service and 'Warranty' refers to the conditions of its provisioning
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Using a different system model we can illustrate the impact of escalating user demand on the SLA of the Back-up System, leading to performance degradation that rendered the Back-up System unfit for purpose.
The performance of the new Back-up System together with the enhanced functionality provided by the new SW, created an enhanced system utility, which after time (delay), attracted Business Users and inadvertently led to impacting the system's agreed SLA and warranty through performance degradation.
Reports
Performance
of Back-up
System
Finance Reports
Sales &
Marketing
Benefit A
Benefit B
Gains
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
The system model illustrates a pattern of
behavior. Notice that all the interactions
in the pattern are positive.
This particular pattern is called 'tragedy
of the commons' and the tragedy comes
from the fact that every party involved in
the system is positive.
That is until the common resource, in this
case system performance, is completely
depleted.
New System
SLA
Meeting
The SLA
Business
Users
User Demand Performance
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1.5.5 Intrinsic Organizational Complexity
In terms of intrinsic organizational complexity the ramifications were much farther reaching than just one or two Business units, Compliance and Internal Audit were also involved. Using an unofficial source of intraday data to calculate daily profit margins violated financial management code and led to an infringement of standard practice, which could have been construed as fraud if escalated to a regulatory authority. What started out to be an innocuous and above all 'successful' infrastructure upgrade, proved to have far-reaching and hazardous consequences. The original business justification for the upgrade was never questioned and although it was initially considered to be a success the additional cost of post implementation scope-creep was estimated to be at least 40 people-days excluding Compliance and Internal Audit.
1.5.6 Lesson Learned
The events surrounding the post implementation phase of the Back-up System upgrade stretched out over a period of two months and preoccupied two external service providers and five Business units. If a systems thinking approach had been used to map out the systemic influences and organizational complexity of the upgrade at the outset, considerable time and effort could have been averted, not to mention operational and reputation risk. The pattern of behavior within the system soon spread throughout the organization and it most likely would have continued spreading if remained unchecked. It would have led to many people becoming frustrated at the apparent positive change that over time became much worse than the original-status. When there are multiple interdependencies and interfaces with other systems throughout an organization it pays to map out all of the systemic influences and model all possible impacts using a system model and well-thought out scenarios.
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Quite often the good merits of our limited actions within a complex systems environment can compromise systems' integrity and due to intrinsic interconnectedness and complexity it can be extremely difficult to correctly identify root causes
1.6 A Brief Introduction to the System Archetypes
The systems paradigm and systems thinking provide a new way of describing and communicating in the intrinsic interconnectedness of the sea of systems. The more we begin to explore our world through systems the more we come recognize the patterns of behavior and rules of those systems. Just as there are different cultures and patterns of behavior around the world there are patterns of system archetypes that are prevalent throughout our organizations. How many times have you heard people say 'we make the same mistakes over'? Why is that and why do we allow it happen? More often than not an examination of the underlying behavior will reveal patterns that recur throughout the organization. It is because the organization is governed by the system archetypes that are at play. With the 'Fit for Purpose Back-up System' example the pattern of behavior or system archetype was 'tragedy of the commons', where the behavior led to the inevitable depletion of the new system’s performance. The first step in shedding any light on the situation must come from understanding the intrinsic interconnectedness by mapping out the relevant systemic influences that impact our systems. To further complicate matters the systemic influences tend to have different consequences over time.
It is rather like having good peripheral vision. In the past I have enjoyed the sport of mountain biking, and as any mountain biker will know, there is nothing like finding a beautiful winding single-track to explore. During fast descents and longer grueling ascents sometimes the focus on getting either down or up can make the goal so important that it becomes an all-encompassing object. Occasionally single-track leads into wooded areas and the trees get closer knit, peripheral vision becomes more important so as not to get knocked-off the bike by low hanging branches to the left or right. I can recall several 'wipe-outs' occurring when I misjudged low hanging branches as the
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gradient of the hill changed over time. What looked doable 10 yards away suddenly became an impassable trap. It gave a whole new meaning to the metaphor of 'seeing the forest'. The archetype of 'determined mountain biker' occasionally cost me a few cuts and bruises and new riding shorts in collateral damage for achieving the objective. I was lucky, some mountain bikers are not so fortunate and the price paid can be very high indeed.
1.6.1 The System Archetypes of IT
There are nine well-known system archetypes that have been defined by systems thinkers the first five are featured in this guide: Balancing process with delay – systems that experience sluggishness or
degradation after time
Limits to growth – systems that are limited by internal restrictions
Shifting the burden – it is what happens when management teams use symptomatic problem solving
Tragedy of the commons – exploitation of a resource until it becomes scarce or endangered
Fixes that fail – applied fixes have short-term benefits however regress over the longer-term
Growth and underinvestment – an example is underfunded production capacity or underinvestment into IT
Eroding goals – reducing standards in order to meet goals
Escalation – a defensive stance is taken to fend off a misperceived aggressor
Success to successful – successful assets tend to be in demand, often at
the detriment of other assets For the purposes of this guide I have restricted the further explanation of the system archetypes to the first five, as they are used in specific examples especially poignant for IT today.
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1.7 Balancing Process with Delay
In the 'Fit for Purpose Back-up System' example the other system archetype at play was a 'balancing process with delay'. The new system had an increased utility thanks to the upgrade, which after some time (delay), started to attract users' attention, which inadvertently caused a balancing loop, which eventually affected the system's warranty and impacted the agreed SLA. The effects to the system changed in time and eventually rendered the system unfit for purpose. This happened in the space of several weeks, many such system archetypes affect systems over many years.
1.8 Shifting the Burden
Another system archetype that is particularly prevalent in IT organizations is 'shifting the burden'. It is what happens when management teams focus on solving the symptoms of problems as opposed to working out the fundamental solutions. Agile development, which uses an iterative method for achieving rapid development, may appear to support improving time-to-market. But it doesn't necessarily solve the lack of business domain knowledge within the role of Business Analyst, which leads to incomplete business requirements and project 'scope-creep' that ultimately increases time-to-market. In the following example, which is based on a real life situation, a financial services organization struggled to launch new products in line with their marketing commitments. The head of the Project Management Office (PMO) was given a task by the Executive Committee (ExCo) to 'fix' the problem, from a scorecard point of view it was mainly in the project space, scope-creep and missing deadlines.
New System
SLA
Meeting
The SLA
Business
Users
User Demand Performance
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The PMO head was on a roll, he had just taken over the post and had already made several improvements. The ExCo mandate was to reduce time-to-market and after a brief analysis a decision to go with Agile was made. In his previous job the PMO had successfully implemented Agile, it was his crowning glory before he left to take on the new role at the Bank. Unfortunately he failed to meet the mandate. The fundamental problem was that the role of business analyst was not able to adequately capture business requirements. The PMO head was aware of this and indeed was hoping that Agile would help, as it provides an iterative way to develop applications and may be used to build on capturing business requirements incrementally. The organization suffered from technocratic management, where the management team were technically aware and had a tendency to implement a technical solution to solve problems, especially because they had had past successes in doing so. But the truth was the solutions had only partially worked, providing short-term benefits, before inertia pulled them back. Using a system model it can be seen that shifting the burden had a side effect that compounded the problem, rolling out Agile used up the available budget, so that upskilling the Business Analysts was no longer an option. They had 'shifted the burden' to something else. Not surprisingly before the new PMO head joined, his predecessor had also tried a 'technical solution', he had implemented a formal project management methodology, after having some short-term benefits it ran into problems with delivery over the longer term.
Time-to
-Market
Symptomatic
Solution
Fundamental
Solution
Side Effect =
No Available Budget
Roll-out
Agile
Upskill
Business
Analysts
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Both managers were genuinely committed to solving the problem, they had good logic and intentions, but they failed. The system archetype of shifting the burden was so ingrained in the culture that failure to address the fundamental solution was inevitable.
1.8.1 Lesson Learned
Systems and structure dictate behavior, the system archetypes at play within an organization transcend people and management. They are so pervasive that they endure for years, becoming further entrenched over time. We cannot hope to remedy recurring problems using the same patterns of behavior or solution types as used in the past. What was it that Albert Einstein once said? Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
By increasing our awareness of the systems paradigm in IT we can begin to support our greater Business organizations, in coming to terms with the negatively impacting system archetypes that cause recurring problems. We can also begin to recognize those system archetypes that are positive and strengthening, building on success and reinforcing good systemic practices throughout our organizations.
The most frustrating aspect to system challenges comes from the positive contributions of all parties involved, this is why the effects are often described as insidious, everything looks fine however fundamentally things are not quite as they seem
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1.9 Fixes that Fail
When an initial fix introduces unforeseen side-effects or consequences that inevitably compound the original problem. Fixes that Fail are fundamental to technology however they do not have to pertain to technology fixes alone as the following example will illustrate. We all know how pressure can affect our judgment and when we're under the pump we don't always make the right decisions. Here are some of the key factors that contribute to pressure: 1. Time constraints 2. Peer pressure 3. Perceived need Time Constraints may be tangible and a very real limitation, Peer Pressure is perceived or inferred it is intangible and Perceived Need is also intangible. Simply by understanding the nature of the factors that contribute to pressure we can relieve it and this might be the difference between making the right decision or heading for disaster. The system model above represents a balancing loop on the left side there’s a need (cause) on the right side an action (effect), the action counteracts the need―it is a positive action that has a negative effect on the cause and thus balances the loop. In this case an IT department was forced to reduce cost, the CIO earmarked the server budget, due to its constant growth, and requested that something be done. 'Wow, these servers are expensive, please do something.'
Need to Reduce
Cost in IT
Decommission
Servers
+
-
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The server team discovered that many of the current installed servers were inactive, they had been used for testing or other temporary purposes and remained switched on after the requirement had been fulfilled. As a result IT was being billed for operating system instances (OSI) that were not being used by applications and therefore could not be reallocated to Business units. After some time had passed (delay) the server team discovered that they had a lack of servers. So they commissioned new servers to meet demand, the commissioning took some time (delay) as new servers had to be ordered and installed.
Need to Reduce
Cost in IT
Decommission
Servers
+
Not Enough
Servers
-
Need to Reduce
Cost in IT
Decommission
Servers
+
Commission
Servers
Not Enough
Servers
+
-
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After more time passed, and we're talking about several months now, someone noticed that costs in IT servers were increasing. A year later the situation was much worse than before, server costs had continued to increase and as a result of the delay in commissioning new servers the perception of IT was starting to suffer.
Need to Reduce
Cost in IT
Decommission
Servers
+
Commission
Servers
Not Enough
Servers
+
-
Need to Reduce
Cost in IT
Decommission
Servers
+
Commission
Servers
Not Enough
Servers
+
-
Lead times of
new servers
triggered poor
perception of IT
+
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'Not only is IT expensive it's slow, please do something.' After one year of struggling with the escalating costs of server provisioning pressure had begun to reach flash-point. We all know where this could lead to, right? 'We need a new vendor' or 'we must outsource this', would most likely be the conclusion. At this stage there wouldn't be another chance to fix the situation, there wouldn't be any more time wasted, a decision would be made and the case closed.
