#boilingfrog

[reloaded504]

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PEEP RELOADED504 PODCAST🎉👌🏽 #reloaded504 #neworleanspodcast #ribbet #boilingfrog #frogmemes #frogcake #frogpose #frogart #frogsofinstagram #frogandtoad #frogcore #frogfishing #froglove #frogmeme #froggy #frogstagram #frogskins #frogfriday #skincaregoals #skincaredaily #bathandbody #bathroomfurniture #bathday #bathfizzies #pampertime #pamperingtime #pamperyourskin #pamperroutine #pamperme #pampernight https://www.instagram.com/p/CT49nARlFwV/?utm_medium=tumblr

[matcross]

From a conversation overheard at Jerwood Gallery November 20th, 2016: brexit mourning - the old english gent wore a black tie . Doodling with the Kuretake DT140-13C Sumi Brush (catchy name), it's easier to control than the Pentel Brush Pen and the ink doesn't bleed through cheapo paper. 👍 . . . #micropoem #doodle #sketchbook #kuretakeSumiBrushPen #smallislandmentality #boilingfrogs https://www.instagram.com/p/B1TskcdHbzu/?igshid=106gh2tznurh5

[learning-living]

Credit: boilingfrog

[a-coda]

Boiling Frogs

"It’s not the strongest, fittest or most intelligent that survive, it’s the ones that are best able to adapt to change." -- Leon C. Megginson (often misattributed to Darwin)

Over Christmas I read GCHQ's "Boiling Frogs": a 2016 public essay on IT and organisational change. GCHQ is the UK Government Communication Headquarters and deals with intelligence gathering and security. I went to school in Bude so their listening station at Cleave Camp is a familiar sight. However, the reason for reading their essay was because Simon Wardley frequently refers to it in his mapping/strategy work.

The "Boiling Frogs" title comes from the scenario where frogs allegedly won't notice water slowly approaching boiling from cold, but would jump out immediately if put in water which is already boiling. The analogy is supposed to be people sometimes don't notice the need for change until it is too late.

The essay is quite wide ranging but is ultimately about the need for organisation change and identifies target areas around software development and IT. In some parts the authors are clearly reacting to practices they've encountered in government IT projects. They also risk appearing to demand change for its own sake. Overall, it is quite hand-wavy and equivocal.

For motivation they pick on the pace of change and the emergence of waves of disruptive technology (like the cloud and big data). They start by taking issue with companies tempted by "Death Star" big systems projects. They advocate doing more small experimental projects.

In that vein they criticise a one-size-fits-all model for processes and projects. Different processes are needed for different scales of project and for different stages of product development. An innovation, a commodity, or a utility require different approaches. (See my own previous musings: "Orange is not the only fruit").

An area where the essay clearly draws on experiences in large organisations is where it complains about rigid top-down structures of portfolios, programmes, and projects. It highlights the risks of Conway's Law and argues for a more dynamic cell-based approach. In such large organisations the authors worry that a lot of effort is spent on dealing with the organisation and optimising for its internal metrics rather than with customer outcomes.

I particularly liked the quoted work from Akao and Mizuno:

Value is recognized when Customers perceive one or more of the following:

A problem of theirs is solved or minimized

An opportunity they desire is seized, maximized or enable

That they “look good” to significant others

That they “feel good” about themselves

To help achieve this the authors require customer obsession, less bureaucracy, and fewer intervening customer proxies.

In terms of using the right methodologies for your business they distinguish Apple and Google on the one hand and Amazon on the other. The former two are seen as move innovative and research-driven while the latter is portrayed as a relentless developer of commodities and utilities. Amazon apparently uses "internal press-releases" which describe the solution as though it’s already happened. This makes you consider the outcome rather than the implementation. It helps you judge the real worth of it.

Anyway, there's lots more in the essay including specialist versus fullstack knowledge, t-shaped people, doing government projects as an SME, big data, scalable cloud computing, people-centric security, and quarterly personnel reviews. The summary is to think more holistically. It is a little bit motherhood-and-apple-pie at times, but touches on so many topics it is probably worth your time at least skimming.

I'll finish with one of Simon Wardley's favourite related quotes. Deng Xiaoping is said to have once described managing the Chinese economy as:

"crossing the river by feeling the stones"

In other words, have a direction but be adaptive.

[gfader]

What legacy do you carry with you that hinders innovation?

The Answer: There was significant management inertia in Blockbuster that prevented them realising quickly enough that revenue was substantially declining; that the rental price of the real estate they had was crippling their ability to pivot towards a new business model. Netflix, being a new business, had none of this legacy either in terms of assets, structure, ways of thinking or resources. In short, they were a more agile business.

from https://github.com/gchq/BoilingFrogs

What legacy do you carry with you that hinders innovation?

[youngandalwayshungry]

Be a frog who cares.

Someone once shared this anecdote with me:

"If you take a frog and throw it in a pot of boiling water, the frog will immediately recognize the danger and jump out. However, if you were to put that frog in a pot of cold or room temperature water and slowly increase the heat, little by little, the frog would slowly adapt and have no idea he is dying a slow, drawn out death."

So terrible to think about, I know. But it's actually not a bad analogy. If we slowly adapt to our own discomfort over a long period of time, how can we actually know if or when we are truly unhappy? When is it time to walk away from that negative friend or tell the guy you've been seeing "I deserve better." Why do you continue to allow others to take advantage of your work ethic and willingness to "do it all" without any acknowledgment of being spread too thin? 

I feel like I have a high tolerance for pain, sweat and hard work, but every now and then you hit that point when you just need to step back and say, "Enough." Maybe that "point" doesn't come in the form of a scalding pot of hot water, but it is the moment that you realize if you don't make changes now, you are letting yourself die of contentment.

I don't want to end up like that. I deserve better, and so do you. But it's not enough to just say it any more. Fear is no longer a good enough excuse to stay unhappy. And "tomorrow" will always be there...but will you? Let's not be afraid to #besomebody who matters; to stand up, to step out and #besomebody who cares. 

Boiling point is fast approaching.