iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

these laws remind us that leadership is more than just making choices; it's about the continuous effort to improve human connection, enabling collaboration, and creating a shared sense of purpose.

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While we will never be able to "decode" human behaviour, these laws and principles offer valuable insight to understand better the intricate dynamics of communication, teamwork, and organisational change.

Weinberg's Law of Prerequisite Variety: highlights the need for adaptability and diverse skill sets. Weinberg's Law of Strawberry Jam: Spreading ourselves too thin diminishes our impact. Focus your efforts, build deep relationships, and prioritise one-on-one interactions for maximum influence.

The Laws of Unintended Consequences: Every action has a ripple effect. Our decisions, however well-intentioned, can have unforeseen outcomes. Before implementing a new policy or technology, consider the potential impacts on different stakeholders and anticipate potential pitfalls.

The Law of Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall: In the digital age, innovation is a constant race. Competitive advantages erode over time. This requires a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and adaptation to stay ahead.

Shirky Principle: Institutions resist change, even when it's in their best interest. Change management is often more about navigating human dynamics than implementing identified areas of change.

Parkinson's Laws: Work expands to fill the time allotted, and we tend to spend the most time on less important things. Set clear deadlines, define meeting agendas with specific outcomes, and empower teams to make decisions efficiently.

The Pareto Principle: Not everything is created equal, and most of your results will likely come from effort spent in a few specific areas. Identify those high-impact activities, prioritise them ruthlessly, and delegate or eliminate the rest.

Goodhart's Law: When metrics become targets, they lose meaning and can become counterproductive. If you reward developers for lines of code, you'll get a lot of code, but not necessarily good software. Balance quantitative measures with qualitative assessments of outcomes, impact, and value.

Gilbert's Law: Autonomy is key in the age of agile. However, autonomy without direction leads to confusion and frustration. Don't just tell your team to "innovate"; give them a clearly defined problem to solve, a framework to operate within, and the support they need to succeed.

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The Streisand Effect: Transparency always wins. Trying to hide problems only makes them worse. Address issues openly and honestly to build trust and enable collective problem-solving.

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Occam's Razor: Complexity is the enemy of clarity. When explaining a new architecture or strategy, keep it simple. Ditch the jargon, focus on the core message, and ensure everyone understands. Remember, effective communication is about conveying meaning, not showcasing subject matter prowess.

Hanlon's Razor: Assume good intent. That missed deadline is likely not anyone's fault, but a lack of clarity or unforeseen circumstances. Give colleagues the benefit of the doubt, build psychological safety, and foster a more collaborative and empathetic environment.

While human behaviour is inherently nuanced and unpredictable, there are laws and principles that can improve our understanding of employees and colleagues. As George Box famously said, "All models are wrong, but some are useful."

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Vivek Katial @vivekkatial.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

A thread to explore a collection of timeless laws and principles relating to human behaviour in the context of business management

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Reposted by Fredrik Delin

@allenholub.bsky.social “10X programmers actually slow down software delivery” — eventually leading to a steady state where all knowledge is concentrated in one person and they become a key person risk and bottleneck #yow24

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Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only about how to solve the problem. But when I’m finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know I’m wrong.” -R. Buckminster Fuller

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Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Understand the needs of your employees and involve them early and often in your decision making. Some leaders resist delegating strategic thinking to the crowd and rightly so, but also fail to leverage the intimate knowledge held by those closest to the market and the problem.

Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Can’t make up your mind? Solve the problem by flipping a coin! Not so that chance will decide for you, but the moment the coin is up in the air you will immediately know what side you’re hoping for it to land.

media.tenor.com

a man with a mustache is smiling and looking at the camera while standing in front of a building .

ALT: a man with a mustache is smiling and looking at the camera while standing in front of a building .

Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

What change would make the use of our resources more optimised towards the delivery of our business strategy?

Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

From the Atlassian Scrum Master description: If the scrum team isn’t humming, that’s the scrum master’s problem. Maybe that means fixing broken computers, moving desks around, or even adjusting the thermostat. 👈 I don’t much care for the SM role, but is this a joke? www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/...

atlassian.com

What is a scrum master & their responsibilities?

Learn what a Scrum Master is (and what they are NOT), and how the role supports and works with other members of an agile team.

Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

And right-wing capitalism = “innovation”. But then again…

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Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Product strategy is rooted in two polar opposites: playful curiosity to explore opportunities and sharp observation based on factual data. It’s a true art to combine them both as one cohesive approach.

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I wonder if 2025 will be the year we see AI slow down. People think more data/compute/training equals an exponential growth of “intelligence”. I believe it will instead follow a logistic growth pattern where constraints slow growth to the point of not being worth additional effort. Time will tell ✨

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The year is 2059. Computers have their own union. Children fly to school on personal air scooters. The outer planets are holiday resorts. Business leaders finally realise canned Agile won’t help them be more competitive. They start looking into PRINCE2 @jasongorman.bsky.social

DEI and psychological safety are not org nice-to-have’s. They are hard requirements for long-term survival. Not only does a safe and diverse environment maximise data input, but is needed to recognise valuable information and evolve it into knowledge. In other words, the foundation for innovation.

I saw a team being challenged by a “facilitator” for not having actions from their retrospective. It’s ok for teams to just talk about what could be done better going forward. An introspective even! Stop chasing. You don’t need outputs to achieve outcomes.

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Public companies must appease their shareholders through quarterly results - that’s a challenge. Also, with an average Fortune 500 C-suite tenure of 4-5 years, short term wins might be personally beneficial to many corporate leaders ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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The battle against bias may start at the unconscious end, but is won consciously: Your first thought doesn’t matter, we are all biased, but your second thought and your first action does!

Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

The main challenge with "transformation work", especially as a consultant, is to establish success criteria related to a changed organisational behaviour driving continuous improvement. That’s your goal! NOT a set of deliverables or a state when you are "done".

Fredrik Delin @fdelin.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Despite the name, digital transformation is about people more than it is about technology. Only through people can we achieve meaningful and lasting change in our organisations. The rest is just catering to their needs.

Say it with me: 👉 Customers determine the the outcomes 👉 The outcomes determine the measures of success 👉 The measures of success determine the work 👉 The work determines the skills & tech 👉 The skills & tech determine the teams & architecture

However appealing it may seem, however convincing it may sound, agile is not something you can scale. You just can’t. ❌ Instead, scale your domain/product/use case/problem down.

The counter argument is that industries could be linked to countries or regions making specialisms more local (automotive and pharma in Europe, FS in the UK, retail in the US etc) but reality is not that black and white.

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