1.9.1 Lesson Learned
Not enough servers was a perceived need, in fact server requirements were steady year to year and matched the increase in applications that had been in constant growth at around 25%. Decommissioning and Commissioning new servers actually increased the provisioning costs twice as much, they paid once when the servers were originally commissioned, then they were decommissioned, and then they paid once again to commission the new servers. The lead times of new servers exacerbated the situation and actually added by compounding the original problem.
In order to make high-leverage interventions we must thoroughly understand demand and how different effects change after time
1.9 A Better Approach
'Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose…' as the French say 'the more it changes the more it remains the same'―one of the eternal challenges of managing change and one very good reason to turn to system dynamics and systems thinking as effective ways to understand and control the very real and insidious threat.
Not Enough
Servers
Commission
Servers
Lead times of
new servers
triggered poor
perception of IT
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Insidious because the threat is often invisible and undetectable from within the system of change. More often than not we throw more assets and resources at it, with the attitude, 'look, we've made the decision, we all agreed, now we'll bloody-well get on with it'. Brave and true to the cause, but sometimes, we just need to admit failure, accept failure and above all understand failure. It is in understanding failure that system dynamics and systems thinking come into their own.
1.9.1 Mapping out systemic influences
The first step in change or intervention is mapping out the systemic influences that could impact the system of change. When we talk about systems we are using the definition of system provided by Professor Moscardini in his foreword: 'a system which can loosely be described as a set of objects that have a common purpose'. We are surrounded by systems, not just technological systems but systems of every kind, societal, political, ecosystems in nature. When we embark on a change or intervention we are surrounded by the system of change. In this context systemic refers to any influence that is, has or may potentially impact the system, in any way whatsoever. You may be familiar with structured change management methodologies, where an impact assessment matrix is used to map-out impacts to business processes according to roles and business units. These impacts are normally limited to areas such as tooling and skilling, however, when we conduct a systemic mapping analysis we must go much further and deeper, as well as forward and backward in time. In order to create a solid understanding of our interventions we must build a multidimensional systems model that can be used to actually live-out each scenario for change. It is therefore very important to slowdown using reflective techniques and become aware of the system as it really is. Without the noise and the pressure to change, we need a clear and unwavering sense of clarity to be able to discern the reality of our systems. 'Take a BIG step backwards and take some DEEP breaths.' Here are some of the systemic influences pertaining to server decommissioning (thanks to Nicolas Stampf for suggesting this):
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Application strategy Asset lifecycle plans Business and IT strategies Change, problem and incident
management history Cloud computing and server
hosting Datacenter strategy Demand management Facilities management IT budget License costs
Maintenance costs Operations strategy Outsourcing Power consumption and
Green IT Procurement policy Project portfolio and
program management Software as a Service (SaaS) Technology roadmap Vendor performance
management
It's not as simple as switching-off boxes or racks in the datacenter, it is a complex decision with many variables and unknown factors that can impact the end result.
1.9.2 Inside-out → Outside-in
When we are in the system of change it is sometimes very hard to take a different perspective and all too easy to keeping forging ahead, absolutely determined in our conviction to succeed. Sometimes however we simply must take stock, and typically we look inwards, with the attitude 'right, let's sort ourselves out'. How many times have you heard people say 'we've got to fix ourselves first before we start to fix the external environment'? It's an honorable intention, but it isn't very likely, given the state we are in. Remember: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose―we must look from the outside-in. The key we often forget when we are under-fire is to divorce ourselves from the system and to examine it from the outside-in and from every conceivable perspective and dimension. It is the interconnectedness of the system that is paramount and often we find the interfaces and relationships between the objects of the system and the objects of other systems to cause us pain, not the system itself but rather the way in which the system interacts with the sea of systems around it and vice versa. It is when we have a complete understanding of these interrelationships and interactions, especially in the dimension of time, that we can say with any degree of certainty we are making high-leverage interventions. Then
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and only then can we begin to look at our own system to figure out how to change it to accommodate what the greater world of systems expects from it.
When the pressure's on and we’re under the pump it's easy to take the easy way out―however it is always a good idea to slowdown, never be forced to make fast and inaccurate decisions based on pressure
1.10 The Importance of the Systems Paradigm in Innovation
If we genuinely want to innovate we must understand intrinsic interconnectedness and how the system archetypes can easily thwart and indeed support our efforts at innovation. If we do not then we run the risk of our innovations being short-lived, which discourages people's interest and more importantly turns-off possible sponsors and investors from supporting our future endeavors. We must take the time to slowdown in order to identify the system archetypes and the myriad systemic influences and barriers that are impacting the sea of systems surrounding us.
If we genuinely seek to foster an environment where innovation can take hold and become a sustainable approach to our development, then we must invest into systems thinking
1.11 Reflection
Of all our skills reflection is probably the most underutilized and unexplored. Reflection is what sets us apart as human beings and makes us the people we are. It calms our minds and allows us to make impartial and considered choices. Reflection opens the door to genuine self-inquiry and ultimately self-transformation. In the workplace it strengthens a team's intellectual viability and obviates unnecessary conflict and struggles in understanding. Reflection is the key to a more harmonious and fulfilling life.
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Reflection is the foundation skill for developing a better understanding of systemic influences and impacts, by supporting systems thinking and allowing a more thorough analysis of the complex events that take place around us.
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius. One common form of reflection is the After-Action-Review (AAR); after a meeting, get together with your team and inquire about: what happened, what we expected to happen and what can we learn from the gap.
Practice the AAR after every meeting and encounter, take ten minutes to grab a coffee, or as you are wandering back from the meeting room, ask the three questions
Tip: Individual reflection is a powerful tool for self-clarification and understanding our versions of the truth, sometimes it is good to reflect individually before engaging a team in clarifying our own or the whole team's perception. Commonly known as 'taking a step backwards', individual reflection can help us to get our perception straight before we take action that could be detrimental to the desired result.
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Becoming Open In formal project management methodologies like PRINCE2® or PMBOK® the concept of learning from mistakes is embedded into the method, at the end of each project stage lessons to learn sessions are organized by the project manager and the results are recorded for future reference. When a new project is started the project manager checks recorded lessons from previous projects to avoid making the same mistakes over. In IT we are focused on delivering outcomes for our clients, we rarely spend time understanding our failures, when mistakes are made sometimes they are used to punish as opposed to learn. More often than not errors are simply 'swept under the rug'. Becoming open requires a mental-shift in prevailing attitudes, people must feel safe and comfortable coming to terms with their past and present failures. This approach must be supported with dedicating time to discuss failures at the team and organizational levels.
The objective is to develop a strong shared understanding and to be open and receptive to failure across the whole IT organization
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2. Innovation
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Feedback
It has to be said that IT management is both one of the most complex and fascinating forms of management, particularly within the financial services segment, where the enterprise back-bone is solely dependent on technology. Over the years I have been fortunate to experience numerous styles of IT management, from savvy high-flying entrepreneurs, to old school bits and bytes data center generals, and anything in between. In today's business climate CEOs everywhere are asking more from IT management: faster time-to-market, better data quality, improved interoperability, better and faster innovation, on-demand just about everything, and 99.99% availability―just to be sure. So how to develop our capabilities amidst these increasing and escalating demands? Especially when we are faced with ever increasingly complex organizational models and the any-way flexibility required by more demanding and choosy customers.
One thing is for sure, today IT is recognized as the major enabler of Business though innovation
I want to briefly explore the definition of innovation in the context of an IT services organization. For me innovation must meet three core criteria: ✔ It must improve client productivity ✔ It must be tried and tested ✔ It must support client strategic direction If innovation can meet those criteria it has a purpose for the organization and it contributes to its advancement. When innovation is deficient in the criteria it runs into problems. For instance: improving productivity at the detriment of strategic direction, which may lead to more longer-term challenges. That does not mean innovation cannot change the game, it can, but when it does we must revisit strategy to ensure alignment.
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2.1. The Changing Role of Management
Before we turn our attention to enabling innovation I would like to broadly explore the definition of management. I am interested in the changing nature of the role of management as opposed to the textbook definition of what the purpose of management is supposed to be, or indeed what we were once taught in college or have learned in organizations. I will share some of my views on today's management with a focus on those factors I consider expedient to change. It is necessary to consider a broader picture than just limiting our focus to the value-chain. For me the value-chain is one of the causes of dysfunctional management, along with ego. Much too much focus on 'creating value' and not enough focus on creating 'compassionate' and 'rewarding' working environments. Due to the systemic reinforcement that automatically takes place within organizational cultures, the following list of 'bad habits' has reached plague and in some cases pandemic proportions.
Fix it → Cure it It is not so much a question of fixing problems, which has undoubtedly been the priority for many managers over the past decade, it is more a question of 'curing' those problems―so that they do not come back to haunt our children.
Spotlight → Floodlight Fire-fighting and symptomatic problem management together with reacting quickly to fix business problems to address 'external market pressure' or decreasing 'time-to-market' can lead to detracting from IT management focus and achieving real results for the 'whole' organization.
Told to → Just do Managers should be nurturing an environment that stimulates the shift from 'Told to' to 'Just do', where a highly empowered and motivated process team that takes pride in their work, team achievements and performance without being told to.
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Lead & Manage → Inspire & Captivate Let us wake-up to the idea of 'Inspiring' and 'Captivating' people as opposed to 'Leading' and 'Managing' them. In some Eastern philosophies there is the idea of the ruler that 'abdicates' his power and leaves the people to just 'get on with it'. Rule by not ruling―he is the most successful ruler, who in return receives love, admiration, devotion and commitment from his people. When people are happy and have a good sense of well-being and appreciation they are also more productive.
Must do → Want to Managers should be facilitating the shift from 'Must do' to 'Want to' in terms of motivation and engagement. Nobody likes to be forced to do anything, and quite frankly why should they be forced? People need a shared vision of the future, which they can believe in and agree to before they will genuinely want to commit.
Managing → Enabling As a management team we must make the overarching shift from 'Managing' to Enabling'. This can be manifested in various ways, for instance: 'manager as coach'. It is the role of the manager to 'Enable' not to 'Manage'. This is what we must change and especially in IT as IT is all about enablement.
We're a long way from achieving the modern knowledge-driven workplace environment that is desirable for people in organizations today and it is our collective responsibility to enable it
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2.2 Transforming IT by Enabling Innovation ― a Case Study
2.2.1. Context
This particular case study comes from a personal experience where I was very fortunate to have been involved in changing a prevailing organizational culture and in introducing and enabling an innovative environment between Business and IT. The subject was an IT department functioning as an internal service unit and type II service provider, that is to say an IT organization who provided services to clients within the same organization or group, which was suffering badly from a 'poor business perception'. Does it sound familiar? The primary mode of working was 'keep-the-lights-on' and the unit was experiencing staff retention problems, top IT specialists were leaving for industry leaders like IBM and HP. The business perception of IT was at best 'reactive' and there were many complaints about 'lack of innovation' and 'poor business contribution'. The IT unit was very much under scrutiny and in the line of fire, there were rumors circulating about possible outsourcing and morale was low. The previous IT management had been closed in the basement, quite literally, and had focused mainly on operations. This was partly due to underinvestment over a five year period, which preceded a merger with another organization. As a result there were significant systemic barriers that had been erected over the years, which had led to serious communication and cooperation breakdown between the IT engineering, IT operations and IT support teams. Another hitch that had manifested itself into the organizational culture, was that IT was supposed to 'come up with all the ideas', and as a result there were no ideas. Business people were complaining about the innovative contribution of IT and indeed were themselves coming up with ideas, but neither the Business nor IT did anything with them. It was a kind of 'innovation stalemate', innovation existed but it was not leveraged and mainly due to the prevailing organizational culture. It almost seemed like the harder people tried, the worse things became. The result was that a lot of people had a feeling they were working flat-out and yet nothing much was getting done.
