Transformation

What do I find most surprising about too many IT shops in 2024? It’s the still prevalent attitude of “treat us like a black box” to their business while also entirely out of touch with the end customer. I get it. Back in the day, which is further back than I am going to disclose, I also believed IT should be a black box. Just give us your requirements, and we’ll make it happen. Over the years, I understood that “we are all the business.” You need to be able to trace how you, the engineer, the architect, or the manager directly impact the customer experience to know if you are building and working on the right things. ...

I was chatting with Ben Grossman-Kahn M.Ed., and was reminded of his Goats and Fences empowerment lesson, which I still frequently share when coaching leaders to empower their teams. Check out the less than 3-minute video Ben and team put together back in the day:

Last week, I was privileged to be given an early copy of the latest book by Gene Kim, Wiring the Winning Organization. This happily coincided with a solo weekend trip to the Washington coast I had already planned–what I would soon learn was my version of personal slowification, simplification, and amplification. This latest book is aimed at the most senior leaders of an organization, those responsible for the wiring of its sociotechnical system, and I can’t recommend it to them enough. ...