Kartik SubbaraoOpen Systems Consultant

kartiksubbarao.comsubbarao@computer.org

Transforming Your Company with Open Source

Organizational Transformation

Allows people to see things in fundamentally new ways

Enables people to solve problems and capitalize on opportunities that could not even be considered before

Driven by personal transformation

Einstein: Problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them.Transformation is what takes you to the next level.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen Covey's
Maturity Continuum

Covey: Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own effort. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greater success.Dependent employees need guidance for major work tasks; independent employees can figure out what they need to know, but they might not share that knowledge; interdependent employees, in addition to their self-sufficiency, are constantly learning from and teaching their network of peers.We as open source practitioners intuitively understand the value of interdependence

Open Source Can Develop Interdependent Capability

Provides experiential learning opportunities in day to day work that develop thinking and behavior

Is not a silver bullet and should not be used that way

Needs baseline skills, access to experts and sufficient freedom to experiment

Reference:
http://kartiksubbarao.com/open-source-and-interdependent-it

Not a silver bullet needs followup and environmental support

Dependent IT

Example: customer of a proprietary vendor

Transactional relationship centered around licensing and support fees. Not much other influence over a vendor's product road map.

Even if money talks, if it's the only thing that can talk, the conversation becomes significantly constrained.

Risks falling into the money trap themselves, reducing their position to a zero sum game, competing for scarce internal funding

Vendor lock-in reinforces a dependency mindset

Lock-in:Hitting a brick wall because the product is closedCan develop a kneejerk reaction to call and complainMay give up before trying

Independent IT

Example: open source consumer

Nothing stands in the way of their technical skills. Can troubleshoot, enhance, and customize as much as they want

No licensing fees, can run unlimited software instances. Especially valuable in cloud environments.

Can choose to contract where they have skill gaps, and can gauge the competence of those providers

Can make granular tradeoffs between buying, integrating and building

With open source, nothing stands in the way of their own problem-solving skills:can browse through the code and see if something catches their eyecan invoke a debugger and see what might be happening in real-timecan run third-party analysis software on it or undertake a detailed review themselves if they have the time and inclination.Granular tradeoffs it's no longer a zero-sum game. In addition to money from others, they can now use their skills to get what they want. At the independent stage, IT organizations learn to control their own destiny.

Interdependent IT

Example: open source contributor

Optimizes customization and standardization

Eye-opening experience when code is further enhanced by the community they realize how much more they can accomplish through collaboration than they can on their own

Can bring to bear the capabilities of an entire ecosystem to solve their employer's problems

Gains a deeper understanding and appreciation for open architectures and standards

Experiments to determine where they want to participate in different roles: Customer, Peer, Leader

Developing trust with the project team can encourage them to make further contributions, with the immediate payoff of support and the longer-term reward of getting their most important features added.Gain a deeper understanding What code gets accepted, vs what gets rejected. Linux is a good example. This is an effective counterweight against a tendency in many IT organizations to rush out incomplete solutions that end up causing more problems over time.IT developers learn to think more globally, putting themselves in the shoes of others who share similar challenges albeit in vastly different environments.

Four Dimensions of Companies

People

Technology

Business

Process

Enabling PossibilitiesCreating/Designing Products and ServicesInvention and InnovationProductivity ToolsPlatforms

Managing RealitiesOperationsQualityGovernanceOrganizational Structure

Talent and SkillsOrganizational Knowledge and WisdomSocial NetworksCommunities of PracticeValues and Ethics

Assets, Liabilities and EquityRevenues and CostsSales and MarketingCustomer ValueStrategy and Objectives

Look at how open source maps into each of these areasNote the contrasting elements, particularly between the diagonally-opposite dimensions. This can create contention, but can also enable transformational solutions.Conventional wisdom usually focuses on only one of these areas, and ignores others

Interdependence: Incomplete Representation

Interlocking pieces, mutual dependence.Can suggest things where pieces are inserting themselves where they don't belong, or otherwise have developed unnecessary inadequacies.Can suggest lose/win or win/lose, rather than win/win interdependenceSuggests complexity, but nothing really emergent. If you're more interested in one area, you might think about maximizing independence there at the cost of other areas

Interdependence: Better Representation

Contrast that with this model where every component does its job, and has clean relationships (interfaces) with other components (the Unix/Linux way!).In addition, each component carves out a space where it recognizes some things that it doesn't know. Avoids trying to solve problems ineffectively.When all components are put together, that space gets filled with the interdependent gold circle.Interdependence is an emergent property

Start With Two Dimensions

The first two suggest where the other two can go

Can pick any two dimensions, based on skill/role

Example: People and Technology

Two dimensions can create enough of a space to suggest where the other two can fit in to complete the circleThis can work for people in a variety of roles, in different parts of the organization. Some might start with People and Technology, Others Business and Technology, People and Process, etc.Not as much rigor in the remaining two areas, but carve out that space to invite them. Don't take on too much at once.Enterprise 2.0 as an example

Interdependent Capability

People have different areas of strengths, which they continue to develop as they also develop sufficient interdependent awareness in all four areasInterdependent awareness allows people to recognize complementary strengths in others

Highest Common Vision vs Lowest Common Denominator

Pitting one dimension against the other leads to the lowest common denominator and win/lose

Interdependent awareness develops trust in areas outside one's expertise

Create space for others to speak confidently from their areas of strength, and confidently represent your own areas of strength

The highest common vision is a synthesis of interdependent thinking

Remember you don't have to be good at everything

Our community sometimes engages in a race to the bottom.Some advocates talk about the values and ethics of open source (People dimension), and are cynical of commercial motivations.Some commercial folks want to boil everything down to revenue/cost (Business dimension) and excise personal motivationsEither side could benefit from developing interdependent awareness invites developing trust in areas of each other's strengthsCarving out that space includes not overreaching with criticism, and using constructive questions/suggestions (even if they are simple ones)People => understand how ideas can advance business strategy and customer valueBusiness => develop business strategy that taps people's motivationsOpenness helps transparency, communication, etc

Carl Jung's Personality Theory

Source of Myers-Briggs types (e.g. ENTP, ISFP, INFJ, ESTJ, etc)

Complementary and orthogonal functions that mediate our experience with the world

Jung's development model we develop a preferred function, then an auxiliary, then others, expanding our worldview over time

Intriguing parallels to the four dimensions of companies

Intuition (N)

Thinking (T)

Sensing (S)

Feeling (F)

Employee and Company Brands

Successful open source contributors gain respect with fellow users/developers, which translates into leadership and influence

Their personal brands and their employer's brand increase both in value and in affinity with each other

Employees get public recognition for their efforts, and are simultaneously incented to continue to be affiliated with their employer's brand

Outside Innovation/Exonovation

Open source experts develop strong collaborative networks all over the world

They identify relationships with customers, partners and others that can be transformed from largely trasactional into ones of deeper mutual benefit

They develop insights into how social software works best, and can shape an effective social media strategy

References:
http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/
http://opensolutionsalliance.org/osa/osaalert%28apr09%29-tiemann.html
http://kartiksubbarao.com/mental-models-of-commerce-and-community#visionary

Assessment (work in progress)

Developing a model (will be freely available)

Assess Current State, Capability, Environment for Openness across People, Process, Technology, Business, with attention to Interdependence

Low Capability and Low Environment
=> low potential

Low/High Capability and High/Low Environment => identify potential and develop it

Sample Question Areas

PeopleVibrancy of internal communities of practice

ProcessScalability to complex and simple levels

TechnologyArchitectural integration of Open Standards

BusinessRange of customer/partner value propositions