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This situation plagues organizations everywhere, it is unsustainable and will invariably lead to burn-out of certain individuals whom are trying hard to contribute, but keep hitting systemic barriers that prevent them from moving forward
2.2.2. Innovative Potential
The first thing that struck me about the situation was that innovative ideas were to be found everywhere throughout the Business and IT―they just weren't being leveraged. The IT people were either too proud or had their heads in the sand, quite often a 'lack of resources' or 'security' were cited as the 'problem', and the Business people were too busy complaining and pointing the finger at IT. It was a vicious circle that had manifested itself over a number of years, becoming strongly ingrained with emotions, misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions. We began by mapping out the many systemic barriers and influences that existed, they seemed to be quite obvious to anyone who was observing the situation from the outside in.
Realized Innovation
Organizational
Culture
Sources of Innovation
Systemic Barriers
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It is a curious thing the power of an organizational culture and even though we quite often merely pointed out the obvious many people were still unable to see
2.2.3. Enabling by Participative Initiatives
On completing the systemic picture it was possible to develop a number of initiatives that specifically addressed each of the barriers that had been inhibiting or preventing innovation from becoming reality.
When making real changes to
an organization always use the
Deming cycle4 of Plan Do Check Act.
An annual cycle is ideal: Q1 = Plan,
Q2 = Do, Q3 = Check, Q4 = Act.
Get it embedded into the culture
it perfectly complements systems
thinking and introduces change
without the need for crisis.
It was important to focus on making real changes to the organizational culture by introducing participative initiatives that 'bridged' the divide between teams in IT and between IT and the Business. Some specific examples of how we removed the barriers: By facilitating an IT end-user forum to capture Business ideas and
introducing a governance model and cycle that allowed the Business to prioritize the ideas for further working-out and potential fast-tracking
Bringing decentralized IT teams together with monthly meetings and
forming Communities of Practice Holding regular off-site brainstorming and creative sessions for IT
management Inaugurating an award ceremony for 'IT Professional' & 'Innovation of
the Year' (the prize was a laptop) Introducing a 'team coach' to support senior IT management in
achieving a mental-shift in thinking
4 For a more detailed explanation of PDCA see section 4.1.2
P D
A C
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Promoting cross-functional 'thinking-events' in IT to improve lateral thinking and cooperation along the lines of the world café5
Making it clear that it was safe to experiment by establishing a creative-space6
on team meetings and by holding regular lessons-to-learn sessions
Publicizing creative efforts and new innovations and openly rewarding
people for their contributions These were simple steps and yet the results were incredible, after one year it was a different organization and definitely out-of-the-basement for good.
With the systemic barriers removed the participative initiatives acted as focal points for sources of innovation throughout the organization, providing conduits through which innovation was able to permeate and flow through the organizational culture
5 Please see the call-out at the bottom of page 52 for a further explanation of the world
café 6 Please see the call-out at the bottom of page 73 for a further explanation of creative-
space
Focus Focus Focus
Realized Innovation
Organizational
Culture
Sources of Innovation
Participative
Initiatives
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2.2.4. Expected & Unexpected Benefits
Surprisingly, and of the pleasant variety, we discovered that many of the benefits were unexpected. Another surprising aspect was that the benefits strengthened over time, it showed us that the concepts we had introduced were being used and internalized by the people and had indeed become systemic and part of the culture. We managed to create a successful system archetype to nurture and reinforce innovation throughout the organization, not just in IT but in the Business also. Here are some of the key benefits we harvested as a direct result of our interventions:
Improved innovation & creativity leading to a significant engagement improvement for internal-customers (Business)
Improved levels of cooperation, collaboration and interest throughout IT
Improved leadership skills of IT managers and team leaders (unexpected)
Reduced number of unresolved incidents (unexpected)
Reduced number of escalated issues (unexpected)
Improved IT employee retention and stabilization
A marked improvement in IT employee motivation and willingness to contribute
Improved time-to-market capability due to product development optimization (unexpected)
Increased productivity throughout IT (unexpected)
2.2.5. Lesson Learned
People are innovative, it is their nature to be, not all organizations and organizational cultures are, so in order to leverage the innovative power of our people we must change our organizations by making real changes to the prevailing culture.
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2.2.6. Systems Thinking Exercise
Using the systems thinking approach we have learned so far, try to identify each of the five system archetypes at play in the case study. Take a few moments to quietly reflect on the case study, think about some of the similarities that may be found in your current or in a past organization to a lesser or greater degree.
System Archetypes
Balancing process with delay – systems that experience sluggishness or degradation after time
Limits to growth – systems that are limited by internal restrictions
Shifting the burden – it is what happens when management teams use symptomatic problem solving
Fixes that fail – applied fixes have short-term benefits however regress over the longer-term
Growth and underinvestment – and example is under funded production capacity or under investment into IT
Eroding goals – reducing standards in order to meet goals
Escalation – a defensive stance is taken to fend off a misperceived aggressor
Success to successful – successful assets tend to be in demand, often at the detriment of other assets
Tragedy of the commons – exploitation of a resource until it becomes scarce or endangered
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World Café Juanita Brown, the founder of Whole Systems Associates, collaborates as a thinking partner and design advisor to create and host forums for constructive dialogue on critical organizational and societal issues. With her partner David Isaacs, Juanita is the co-originator of the world café, an innovative approach to large group dialogue. The world cafe concept is simple and effective, it involves setting out a large room in cafe style, with small tables of four scattered around the room. The rules can vary, but I prefer to have a facilitator on each table who holds the context for the table's dialogue. The facilitator remains on the table and keeps the context, whilst the participants cycle between each table throughout the session participating in the dialogue on each topic.
It allows a great number of people to become familiar with several topics, one for each table, and allows the facilitators to rapidly
understand broad views on the topics at hand
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2.3. Developing the Innovative IT Management Style
The sources of innovation have changed radically over the past two decades, today innovation can appear from almost anywhere. In order to take advantage of this huge potential our organizations and management approaches must change. Our organizations must become more receptive and the old and sometimes very subtle negative systemic influences and hurdles must be identified and removed.
We must find a way to make innovation flow, so identifying and removing old and entrenched obstacles is a prerequisite
2.3.1. Time to Rethink Innovation
When we think of innovation we tend to think of the same old things, and those are the same old things that quite often prevent innovation from becoming reality. For instance, how should we assess an IT manager's innovative leadership potential? Many people would ask to see a vision, 'show me your vision for innovation'. Followed by building an understanding of their ability to explain the vision and its subsequent translation into strategic and operational objectives. This is a typical and traditional approach to assessing innovative potential. But do vision and clearly defined objectives have anything to do with innovative potential? I do not believe they do and moreover, if anything vision is one of the biggest inhibitors of innovation. Why would we want to predetermine something that is intrinsically indeterminable? Already we can begin to see the subtle systemic intricacies that can so easily thwart our attempts to enable innovation.
Rather not confuse this notion with planning for innovation, it is necessary to plan and to enable innovation, but that is different from predetermining or outlining a particular vision or strategy for achieving it. 'Let it bubble-up.'
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Planning for innovation is all about laying a foundation, removing negative systemic influences and becoming receptive as a whole organization.
People tend to link vision with innovation, but that has nothing to do with innovative leadership potential nor ability. That is what we have been taught by our organizational cultures but it isn't necessarily true
2.3.2. Innovation the New Power of the People
Today a successful 'innovative IT manager' is defined as someone who can apply the appropriate leverage to innovation and nurture innovation for the benefit of the greater good. It does not mean that the IT manager is an 'innovator', and perhaps far from it, it means that the person can identify and appropriately leverage innovation - from wherever it originates - either within or external to his or her IT organization. We all know that the 'real' sources of innovation have changed, they are no longer within the exclusive realm of special development teams, neither innovative strategies, nor R&D. The age-old paradigm that the boss always comes up with all the ideas is also history. Innovation is something that belongs to People, so the best cutting-edge innovative IT managers should also be the best leaders of People. Effective IT leaders must be able to identify, nurture and apply appropriate leverage to innovation. They should no longer live with the misconception that they are in some way 'leading' the innovative process, even less to implement special strategies and visions to 'manage' innovation. After all what is innovation really about, ego, or progress?
Innovation belongs to the People of our organizations, and not just to management and specialist groups
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2.3.3. Are Your IT Managers Enabling Innovation?
The questions we can ask IT leaders to determine whether they might have innovative leadership potential and abilities may include the following themes: Ability to identify, acknowledge and use innovation regardless of where
it originates Ability to mentor and coach people in developing their Innovations Ability to unambiguously position the value of innovation within the
frame of achieving operational and strategic objectives Ability to clearly position innovation in terms of strategic, customer,
and financial contributions (productivity) Ability to identify and remove negative systemic influences and
organizational barriers that often prevent innovation Ability to support risk taking and encouraging experimentation
throughout the organization, both in Business and IT units Ethos of not using failure as a means to punish, but as a means to learn
as a whole organization Ability to share and publicize creative and innovative endeavors
throughout the organization Ability to openly reward and encourage innovation for instance by
inaugurating and holding an award ceremony
2.3.4. The New Objective for Innovative IT Managers
The new-age IT manager's goal in applying leverage to innovation should be to embed and strengthen innovation within the organizational culture itself, to institutionalize innovation by making it clear to the organization that this is the attitude expected.
The culture-shift must be facilitated carefully at all levels and especially systemically in order for innovation to become reality and this is what makes an IT manager truly a great leader in innovation
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In this chapter on innovation we learned by means of the case study that the most challenging issues faced by IT Management in delivering innovation were enablement and leverage. That brings us to next step in our journey―learning how to leverage our most precious assets.
The Innovation Challenge Many organizations encourage innovation through innovation awards, many societies and media groups publicly reward innovation through innovation programs and award ceremonies. Despite these efforts many organizations still struggle with innovation. Innovation programs attract innovative people and groups that are quite often strong enough to fight for their innovation. The Innovation challenge is not about attracting innovative individuals nor isolated groups but rather about embedding innovation 'openness' throughout the organization. Therefore, the real challenge with innovation comes with sustaining it and that is why organizational learning becomes fundamental as it provides a sustainable foundation for learning and development of the whole organization.
