{"id":1124,"date":"2020-08-31T12:52:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T12:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/?p=1124"},"modified":"2020-08-31T12:52:06","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T12:52:06","slug":"why-you-should-not-align","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/08\/31\/why-you-should-not-align\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you should not align"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image by Stanislav \u010cih\u00e1k from Pixabay\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week, I met with some companies in the embedded systems space that are looking to start A\/B experimentation in their products. These products have safety-critical functions and subsystems and of course, it\u2019s difficult to even imagine A\/B tests that aren\u2019t, in some way, touching safety-critical functionality. The proponents of experimentation at these companies outlined the challenges they were experiencing and interestingly, all challenges were internal to the organization. To transition from the traditional specification-based R&D to A\/B testing requires changes to the way testing takes place, requires a significant reduction in system variants, needs support for deployment of new software versions (preferably over the air), changes the way safety certification takes place, the way we measure data from products in the field, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I believe the adoption of experimentation practices is \ncritical for any company, my point here is to focus on the fact that in \nmost companies I work with, to change anything requires changing \neverything. For the longest time, companies focused on optimizing the \nefficiency of their operations. As a result, every activity, every \nprocess was integrated into a larger whole, carefully aligned and then \ntuned to the point that the amount of slack in the system has been \nreduced to virtually zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t just take place inside companies but across business \necosystems as well. Automotive companies are famous for demanding their \nsuppliers to build factories next to theirs so that the OEM doesn\u2019t need\n to run any inventory as it will see a constant flow of product coming \nin from their suppliers\u2019 factories next door. Deeply integrated, highly \naligned, very efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, this integration and alignment starts with individuals \ncoordinating with each other. The next step is to define a repeatable \nprocess that everyone needs to follow. The step after that is to build \nsystems that automate the processes. The challenge is that with every \none of these steps, changing anything becomes harder and harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus on efficiency and automation works as long as you\u2019re \noperating in a stable, unchanging environment. The moment disruption \nhits, though, the brittle system falls apart. To avoid that, companies \nand entire business ecosystems fight as hard as they can to resist \nchange. In the short term, the arguments are always valid: the cost of \nchanging the entire set of systems, business processes, interactions \nbetween individuals and even the culture of the company in response to \nchange is always higher than the short-term gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is, of course, that every time you resist change, you get\n a bit behind. You accumulate some business, process and technical debt.\n You become a little less \u201cfitting\u201d to the environment in which you\u2019re \noperating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to characterize the history of humanity is a constant battle \nto control our environment and to minimize the need to adapt to the \ncontext in which we operate. From rooting out animals that hunt humans \nto building houses that control the temperature and humidity of the air \nwe breathe and from vaccines to eradicate infectious diseases to the \ninternet that allows us to connect with others, independent of time and \nspace \u2013 all of these accomplishments can be viewed as ways to control \nour environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our success has created a perception that the world is stable and \npredictable and therefore, we can afford to build deeply integrated, \nhighly aligned and fully automated systems. During the last months, \nhowever, we\u2019ve been reminded of the fact that we control much less than \nwe think. The Covid-19 situation has disrupted numerous highly efficient\n systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My point is that we need to be careful to avoid building these brittle systems. We need agility, flexibility and the ability to rapidly change direction. Instead of resisting change, we should welcome it, even initiate it by constantly reinventing ourselves. As Peter Drucker famously said: \u201cBusiness has only two basic functions, marketing and innovation; all the rest are cost.\u201d Innovation, by its very definition, changes things from how we did them yesterday. It should be easy to innovate and innovation needs experimentation as you never know what works until you try it out. Rather than focusing on efficiency through alignment, processes and systems, focus on making innovation as easy, seamless and fun as possible. In the end, that\u2019s where the real battle is won!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get more insights earlier, sign up for my newsletter at <\/em>jan@janbosch.com<\/em><\/a> or follow me on<\/em> janbosch.com\/blog<\/em><\/a>, LinkedIn (<\/em>linkedin.com\/in\/janbosch<\/em><\/a>) or Twitter (<\/em>@JanBosch<\/em><\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, I met with some companies in the embedded systems space that are looking to start A\/B experimentation in their products. These products have safety-critical functions and subsystems and of course, it\u2019s difficult to even imagine A\/B tests that aren\u2019t, in some way, touching safety-critical functionality. The proponents of experimentation at these companies outlined … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}