Happily ignorant about chicken farming

A few First Principles for use in our business collaborations

A return to management consulting for me, after a multi-year [ahem, decade] hiatus. Among the benefits of this work is the opportunity to see a bunch of different businesses in action. Through this experience, I’ve begun to gather a set of ‘First Principles’ associated with the ways that we work together in business — both when times are good and when the chips are down.

I’ve adopted/adapted/stolen these from many smart people and publications I’ve been exposed to along the way. Where possible, I have included mentions of those adjacent to each entry.

PRINCIPLE: Technology exists to serve the needs of the business

Yes. Every day. Even if the businesspeople for whom we toil seem maddeningly dense and unappreciative. Unless you are in academia or not-for-profit, your whole reason for existing is to add value to those with their hands on the revenue. Let’s ensure that our business partners understand this, and look to us as the trusted advisors they so desperately need. This doesn’t mean we should always say “Yes”, but it does mean any “No” should be backed-up with a higher-level business mandate, such as, “because if the infrastructure craters, the whole company goes down,” or, “because if we fail the external audit, we lose our charter,” or my very favorite, “because your allocation doesn’t pay for that level of service. If you want to pay more money, I’d be thrilled to deliver more value.” We need to be accessible, appreciative, and glad to provide education along the way. Technology has a bad reputation for building fiefdoms with unscalable walls. This pushes us away from our business partners, erodes trust, and makes collaboration that much much tougher to pull off. [h/t Gene DeLibero https://www.linkedin.com/in/delibero/ ]

PRINCIPLE: Happily ignorant about chicken farming

As technologists, we swim in a sea of complexity. We enjoy that, on some sick level, or we wouldn’t have gravitated to the work. Our business partners likely don’t have the same facility with or appreciation for complexity. And this becomes more true as you climb the chain of command. It’s up to us to translate, analogize, strip-down, and napkin-sketch in order to provide leadership with the knowledge they need to make sound decisions. Leadership shouldn’t be blamed for a lack of interest in the intricacies of our domain. That’s their prerogative. Just as you deserve the right to pick up a couple of chicken breasts at the grocery store in order to feed your family, without needing to contend with the full technological, operational, and moral implications of the chicken farming industry, your business stakeholders deserve access to timely and high-quality technology services without needing to understand or appreciate all that goes into making those possible. The very best ones will want to know anyway, because that’s just how they’re wired. And when you meet those, you’ll hold them close and develop lasting relationships.

PRINCIPLE: Humans are tribal creatures

It’s our history, and baked into our DNA. We focus attention and compassion on those who are inside the tribe, at the expense of those on the outside. That’s a survival mechanism developed because there is no way we can successfully care for everyone. If you want your teams to perform at peak, engender and support a tribal aesthetic. Bring them together, physically, on a regular basis. Seat them together, if possible. Help them invest holistically and take ownership in the work. Bother with the team-building exercises. Share the fruits of success among the entire group. Keep the groups tight — 3 to 12 people is best. A little bit of good-natured competition between tribes is okay, as long as it doesn’t overshadow the larger commonality of mission. Finally, in a matrixed organization, decide what dimension is most critical for tribal bonding. In some situations, creating strong silos is clutch. In others, effective execution demands cross-functional teams that cut straight across the silos. Most resources can only passionately self-identify with a single tribe at a time, so decide what your business needs demand and work to organize resourcing in that dimension. [h/t Tribal Leadership https://www.amazon.com/Tribal-Leadership-Leveraging-Thriving-Organization/dp/0061251321 ]

PRINCIPLE: 20% Talk / 80% Action

Talking is good. Planning is good. Strategy is good. Do all of those things, but _sparingly_. Revenue doesn’t come from talk, it comes from action. Running around bumping into each other is no recipe for success, but neither is eternal whiteboarding. Gather the team, sketch the broad outlines of a plan, and then get busy. Ground truth will prove-out the efficacy of your assumptions very quickly, and you can iterate toward the soft parts as soon as they become clear. Yes, this approach dooms you to some amount of refactoring as you learn along the way. But you’d likely need to do that, anyway. At least with the 20% Talk / 80% Action plan you’re delivering value as you discover your way through the scope of work. [h/t Avi Kalderon https://www.linkedin.com/in/akalderon/ ]

PRINCIPLE: Momentum is our most precious resource

Momentum is self-fulfilling and compounding. We like to say that cash and/or time are the most precious resources. But all daily experience suggests the contrary, with highly-compensated resources languishing in endless meetings and other operational churn. Momentum cuts through the corporate embalming fluid, leaving the rest of the enterprise in its wake. Momentum creates buzz, supercharges morale, increases risk taking, and engenders team bonding. Everyone loves to be on the winning squad, especially when that squad is rolling toward the state championships. Keep the team lean, the scope light, and the distractions to a minimum. Kindle momentum like a precious flame on a frigid night. As articulated in Newton’s first law, the energy necessary to break inertia is incredibly high. Once you generate some momentum, guard and nurture it like the invaluable resource it is. [h/t ReWork https://www.amazon.com/ReWork-Change-Way-Work-Forever-ebook/dp/B003ELY7PG ]

PRINCIPLE: Consultants are people who sow bedlam and then disappear

It’s true. I’m a consultant and I freely admit it. My job is to crash land, create something that wasn’t there before, and get out of the way. Ultimately, the in-house team will be left holding the bag, regardless of what it contains. On the other hand, consultants can bring valuable perspective and generate tremendous focus around a project or opportunity. Reap the benefits while mitigating the risks by keeping consultants on a short leash. Surround them with high-quality in-house resources who participate directly in all of the work that they do. These are the folks who will carry the work forward after the consultants roll their luggage to the airport and disappear. If you don’t have enough in-house resources to partner at this level with the consultants, you don’t have enough in-house resources.The materials [documentation, code, designs, user experiences, whatever] that are created during the engagement represent only a fraction of the benefit. The real value takes the form of the knowledge that is generated through that construction process. And you want that value baked-into the resources who will keep coming to work long after the consultants have wheeled their carry-ons out the door. [h/t Ira Tau https://www.linkedin.com/in/iratau/ ]

Let’s all agree to these basic principles as a starting point for all of our work together, and move forward from there.

How about you? Any core tenets you’d add to the list?