The goal is to increase the amount of innovation being realized throughout an organization by achieving a culture-shift
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3. Leverage
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Feedback It is quite often said that a high percentage of new ideas fail, not because they are bad ideas, but rather because their inventors cannot leverage them. Many great ideas fail because they cannot get off the ground; add to the equation a busy IT support environment, budgetary constraints, resource issues, deadlines, priorities and governance, and it is hardly surprising that even the most brilliant of ideas quite often get shelved. Sometimes for good, especially given our rapidly changing organizational environments. If we also consider an organization's inability to learn, then it is surprising that we manage to deliver any innovation at all. Quite often we are struggling to keep our heads above water, in implementing somebody else's innovation let alone bringing our own innovation to the table. We have looked into some key ways how to enable and develop the innovative management style, what we need to do next is find out how to leverage the whole of IT in bringing the newfound innovation to fruition. Moreover, to create leverage intelligently and efficiently we need to build a central nervous system through which is channeled knowledge, information and innovation. A central nervous system that connects and unites the whole of IT, from CIO to Data Center Operator, each member of the IT organization must be connected to the same 'bus' concurrently in real-time. Often the central nervous system only works when we feel pain―'get it fixed', 'restore service', and when the lights return to green once again we become disconnected. In the human body the cervical vertebrae (neck bones) in the neck connect the brain to the spinal cord and rest of the body, which enables the central nervous system to function, any fracture or injury of the vertebrae can result in loss of sensation, paralysis, or death. How is the central nervous system in your IT organization? Does it suffer from a momentary loss of sensation, is it partially or completely paralyzed or has it already passed away to be resurrected by an IT Outsourcer?
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3.1. Sustained Competitive Advantage
There is a lot of talk about sustainability nowadays that is because the ability to sustain has become a key driver behind today's culture and environment, whether it is political or societal. Sustainability is one of the key deciding factors in any organization's future success, even more so for IT organizations. Moreover, the ability for an IT organization to create a sustained competitive advantage has become critical for its own survival and in some cases for the survival of the Business it supports. If an IT organization cannot keep up with the rate of change it will fall behind, becoming a source of pain that leads straight to outsourcing. The crux of the problem for IT organizations is this: Technologies, Applications, Processes, Methodologies, Techniques, Standards, Principles, Guidelines and even Management Styles are all portable. They can all be copied, re-bundled and reused and with the economy of scale factors leveraged by IT Outsourcers, many IT organizations do not stand much of a chance. When for instance SAP went large with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), it gave the early adopters a competitive advantage, because their order and fulfillment processes were all of a sudden much more efficient. Twenty years later the market is saturated with ERP consultants and almost all enterprises share the same competitive advantage. Those PMOs that have implemented PRINCE2® or PMBOK® project management methodologies properly, have a distinct competitive advantage, because their projects will always have a continued business justification and will realize healthy Business benefits according to the agreed time, scope, budget, risk and quality. Invest in PRINCE2® or PMBOK® and acquire some experienced practitioners and you too can enjoy the same competitive advantage. You can see where this is leading, right? A competitive advantage only really counts if it can be sustained. Technology alone is not going to do that, not anymore. Whatever an IT organization does today to create a competitive advantage using technology or processes, there is a fair chance it is already being done better and cheaper by their competitors.
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It has become entirely plausible that the only way to develop and maintain a sustained competitive advantage is through organizational learning. It must come from within, if every conceivable advantage can be bought, then it must originate from what cannot be bought―the amalgamation of the collective intelligence that is produced when an organization learns
3.2. Proverbial Foot Shooting (Limits to Growth)
As we have learned from our own experience with working in organizations, organizational learning can be an elusive animal. Often prevailing organizational cultures work against our attempts to introduce a learning culture. There are many learning disabilities that prevent us from making progress and those disabilities tend to be ingrained into organizational cultures. By nature many financial services organizations, such as Banks, are conservative. They are risk averse and are driven by strict risk management governance, which over the years has permeated their organizational cultures and inadvertently become a major inhibitor of making progress in a rapidly changing market. Internet-based banks, which are considered by some to be 'riskier' than traditional banks, are more efficient and they have incomparable Cost / Income ratios that quite simply cannot be achieved by traditional bricks and mortar retail banks. Therefore, they can offer better rates of interest and reduced banking fees. The values we trust and believe in the most are often the very same values that restrict our progress. When those values become institutionalized they become systemic, affecting whole divisions and indeed whole organizations. They begin to govern the organization and actually determine what the organization can and cannot achieve.
This is why many programs fail to deliver - even big-ticket programs with high-visibility and solid management - even these programs regularly fail. Annoyingly it is very difficult to find out why they fail, hard to put a finger on it. Usually 'insufficient change management' or 'planning' are cited as the 'reasons'.
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By applying a systems thinking approach it is possible to see that this particular example was governed by the system archetype called 'limits to growth', where the Bank's potential growth was limited by the risk averse and conservative nature of its system.
In order to combat the system archetypes it is essential to challenge the prevailing organizational culture. It is hard to do this in whole organizations, it takes time and commitment. However, in IT organizations it can be much faster and the benefits can be pivotal to the whole organization's future success
3.3. The Learning & Living IT Organization
As IT leaders we must set our sights on The Learning and Living IT Organization. In the human body the central nervous system and the brain manage this by receiving and processing impulses received through sensory receptors throughout the body. It is a complex interconnected system, which when working correctly constitutes an 'amazing learning machine'. That is what we must become in IT―an amazing learning machine. Our approach needs to become institutionalized creating a self-governing and living organism with its own sustainable sources of innovation and learning. Often IT organizations go too far in one direction, they can become too focused on the hard artefacts of IT. If we want to create a truly living IT organization it is important to find an acceptable balance between creativity and logic. In a similar way to the human brain, we need to cater for the creative side as well as the logical side of our IT organizations.
Bank’s Risk
Appetite
Bank’s Growth
Potential
Risk
Averse
Culture
Restriction Opportunity
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Those IT organizations that are renowned for their creativity, such as Apple, Google and HP have one thing in common―they apply a consistent approach to organizational learning
To embed organizational learning into our IT organizations we must first familiarize ourselves with the five organizational learning disciplines that comprise The Learning Organization, these learning disciplines help to support the creative side of IT and act as a catalyst for the logical side―a win / win outcome for the development of IT organizations. The five disciplines of organizational learning are: Team learning Shared visions Mental models Personal mastery Systems thinking
When we speak of discipline in the context of learning it often has negative connotations, stirring childhood memories of the endless hours of homework and swatting for examinations and the accompanying fear of failure. This is quite the opposite of what we really want to say with the word discipline in the context of organizational learning. It is more akin to the Latin root of the word, 'discipulus', which means student―a student of the organization. But in order to be a successful student of the organization we must come to terms with failure, without failure there is no learning and this is especially important in the organizational environment.
Logical Systems
and Processes
Creative Inspiration
and Development
The Learning and
Living IT Organization
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Each of the disciplines supports each other by building an interlocking framework that guides the collective learning experience, bound together by systems thinking, which provides the holistic cohesion across all disciplines and allows us to start to navigate the sea of systems.
3.3.1. Team Learning
Most important decisions are taken in groups. Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning units of our organizations. Unless a team can learn, the organization cannot learn―team learning focuses on the learning ability of the group. Adults learn best from each other, by reflecting on how they are addressing problems, questioning assumptions, and receiving feedback from their team and from their results. With team learning, the learning ability of the group becomes greater than the learning ability of any individual in the group. Knowledge and competence can go the same way as information―they translate to power and position within IT organizations. Many IT organizations have the misconception that learning is something that individual people do and that is how individual people accept training and learning. Learning often remains something that is inside individual minds, which means that every update to that first version that was downloaded to the individual mind―must also be made individually. It is inefficient to manage knowledge and learning this way. For learning and knowledge to be effective and to become an asset to an IT organization they must become part of the IT organization itself. This is what happens when learning and knowledge are 'popped' out of people's minds and become the intellectual property of teams, groups or whole IT organizations. In team learning it is a must for the ability of a group of individuals to lay down their personal assumptions about each other's opinions and engage in real cooperation and dialogue. Team learning provides the backbone for creating the central nervous system throughout our IT organizations.
When it comes to quickly upgrading skills, understanding and capabilities across entire IT organizations―Team learning is the fastest and most effective way forward
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3.3.2. Shared Visions
To create a shared vision, large numbers of people within the IT organization must draft it, empowering them to create a single image of the future. All members of the IT organization must understand, share and contribute to the vision for it to become reality. With a shared vision, people will do things because they want to, not because they have to. I became convinced in the power of shared visions whilst working at IBM Global Services during the mid '90s. It was at the time Lou Gerstner took over as CEO of IBM and transformed the massive organization in a period of two years. I was lucky enough to have been involved in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) transformation of IBM during that time, which was the spearhead in Gerstner's transformation by refocusing on the Customer. I am absolutely convinced that shared visions played an instrumental role in making that transformation a success. How do you mobilize a sleeping global giant, as was IBM during the early '90s? You need to stir and nurture the shared vision of every employee to make the overall vision become reality. Very powerful visual images of the future were used, for instance: IBMers in client interactions, happy smiling people being successful at engagements. They focused on what People were talking about and what other People were saying about IBM. It was very powerful stuff and it worked. The visions of the future spoke to every IBMer, I did not meet anyone during that time who was not stirred in some way and it was about moments of vitality, everyone wanted to relate to the successful image of the future.
If People can work for something that they agree to then they will be working to achieve something that they believe in and this is the true power of shared visions. People want a vision that they can believe in, not some generic corporate slogan
3.3.3. Mental Models
Each person has an internal image of the world, with deeply ingrained assumptions. People will act according to the true mental models they
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subconsciously hold, not according to the theories that they claim to believe. If team members can constructively challenge each other's ideas and assumptions, they can begin to perceive their mental models, and to change these to create shared mental models for the team. This is important as the individual's mental models will control what they think can or cannot be done. When mental models are elevated to a team or organizational dimension they can seriously impact the way an IT organization performs, they become systemic and affect the whole organization. Mental models tend to be deeply ingrained assumptions that people invent subconsciously; they are gathered and reinforced from the world they live in, and therefore, must be correct. But they only represent one version of the truth, and we all have our own versions.
Positively grounded mental models combined with shared visions provide a powerful way to rapidly build and develop an IT organization, especially in terms of its intellectual capabilities, abilities and understanding
3.3.4. Personal Mastery
Personal mastery is the process of continually clarifying and deepening an individual's personal vision. This is a matter of personal choice for the person and involves continually assessing the gap between their current and desired proficiencies in an objective manner, and practicing and refining skills until they are internalized. This develops self-esteem and creates the confidence to tackle new challenges, it is an important development factor in IT organizations, especially today when budgets for training and development are scarce. This requires a break-through in traditional and sometimes very ingrained paradigms and views of how the world really is. To be able to admit to oneself what the reality really is and to be able to keep long-term goals and objectives in mind at the same time as balancing everyday tasks and challenges. To become aware that one is improving and seeking to improve and to enjoy the feeling of progress that is achieved. Always attempt to use the mind as a mirror of the current status and reflect on the purpose of everything one does, but before actions are taken that could be detrimental to the desired result.
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It must become second nature, as a road and the car become part of the same process that is called driving. So too personal mastery must become one and the same as the method or process for advancement and achievement.
The advantage of personal mastery is that the IT organization makes real progress on an individual-level as well as on a team-level and wherever one looks in the organization people are achieving their goals and moving forward―it creates sustainable momentum
3.3.5. Systems Thinking
The cornerstone of any learning organization is the fifth discipline ―systems thinking. This is the ability to see the greater holistic picture, to look at the interrelationships of a system as opposed to simple cause-effect chains―allowing continuous processes to be studied rather than single snapshots. The fifth discipline shows us that the essential properties of a system are not determined by the sum of its parts but by the process of interactions between those parts. Systems thinking is a way of helping a person to view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns and cycles in systems, rather than seeing only specific events in the system. This broad view can help to quickly identify the real causes of problems in IT systems throughout organizations and to know just where to work to address them effectively. When people ask me 'what is systems thinking? ', I have two explanations, the long and short. Succinctly systems thinking is the process of understanding how objects affect each other within a whole. For me its deeper meaning is just as simple: systems thinking is the opposite of scientific thinking. In scientific thinking in order to discover how something works we take it apart until we find its smallest component with a belief that we will find a key to how the thing works. With systems thinking we must understand how the thing interacts with its environment before we can understand how it works. Imagine an alien visiting the Earth in his flying saucer and wanting to abduct an Earthling specimen for closer examination back home. He briefly lands in Central Park NY and snatches someone up into his ship. When he
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returns home he immediately starts his examination of the Earthling. What would he find? Well, Earthlings appear to be a bag of skin, with stuff inside and if I open it up to take a look, there's a heart thing that appears to be circulating red fluid around. But that's about it. Without knowing any of the context around the Earthling he wouldn't be able to make any worthwhile conclusions about its purpose or function. This for me is the essence of systems thinking. Without describing an object's environment we cannot describe an object, let alone understand what its function is.
All too often we become compartmentalized or silo-bound within IT organizations, where we fail to see the whole organization. Communities of Practice help us to overcome this, but if they are not supported by systems thinking they too can become just another cluster of islands in the disparate archipelago we call organization
3.4 Understanding IBM's Three Roles for CIO Success
When we speak of leverage we need to ensure that we are fully leveraging our IT capabilities and to that end IBM Global Business Services invested considerable time and effort in interviewing over 3,000 CIOs in 70 countries around the globe, the result is contained in the CIO Study7. According to the study CIOs have been focusing on three major roles: 1. Driving Technology Innovation to Make it Reality 2. Raising the ROI8
in IT 3. Expanding the Business Impact of IT Paradoxically each role has two subtly opposing advocates that play against each other to provide a balance ensuring that the Business contribution of IT is steered within an alignment framework. Each of the roles has a set of high-level guiding principles and skills sets that are divided between the two advocates to provide a steering function for the CIO and the CIO agenda.
7 IBM's CIO Study is available via the IBM.com website for downloading please see the appendices for the section on useful links 8 ROI – Return on Investment used as a measurement in determining investment viability in business cases (gain from investment minus cost of investment divided by cost of investment)
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This provides the CIO with a steering and IT value framework, which aims to deliver balanced IT value and outcomes to the Business and supports the CIO function in achieving the required shift towards the cross-functional Business / IT role that is becoming more needed in Business today. This is the key to building a successful IT management team with a good balanced set of skills and outcomes across the board. I believe the roles are valid for every IT organization in every industry and the skills I have highlighted are universal IT management skills, which are required of IT managers in order to support increasing IT maturity.
3.4.1. Driving Technology Innovation to Make it Reality
It is not enough to just plan for innovation—it needs a robust foundation. When acting as an Insightful Visionary, a CIO is perceptive, promoting a broad technology agenda to help the Business profit from leading-edge initiatives. The flip side of the Visionary is the Able Pragmatist role. As a Pragmatist, a CIO deals with the realities of the Business. The Pragmatist also facilitates the productivity of current IT solutions to allow more time and budget for innovation. Insightful Visionary – the skill required to bring a broad technology agenda to the C-level, characterized by: Pushing business and technology integration Championing innovation Extending CIO influence Able Pragmatist – the skill required to deliver Business outcomes over tactical, operational and strategic horizons, characterized by: Enabling the corporate vision Making working together easy Concentrating on core competencies
3.4.2 Raising the ROI in IT
Using IT to produce greater Business value is vital, accompanied by an ongoing focus on lower costs and higher efficiency. A Savvy Value Creator finds new ways to help customers and the organization profit from how data is used. The Relentless Cost Cutter, its counterpart, is focused on managing budgets and processes to eliminate or reduce costs.
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Savvy Value Creator – the skill required to leverage existing information in new ways that create additional value for clients, characterized by: Making the data sing Reaching customers in new ways Enhancing integration and transparency Relentless Cost Cutter – the skill required keep technology and operations lean and optimized, characterized by: Standardizing to economize Centralizing the infrastructure Keeping cost reduction a top priority The word 'relentless' may hold negative connotations for some people. The important thing to remember is that both roles are necessary to provide a healthy balance―they are both good roles.
3.4.3. Expanding the Business Impact of IT
To contribute the most to the greater Business organization proven expertise in both business and technical matters is essential. Part of the time, CIOs will engage with the greater Business organization as Collaborative Business Leaders, to drive new Business initiatives and cultural shifts jointly with fellow CxOs. At other times, the Inspiring IT Manager role occupies center stage to motivate the IT organization and deliver superior IT performance. Collaborative Business Leader – the change catalyst skill set required to champion business initiatives and drive change programs forward, characterized by: Knowing the Business Getting involved with Business peers in non-IT projects Presenting and measuring IT in Business terms
Inspiring IT Manager – the skill set required to speak IT language and get 'all hands on deck' to exceed expectations, characterized by: Cultivating truly extraordinary IT talent Leading the IT forces Enhancing the data
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It is important to remember that these supporting and steering activities are fundamental to success, it is necessary to invest maximum effort and to use new and different techniques in order to mobilize the whole IT organization in making the change successful and permanent
We may think of the living and learning IT organization and IBM's three roles for CIO success as foundational frameworks that come alive and add value to our greater Business organizations. They complement each other perfectly and become stronger over time as they are internalized and become absorbed into the organizational culture of IT. Next we will take a look at techniques to get you started, by embedding the foundational frameworks into projects and the IT line management organization.
3.5. How to Tackle IT?
The five disciplines of organizational learning have been continually developed since the 1930s. Shell Oil was a big contributor to mental models and shared visions by pioneering Scenario Planning during the 1980s. In 1990 Peter M. Senge (MIT) first published his book 'The Fifth Discipline', which was updated and republished in 2006, with many real-life examples of how organizational learning has helped organizations like HP to keep ahead.
The question remains, how to introduce organizational learning in IT? Over the years I have had and seen varied success with implementing organizational learning as a change program and it depends heavily on the buy-in of the CIO. Keeping in mind what we know about organizational cultures, system archetypes and their pervasive learning disabilities. Better not forget the balance between creativity and logic, for some CIOs and IT managers the creative side could present a stumbling block. I have seen many IT organizations and cultures that simply did not allow a learning culture. These 'soft' disciplines were never given credence nor priority and IT frameworks, reference methodologies and good practice took the focus away. Balance is the key word here―for IT to be really effective both sides, creative and logic, must be addressed adequately.
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3.5.1 Kick-off
In IT projects provide the easiest way to kick things off. When piggy-backing9
projects to implement organizational change it pays to choose the project carefully; better off with a high-leverage project that has a strong chance of success. When a new project has been mandated and approved by the sponsor and the project manager has been nominated, this is the right time to plant the seeds of organizational learning. As part of the Project Initiation Documentation or Project Charter the project manager should define the principles of how the project is to conduct itself. The five organizational learning disciplines should be embedded into the management of the project to complement a formal project management methodology like PRINCE2® or PMBOK®.
3.5.2 Personal Mastery = Personal Choice
Personal mastery is often the hardest discipline to embed, as it depends heavily on individual preference. However, it can be done by leading by example or making an example of someone who practices personal mastery to achieve advancement. Reward that person and make it known that this is the attitude expected. Personal mastery is often fueled by creative tension, when one knows that something must be done, but hesitates or postpones action until such a time that they are simply propelled forward to achieve it by the creative tension that builds up.
3.5.3 Engage Shared Visions
Kick the project off by holding a workshop to define a shared vision, engage all the project team members in the process, take them off-site and away from the everyday to achieve it. It is a 'different' approach it therefore requires a different environment. Build a shared vision that everyone participates in and is happy with. To set the right impetus it may be beneficial to have the sponsor and/or CIO involved in setting the shared vision. 9 Piggy-backing refers to using an existing structure, mandate or initiative for instance, a project, to introduce a complementary initiative without the need for mandating a new project to achieve it
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3.5.4 Focus on Team Learning
Institutionalize team learning as the way to manage project team meetings. Focus on the team learning process by creating the environment where the whole team participates and learns together. Rotate the role of team leader so that everyone becomes involved, use dialogue-based conversations, where everyone has a say. Allow enough time for creative-space during meetings and make sure people feel safe and comfortable with experimentation. Make people's contributions - especially creative and innovative ones - visible and understood at the team-level.
3.5.5 Upgrade Mental Models
Develop mental models of the reality at the team-level, by safely challenging and questioning assumptions on team meetings. Constantly upgrade mental models based on the real capabilities and abilities of the team. Make sure that everyone in the team understands and shares the same mental models.
3.5.6 Understanding Interconnectedness
Use systems thinking by always starting from the holistic point of view and understanding how and where the project fits in with the bigger picture of the whole organization. Instead of looking for individual points of pain or fire-fighting individual events, start looking for similar patterns of behavior throughout the organization. Understand the far-reaching systemic ramifications of changes as opposed to changes that take place in isolation in any particular project. Make a point of slowing down and stop multi-tasking, take a step backwards, breathe slowly and deeply and observe what is really happening throughout the whole organization. It may seem difficult to achieve this, especially given our busy schedules, but it is good practice to slow-down at least once a day. Otherwise we will never have time to observe the system as it really is―frequent periods of quiet reflection and meditation provide the perfect retreat.
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This is about leverage. How to best leverage the assets we have been given to manage, as an IT professional aim to internalize the disciplines of organizational learning and apply them at work as well as in your personal life
The journey must begin somewhere, it doesn't require a huge effort nor a major change program and on the contrary, it is better not to announce such fundamental shifts in thinking and culture to great fanfare. But it must start, and we can start with ourselves, by slowing down and breathing and reflecting on the intrinsic interconnectedness of the sea of systems that surrounds us. In the next chapter we move on and learn how to bring all of this together.
Creative-Space
The concept of creative-space requires that all participants abdicate their authority, tacit authority or organizational authority, and engage each other in true dialogue. In Peter M Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline, Senge describes discussions as one person trying to convince others of their point of view. There is very little learning to be garnered in such exchanges that is why a new approach based on dialogue is so important to a learning organization. Creative-space goes one step further and allows teams the safety of experimentation in an environment where there are no penalties nor stigmas attached to failure. There are no bad ideas, nor stupid questions. How often do we have that luxury in the workplace environment, assuming of course that we are not all creative directors in advertising agencies? When we take action and even when we speak in team meetings we are naturally conscious of not making mistakes―for fear of the proverbial horse's ass. So then creative-space allows us the freedom to test out ideas, challenge the status quo, openly present our thought processes and thinking, expose our assumptions and rationale, make mistakes and learn from them as a team.
Think of creative-space as an accelerator of outcome for your team
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4. Outcome Through
Orchestration Increasing maturity in any organization can be an exigent and arduous task, one that requires both patience and eagerness in measured amounts.
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Feedback Increasing capability in IT organizations is often convoluted by a level of systemic complexity that involves deep knowledge and understanding of IT people and processes. It requires a blueprint that provides the greatest level of support for both people and processes across IT. In order to generate the level of outcome required of modern IT organizations increasing capability must be addressed systematically, incremental increases must be planned and harvested over a long-term horizon―it is very much a long-haul journey. It must be achieved by careful orchestration of all the elements, interdependencies and connections that make up IT. Like all thousand-mile journeys it starts with one step, but before we take that step we will focus for a while on the objective. What is outcome? How do we define outcome? I prefer to avoid the generic and almost profane definition of outcome as we know it in 'delivering outcomes', instead I will return to the roots of IT, because in my book outcome in the context of IT is all about Innovation. I would like to make one important distinction between 'fadding' and real innovation. Fadding is becoming distracted by shiny emerging technologies that detract from core purpose and often impact a project's or organization's ability to deliver. This is not innovation. Innovation is something that is carefully nurtured and matured, tried and tested and supports the Business in terms of improving productivity. Innovation must be carefully positioned in terms of achieving operational, tactical and strategic objectives. In IBM Global Business Services' CIO Study one of the key roles of IT is 'driving technology innovation to make it a reality'. We looked at Innovation in the second chapter in the final two chapters we shall return to Innovation―this time as the tangible outcome of IT.
4.1. Bringing it all Together
For most enterprises IT has become the kernel of operations, financial management and strategic development, this fact presents a major issue as many IT organizations are underperforming. Despite having good in-house skills and intellectual capabilities, they often cannot bring it all together to produce the outcome required.
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The systemic and organizational complexity and prevailing organizational cultures and system archetypes with their deeply ingrained learning disabilities often prove to be very challenging indeed. Combined with increasing demands and escalating requirements, it is easy for an IT management team to lose sight of the vision. In the spirit of Martin Luther King: I have a dream ― let's paint a vision of the future. 'I used to start watching the clock at about half past three, five o'clock took forever, but nowadays I don't want to go home, I feel valued and needed and each day I see that we're achieving results'...... An Engaged Service Desk Agent 'I never thought I would look forward to Monday mornings, but since we changed our culture and took things into our own hands I've never looked back, today we have a voice and the organization listens to us, it's almost as if we are the organization'..... A Motivated Business Analyst 'When I promised increased innovation, it was a far-call, and I knew it was a defining moment that had to work-out. Today we're being nominated for Innovation of the Year award and the Business has increased its market-share thanks to our new channels approach―Together we did it'...... A Successful CIO Now that we have the vision, we will return to the blueprint and determine what we need to bring all of this together. It is important to remember that it is a journey and the journey itself is the destination. A friend of mine who was a senior Gestalt lecturer once told me that it is important to hold long-term objectives, but it is equally important to celebrate small incremental successes along the way.
As we achieve the various milestones of our journey, whether they are project or organizational milestones, we should always afford ourselves the luxury of celebrating each one to mark the occasion and to reflect on what we have achieved. We need a plan that is broken up into easily digested sections marked with milestones that are meaningful to both the Business and IT. It is important for the CIO to celebrate shared incremental successes with the Business and IT throughout the entire journey. For instance launching an actionable service catalog, or the first business case developed together with the Business, these are small steps that are significant to both the Business and IT and can be celebrated as such together. The plan must become embedded into the way of thinking and into the very culture of the IT organization, so that it becomes the journey and the
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objective and most importantly―the reality of delivering on technology Innovation.
The plan must enable, mobilize, leverage and deliver results consistently in each area throughout IT, without being a burden in achieving tactical and operational objectives
4.1.1. The Big Picture
Changing a prevailing culture is complicated and there is no escaping the complexity that is why careful orchestration becomes important. Key areas of focus in the big picture are the intrinsic interconnectedness and interfaces between each part of the picture. In the picture below the Line of Visibility is of particular importance as it represents moments of interaction with the client. Each moment of interaction must be carefully orchestrated to ensure consistency with mental models and the shared vision.
Greater Business Organization / Client
IT Governance
IT Service & Program Management IT Management
Participative Initiatives - Focus
Change Platform - Culture
Systems Thinking -
Foundation
IBM's Three Roles - Balance
New Energized and
Innovative Culture
Line of Visibility
Strategy Design Transition Operation CSI ITIL® V3
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We must ensure that the messages and interactions we have across the line of visibility are in line with the real capabilities and strategic direction of the organization. A quick ‘reality check' with our mental models and shared vision can help to maintain consistency. When conducting such reality checks use a period of quiet reflection before seeking out the clarification and feedback of the team. Focus on learning and strengthening your inner vision and perception of the current reality, update your mental models based on the learning that has taken place and be conscious and aware of the process you have used.
4.1.2. How to Use PDCA Effectively
PDCA may be used in many different ways and they’re all good, however I would like to explain one method based on an annual cycle using each quarter to focus on each quadrant10.
10
Organizations who are aligned to the financial year for planning may choose to align PDCA accordingly
Plan Q1
Do Q2
Act Q4
Check Q3
An
nu
al
PD
CA
Adjustment
Plan what to measure
Plan how to measure
Take a baseline
Plan the execution
Plan the assessment
IBM's Three Roles – Balance
Participative Initiatives – Focus
Change Platform – Culture
Systems Thinking – Foundation
IT Governance / Management IT Service Management
P D
A C
P D
A C
Execution
P D
A C
P D
A C
Assessment Planning
Gather feedback
Measure
Take a baseline
Compare
Phased and
Orchestrated
Execution
Phased and
Orchestrated
Execution
P D
A C
Make Continual
Improvement Your
Number One Priority
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4.2. Organizational Learning and Systems Thinking ― Foundation
Organizational learning and systems thinking provides IT organizations with a foundation to support increasing maturity, it also helps to speed-up the process of change adoption and increases the whole organization's intellectual capability and output. For years technology leaders like HP have leveraged organizational learning to keep ahead. Here are some of the steps that help to establish the foundation: Carefully select a number of high-leverage projects for embedding the
disciplines of organizational learning
Launch a series of workshops aimed at defining a new shared vision for the line management organization and selected projects; it is important to involve the whole IT organization in this process, for instance by using the world café
Follow-up with the new management approach throughout the line management organization and within selected projects
Provide coaching and mentoring to team leaders and key influencers throughout the whole IT organization. Change agents are to be sought and developed throughout IT
4.3. Change-Platform ― Change
Change-platform provides a platform for continual cultural change management, not just when the IT organization is faced with crisis, but as a permanent platform for introducing and managing change as part of the daily routine. If we seek to increase IT maturity and enable innovation, we must begin by putting the IT management team firmly in the driving-seat and leading the change by example. We may begin with the changing role of management as featured in chapter 2.1. Here are some of the steps that help to establish the change: Assess the As-Is status of the IT organization based on participative
initiatives and surveys, perhaps by using the world café
Determine a benchmark and the To-be status and provide on-going change-platform support for measuring the effectiveness of the changes in each phase
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Hire a team coach to work with the senior IT management team to specifically break-free from old habits and to introduce the new learning skills that must be internalized
Define new values for IT management and make necessary
organizational structure changes to ensure success This is about Change. Publish the new management values and make it
clear to all people so that they know what to expect and watch-out for Here are the key management attitudes that require change:
Fix it → Cure it Spotlight → Floodlight
Told to → Just do Lead & Manage → Inspire & Captivate
Must do → Want to Managing → Enabling
Change-Platform
Change-Platform is a concept that supports several key aspects of change. First, change should become part of our daily routine. Second, we should think important changes through collectively, ideally with the possibility to 'try them out' collectively by playing out scenarios in change platform sessions. Third, we should understand the entry conditions and baseline from where we want to change and we should build shared mental models of how we recognize successful change. Change-Platform shares the same rules as creative-space; it works on the premise of equality and openness. The participants in change platforms should be varied and represent a significant cross section of the IT organization. Proposed cultural changes are 'suspended in the open' for all people to plainly see, comment on, and understand. After a series of change-platforms, for instance, on the changing role of management, the participants will be asked if they agree that the change has been successful and to vote on the next change-platform theme.
The world-café provides an excellent environment and structure to facilitate large-scale change-platforms
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4.4. Participative Initiatives ― Focus
The systemic complexity of an IT organization must not be underestimated, and as we have learned sometimes only the symptoms of deeper underlying problems get addressed by IT management teams. Deeply-rooted systemic problems can manifest themselves throughout entire systems over a number of years, compounded by the system archetypes that usually have their own well-developed reinforcing loops―as we have seen they are difficult to identify and address without employing a systems thinking approach. Using a systems thinking approach map out the systemic influences,
barriers, and restrictions that prevent innovation from becoming reality Define high-leverage participative initiatives that act as conduits to
channel innovation and creativity through the organizational culture Deliver and reward innovation and make it clear that this is the attitude
expected
4.5. IBM's Three Roles ― Balance
By applying leverage to IBM's three roles a CIO can steer the value contribution of IT in delivering balanced outcomes to the Business. We shall see throughout the phased approach section that each of the roles play an important part in supporting the overall objective. Here are the start-up activities to get the three roles on the map: In order to best utilize IT management assets in pursuit of fulfilling the
roles effectively, it is necessary to determine exactly where the IT management team stands today
Conduct a brief study to discern the As-Is level of readiness in supporting the roles
Define a gap analysis based on the As-Is and desired target status and begin to structure a plan to enable each role throughout the IT management team
We have learned that through focused orchestration we can bring all of the important elements together, and when combined with concepts such as creative-space, systems thinking and change-platform we can begin to understand the intrinsic interconnectedness and complexity of the sea of systems.
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In the next chapter we will explore a phased approach to increasing IT capability, which is supported by and heavily dependent on the overall orchestration.
79
5. Phased Approach
80
Feedback There are four stages in developing IT capability: Reactive, Responsive, Aligned and Enabled and these are what I call the 'phased approach'. I have found that many IT organizations are somewhere between reactive and responsive, with some elements of aligned either being used, or in the pipeline for implementation in the near future. The corresponding Business benefits of each stage are: None, Increased Business Focus, Increased IT Value and Increased Innovation, respectively. The journey takes approximately three to four years of sustained focus to reach the enabled status, when the Business will be able to 'feel' the benefits of increased innovation. To a certain extent the process is organic and like all changes there is a curve of adoption that tells us some levels need to be attained through experience and trial and error. It will take at least three full governance cycles (where each governance cycle covers the period of one year), to become the norm, it is hard-work, but the benefits speak for themselves. Some organizations will regress into inertia if the correct impetus and focus become lost, genuine commitment and focus must be supported at all times and at all levels.
Each stage has its own indicators and symptoms allowing us to determine the status of the IT organization, they also allow us to plan the incremental milestones, Business benefits and moments of shared success
5.1. Phase One ― Increasing Business Focus
Phase one is all about achieving the shift to become a responsive IT organization, with the ultimate goal of increasing Business focus. Becoming responsive is a linchpin in IT maturity as it brings with it the fundamental culture-shift required to become customer-oriented and 'competitive'. Prevailing organizational cultures can hinder and even thwart progress in this phase, it is important to keep focused on the long-term objective and to work hard at internalizing the new learning skills, even if the greater Business organization is largely reactive―IT must break-through and persist in developing a responsive culture.
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5.1.1. Responsive Indicators
Here are some of the responsive indicators that are indicative of an IT organization and its relationship with the Business throughout the first phase: The discretionary and steady-state or lights-on components of the IT
strategy are supported by individual business cases for each initiative and are mainly driven by cost
An Application Portfolio is defined and managed There exists an enterprise IT committee in which ad hoc decisions are
made about IT resources and priorities The function of Relationship Management reports to the CIO Funding for activities is based on individual requirements, projects or
programs There is little or no follow-up on ROI nor Business benefits realization
after projects have delivered Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for steering Service Strategy, Service
Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement11
exist
5.1.2. Responsive Symptoms
Here are some of the symptoms that indicate underlying changes are taking place: Accountability is often questioned and the contribution of IT to the
Business is often viewed as ambiguous
There may be staff retention and turn-around issues plaguing IT IT visibly struggles to keep its head above water
There is very little new innovation IT staff motivation and engagement could be poor 11 Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement comprise the core stages of the ITIL® Service Management Framework
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Business managers are frequently intervening in steering and deciding
about IT resources and content Levels of mutual trust between Business and IT and between IT units
may be low There are frequent conflicts in priority and lobbying over resources Business regularly complains about the cost and transparency of IT
services and outsourcing may be on the agenda Better not forget that this is a journey and the IT organization would have already traveled a fair distance from reactive to responsive to be at this stage, the organization is still 'bedding-in' the culture-shift from reactive to responsive―it takes time and energy. The new learning skills and changing management attitudes are essential in both speeding-up and maintaining this stage. It is very easy to regress and slip back into inertia, especially with conflicting priorities and escalating demands. It is important to sow the seeds of true partnership between the Business and IT, the Business role in inertia can be significant at this early stage. It requires genuine commitment and careful alignment of roles between the Business and IT, thus laying the foundation for a successful and enduring partnership. When change programs fail at the beginning it is usually because they have not been supported sufficiently systemically. The systemic influences that affect the 'pre-phase one status' have not been identified or taken seriously as real threats to moving forward. The result of this leads to similar symptoms recurring and people's perceptions being negatively impacted as they observe that 'nothing changed'. It is a vicious circle that may lead to failure if not checked.
5.1.3. Phase one Focus on IBM's Key Roles
In the first phase emphasis is on core competence, doing more with less and motivating IT people. Sacrifices must be made in order to secure Business commitment and to clearly demonstrate that IT can deliver. Here are the roles that come to the forefront during phase one: Able Pragmatist Relentless Cost Cutter Inspiring IT Manager
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Defining a shared vision provides an excellent method for launching phase one by getting the whole IT organization engaged in its drafting. Personal mastery creates sustainable momentum as people begin to realize their objectives and build the self-esteem to progress further
5.2. Phase Two ― Increasing IT Value
Phase two is all about achieving the shift from responsive to aligned, with the ultimate goal of increasing IT value. Levels of mutual trust will increase during phase two, as the Business and IT start to form a real partnership based on collaboration. There is however a subtle paradox to be aware of; IT will be eager to deliver Business outcomes and demonstrate flexibility, this eagerness should be balanced carefully with understanding the systemic complexity and possible far-reaching consequences of quick decisions.
5.2.1. Aligned Indicators
Here are some of the aligned indicators that are indicative of an IT organization and its relationship with the Business throughout the second phase: The IT strategy is developed together with the Business Plan,
sometimes this is derived by IT management and showcases IT's progress by clearly demonstrating a proactive approach in working with and potentially leading the Business
Portfolios or asset classes for products and services are defined and managed, an actionable service catalog is in-place
Business and IT roles are aligned and an understanding and
commitment to secure and staff new roles is in place Accountability is shared between Business and IT
Funding is strategically derived, change programs are managed on an
enterprise-level Activity Based Costing is used to reallocate the cost of IT services Prioritization of IT resources is balanced according to strategic criteria
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A Business / IT alignment models exists covering defined roles, decision
making bodies and IT charter The enterprise IT committee makes balanced decisions on IT resources
and content related discussions are avoided Business cases are developed by the Business in conjunction with IT
5.2.2. Aligned Symptoms
Here are some of the symptoms that indicate underlying changes are taking place: There may be power-struggles and splinter groups of resistance
throughout the Business and IT as the prevailing management loses its power over IT decisions
IT is able to demonstrate that a more structured approach pays off, for instance by freeing-up IT capacity for discretionary Business enhancements due to better planning of resources, or through optimization of IT operations
Resources become stretched as new governance processes and
business case development take their toll on Business and IT people People may complain about losing flexibility and autonomy often citing
bureaucracy and red-tape as the causes A new feeling of cooperation begins to take hold in some areas of the
Business and IT IT management may experience instability and some turnover could
occur There is evidence that IT's value contribution is helping the Business to
achieve results
5.2.3. Phase two Focus on IBM's Key Roles
The second phase requires more collaboration and visionary capacity. IT must step-up to the challenge of becoming a trusted Business partner that can develop Business initiatives shoulder-to-shoulder with Business leaders and even customers.
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We should rather be clear that there will be a steep learning curve for many people as they must learn new skills and methods for doing what they consider to be the same jobs. Here are the roles that come to the forefront during phase two: Collaborative Business Leader Insightful Visionary
Secondary focus roles: Able Pragmatist Relentless Cost Cutter Inspiring IT Manager
Team learning plays an important role in supporting people through periods of transition, allowing entire skills sets to be quickly upgraded across whole IT organizations. Using a systems thinking approach the interconnectedness of the Business and IT can be fully understood allowing for continuous analysis of complex process outcomes
5.3. Phase Three ― Increasing Innovation
In phase three we reach the long-term objective of becoming an enabled enterprise, here Business and IT governance are one and the same and IT value is clearly demonstrated by the Business.
5.3.1 Enabled Indicators
Here are some of the enabled indicators that are indicative of an IT organization and its relationship with the Business throughout the third phase: IT strategy is dynamically linked to the Business and is Business led, a
level of strategic integration has taken place that enables the Business to adjust IT strategy based on actual Business requirements
Portfolios are adjusted dynamically based on demand and capacity management
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Service management provides an effective way to optimize enterprise-wide delivery, supplier management and performance
IT governance is a completely embedded part of Business governance Funding of IT initiatives is dynamically based on zero-based budgeting,
each initiative must be justified based on income potential and ROI IT P&L is developed and managed like any other Business unit Priorities of requirements are managed dynamically directly by
Business Business is able to clearly demonstrate the value of IT
5.3.2. Enabled Symptoms
Here are some of the symptoms that indicate underlying changes are taking place: Improved time-to-market thanks to increased efficiency in delivering IT
services
The collective knowledge of IT is understood, maintained and managed by the Business
The enterprise becomes agile in its approach and is able to react quickly to the market
The contribution to innovation is visible to the public and helps to
expand existing market-share as well as open new markets and opportunities
The enterprise becomes an employer of choice attracting top talent
and high-achievers
Increased innovation, increased ROI and expanded Business impact all bear testimony to an IT enabled Business
5.3.3. Phase three Focus on IBM's Key Roles
In the final phase of enablement, Business and IT join hands in creating real value for the enterprise. All roles are consistently applied across IT in producing balanced and dependable outcome that drives innovation. In
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phase three all roles are equally engaged, with an emphasis on creating value for the customers of the Business: Savvy Value Creator Secondary focus roles: Collaborative Business Leader Insightful Visionary Able Pragmatist Relentless Cost Cutter Inspiring IT Manager
By upgrading mental models the greater Business organization and IT have a perfect understanding of the enabled environment, especially their new capabilities and intellectual capacities, which both play key roles in acquiring new market opportunities and launching new products and services
On reaching this level of enablement and capability the IT organization will be fueled by organizational learning and Innovation. It will be able to sustain a real competitive advantage and be counted in the ranks along with the market leaders in IT.
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6. Building our Ship
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Feedback We have learned that there is more to IT than meets the eye; it is not just a question of technology and services. IT has become the fabric of the interconnected world and sea of systems. The collective learning of IT around the globe is absolutely unfathomable—if only we were able to harness that potential. We have learned the key concepts and new learning skills required to step up to the challenge in IT. We know how to recognize the system archetypes that so often prevent real progress and we have learned how to increase IT capability using a phased approach. After studying the field guide you should have a good grasp on how to: Increase Business Focus Increase IT Value Increase Innovation Many of you will be familiar with the 'starfish story': a man was standing on a sandy beach amidst a multitude of washed-up starfish, he bent down to pick up a starfish to toss back into the sea, a passerby commented to him 'look how many there are, what difference does it make, you're wasting your time', the man replied as he tossed the starfish back into the sea, 'it makes a difference to this one'. Use the guide as a support tool on a day-to-day basis— starting today. Take a step backwards, slowdown, take some deep breaths, be quiet and still and reflect on what you have learned in the guide. Reflect on the intrinsic interconnectedness of the sea of systems that surrounds you. Do not let the complexity overwhelm you; rather just reflect on its immensity and the immensity of the potential you have in your hands to make a difference.
I would like to thank Peter Senge and Alfredo Moscardini for showing the way.
I would also like to thank you for reading Sea of Systems I hope you found it useful, if you did please share it and help spread the word—there is always a better way.
The birds featured in the guide were White Breasted Cormorants and a Gray Heron
filmed at Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia
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Index
Acceptable service quality ................. 15
AAR ................................................. 36
Able Pragmatist ............. 64, 82, 85, 87
Ackoff ................................................ 9
Agile ................................................ 86
Agile Development ..................... 13, 16
Albert Einstein .................................. 28
Aligned ................................80, 83, 84
Analytic thinking ................................. 7
Applications .................. 20, 27, 30, 32
Aristotle ....................................... 7, 14
Artefacts .......................................... 57
Asset life-cycle .................................. 20
Assets ............... 25, 33, 47, 52, 69, 77
Assumptions...... 43, 59, 60, 61, 68, 69
Back-up System 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
26
Balancing process with delay ....... 25, 47
Barriers ....... 35, 42, 43, 44, 45, 51, 77
Becoming Open ................................ 37
Benefits 13, 25, 27, 46, 47, 55, 57, 80,
81
Big Picture ........................................ 73
Brainstorming ................................... 44
Break-through ............................ 61, 80
Business . 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 34, 39, 42, 43, 44, 46, 51, 55, 63, 64, 65, 66, 71, 72, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 89, 94
Business analyst ......................... 20, 27
Business processes ....................... 8, 33
Calculus ............................................. 7
Capacity .................. 15, 25, 47, 84, 85
Causal loop....................................... 14
Cause-effect ..................................... 62
Central nervous system .........54, 57, 59
CEO
Chief Executive Officer ............... 39
Change 14, 16, 20, 23, 32, 33, 34, 35,
39, 40, 41, 44, 46, 49, 55, 56, 61, 65, 66, 67, 69, 75, 76, 77, 82, 83
Change the game .............................. 39
Christianity ......................................... 7
CIO
Chief Information Officer . 6, 16, 29, 54, 63, 64, 66, 67, 71, 72, 77, 81, 94
Cloud computing .............................. 34
Collaborative Business ...................... 65
Commissioning ........................... 30, 31
Competitive advantage ....9, 16, 55, 56,
87
Complexity . 14, 18, 23, 24, 71, 72, 73,
77, 83, 89
Compliance ................................ 15, 23
Components .................... 7, 20, 21, 81
Confucius ......................................... 36
Consequences .... 16, 18, 23, 24, 29, 83
Constructively .................................. 61
Context .... 7, 15, 33, 39, 48, 58, 63, 71
Continually................................. 61, 66
Copyright ......................................... 13
Creative-space ......... 45, 68, 69, 76, 77
Creativity ................. 46, 57, 58, 66, 77
CRM ................................................ 60
Cross-functional ......................... 45, 64
CTO
Chief Technology Officer ............. 6
Culture-shift ................... 51, 52, 80, 82
Cure it ....................................... 40, 76
Curriculum vitae ............................... 13
Customer Relationship Managemen .. 60
Cybernetics .................................. 8, 94
Datacenter ....................................... 34
Decommissioning ............................. 32
De-duplication.................................. 18
Deep breaths ................................... 33
De-fragmentation ............................. 18
Delay ............................. 22, 26, 30, 31
Demand 14, 15, 21, 22, 25, 30, 32, 39,
47, 85
Demand management ...................... 15
Descartes ........................................... 7
Determinism ...................................... 7
Deterministic ..................................... 7
Discipline ............................. 58, 62, 67
Discipulus ........................................ 58
Driver .............................................. 55
Driving Technology Innovation to Make it Reality ................................ 63, 64
Ecosystems ...................................... 33
Eexperimentation ........... 17, 51, 68, 69
Ego ............................................ 40, 50
Embed ................................. 51, 58, 67
Embedded ............... 37, 44, 67, 72, 86
Empowered ............................... 13, 40
Enabled ............................... 80, 85, 86
Eroding goals ............................. 25, 47
ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning ... 55
Escalating .......... 14, 22, 32, 39, 72, 82
Escalation .................................. 25, 47
ExCo .......................................... 26, 27
Executive Committee ........................ 26
Expanding the Business Impact of IT .. 63
Facilitators ....................................... 48
Fadding............................................ 71
Failure ......... 28, 33, 37, 51, 58, 69, 82
91
Feedback .........................9, 14, 59, 74
Fit for Purpose ......................21, 24, 26
Fixes that fail .............................. 25, 47
Flexibility ...................... 15, 39, 83, 84
Floodlight ................................... 40, 76
Foster .............................................. 35
Foundation ....................................... 75
The requisite certification and level of knowledge ............................ 6
Four Ps ............................................. 16
Fundamental .... 16, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29,
52, 59, 66, 69, 80
Gene Bellinger .................................. 19
Gestalt ............................................. 72
Greek paradigm .................................. 7
Growth and underinvestment ...... 25, 47
Guidelines ........................................ 55
Hardware ......................................... 20
High-leverage .......... 32, 34, 67, 75, 77
Holism ............................................... 9
Holistic .................... 18, 19, 59, 62, 68
Homeostasis ....................................... 9
Hosting ............................................ 34
IBM 42, 60, 63, 66, 71, 77, 82, 84, 86,
94
IBMer .............................................. 60
Incident ........................................... 34
Inertia ..................................27, 80, 82
Influences .. 19, 23, 24, 33, 35, 43, 49,
50, 51, 77, 82
Infrastructure ................................... 21
Ingrained .......... 28, 43, 56, 60, 61, 72
Inhibitor ........................................... 56
Innovation .. 17, 35, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45,
46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 57, 64, 71, 72, 75, 77, 80, 81, 86
Insidious .................................... 28, 32
Insightful Visionary ...............64, 85, 87
Inspire & Captivate ..................... 41, 76
Inspiring IT Manager ...... 65, 82, 85, 87
Institutionalize .................................. 68
Intellectual property ......................... 13
Interconnectedness .. 9, 14, 19, 24, 34,
35, 69, 73, 77, 85, 89
Interdependencies ...................... 23, 71
Internal Audit ................................... 23
Interoperability ................................ 39
Interrelationships .................14, 34, 62
Intervention ..................................... 33
Intrinsic 14, 19, 23, 24, 35, 69, 73, 77,
89
IT organization .. 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 37,
42, 50, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 72, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 87
IT Outsourcer ............................. 15, 54
IT service delivery ............................. 17
ITIL®
Information Technology Infrastructure Library ... 6, 14, 16, 21, 81, 94
Journey .............. 52, 69, 71, 72, 80, 82
Just do ....................................... 40, 76
Keep-the-lights-on ............................ 42
Key Performance Indicators .............. 81
Knowledge 6, 8, 13, 17, 26, 41, 54, 59,
71, 86
KPI................................................... 81
Lead times ....................................... 32
Lean ................................................ 65
Learning 13, 15, 16, 17, 37, 52, 56, 57,
58, 59, 62, 66, 68, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 80, 82, 85, 89
Learning disabilities . 13, 15, 16, 56, 66,
72
Leibniz ........................................... 7, 8
Lessons-to-learn ............................... 45
Leverage .......................................... 53
License costs .................................... 34
Limits to growth ......................... 25, 47
Line of fire ....................................... 42
Line of Visibility
Line of Visibility Enterprise Modelling (LOVEM) ................ 73
Linear ................................................ 7
Logic .................................... 28, 57, 66
Long-term .......... 17, 61, 71, 72, 80, 85
Lou Gerstner .................................... 60
Management26, 40, 49, 52, 55, 60, 81
Mechanistic ....................................... 8
Mental models ........................... 58, 61
Mental-shift ................... 13, 19, 37, 44
Methodologies ................................. 55
Milestones ................................. 72, 80
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...................... 66, 94
Mitigate ........................................... 18
Mountain biking ............................... 24
Newton ............................................. 7
Newtonian paradigm .......................... 7
Nicolas Stampf ................................. 33
Operating system instances ............... 30
Orchestrate ...................................... 14
Organization ... 6, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 80, 82, 87
Organizational culture ...................... 17
Organizational learning .... 9, 13, 16, 17,
52, 56, 58, 66, 67, 69, 75, 87
OSI .................................................. 30
Outsourced ...................................... 13
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Outsourcing ............................... 16, 34
P&L .................................................. 86
Participative Initiatives ................ 44, 77
Partnership ..........................17, 82, 83
Patterns of behavior ...... 14, 24, 28, 68
PDCA
Plan, Do, Check, Act .................. 74
People-days...................................... 23
Perception .......................7, 31, 42, 74
Personal mastery ........... 58, 61, 67, 83
Peter M. Senge ........................... 66, 94
Piggy-backing ................................... 67
Plato .................................................. 7
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ................................................... 32
PMBOK®
Project Management Body Of Knowledge 6, 13, 16, 37, 55, 67, 94
PMO .......................................... 26, 27
Political ...................................... 33, 55
Portable ..................................... 15, 55
Positively ......................................... 61
PRINCE2®
Projects In Controlled Environments . 6, 13, 16, 37, 55, 67, 94
Principles ......................................... 55
Problem resolution ........................... 14
Productivity ............. 39, 46, 51, 64, 71
Professor Moscardini ........................ 33
Project Charter ................................. 67
Project Initiation Documentation ....... 67
Project Management Office ............... 26
Project manager ......................... 37, 67
Provisioning .........................15, 21, 32
R&D ................................................. 50
Raising the ROI ........................... 63, 64
Reactive ........................................... 80
Recursion ........................................... 9
Reductionism ..................................... 7
Reflection............ 2, 14, 35, 36, 68, 74
Relentless Cost Cutter ....64, 65, 82, 85,
87
Responsive ................................. 80, 81
Risk . 16, 17, 18, 23, 35, 51, 55, 56, 57
Roman Empire .................................... 7
Romans .............................................. 7
Root causes ...................................... 24
SAP .................................................. 55
Savvy Value Creator ..............64, 65, 87
Scenarios ................................... 23, 76
Scientific method ................................ 8
Scientific paradigm ......................... 7, 8
Scope-creep ............................... 23, 26
Sea of Systems.................................... 9
A handy guide to organizational learning and systems thinking in IT .................................... 1, 6, 10
Servers .......................... 29, 30, 31, 32
Service management .................. 16, 21
Service provider ............... 6, 15, 16, 42
Services .. 6, 14, 15, 16, 18, 26, 39, 42,
56, 82, 83, 86, 87, 89, 94
Shared visions .................................. 58
Shifting the burden ..................... 25, 47
Silos................................................. 13
Six Sigma ......................................... 14
SLA
Service Level Agreement .... 21, 22, 26
Slowdown ...................... 14, 33, 35, 89
Societal ................................ 33, 48, 55
Socrates ............................................. 7
Software .......................................... 20
Software as a Service ........................ 34
Standards .................................. 55, 94
Strategy ............. 34, 39, 49, 81, 83, 85
Student ............................................ 58
Success ................................ 25, 47, 63
Success to successful .................. 25, 47
Sustainability........................ 15, 16, 55
Symptomatic .................. 14, 25, 40, 47
System archetypes... 24, 25, 26, 28, 35,
47, 57, 66, 72, 77, 89
System dynamics ............ 14, 16, 32, 33
System model .......... 15, 22, 23, 27, 29
system of change .............................. 33
Systematic ....................................... 13
Systemic ..... 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 23, 24,
28, 33, 35, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 56, 61, 68, 71, 72, 77, 82, 83
Systemic mapping ............................ 33
Systems paradigm ........ 8, 9, 19, 24, 28
Systems theory ................................... 8
Systems thinkers .............................. 25
Systems thinking .................... 8, 58, 62
Systems Thinking World .................... 19
Taking a step backwards ................... 36
Team .... 27, 30, 37, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46,
59, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77
Team coach...................................... 44
Techniques ...................................... 55
Technocratic .................................... 27
The Fifth Discipline ......... 13, 66, 69, 94
The Learning and Living IT Organization ................................................... 57
Time-to-market .. 26, 27, 39, 40, 46, 86
Tragedy of the commons ............ 25, 47
Transforming ................................... 42
Type I
93
Type I service providers ............... 6
Under-fire ........................................ 34
Upgrade ............ 17, 20, 21, 23, 26, 68
Upskilling ......................................... 27
Utility ............................................... 21
Value proposition ............................. 16
Variety ..................................... 6, 9, 46
Viable Systems Model ......................... 8
Want to ..................................... 41, 76
Warranty ......................................... 21
Whole Systems Associates ................ 48
Windowless monads ........................... 8
World café ........................... 45, 48, 75
94
Useful Links
Van Wood Blog http://www.vanwood.net/blog
Survey for Organizational Learning in IT http://vanwood.net/PF/questionnaire.php
The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge (MIT) http://www.solonline.org/FifthDiscipline
The Cybernetics Society http://www.cybsoc.org
ITIL®
http://www.itil-officialsite.com
Society for Organizational Learning http://www.solonline.org
PMBOK® http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards.aspx
PRINCE2®
http://www.prince-officialsite.com
IBM Global Business Services CIO Study http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/cio/ciostudy
Systems Wiki http://www.systemswiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.vanwood.net/blog/post/index/66/Fixes-That-Fail-Decommissioning
http://www.vanwood.net/blog/post/index/64/Shared-Visions
http://www.vanwood.net/blog/post/index/106/Team-Learning
http://www.vanwood.net/blog/post/index/53/The-Power-of-Reflection
© 2013 Copyright Information: Sea of Systems by James Wood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://www.solonline.org.