Second-Order Effects of AI Integration
When focusing on technology and its ever more advanced possibilities, it’s easy to forget that organisations, and the way they work and function, are still very human. The source of the creativity, and what is created, is driven by the friendships and frictions between people. Over many years working with teams and across larger functions I’ve seen how success is down to the culture and relationships, and the positive collaborations that develop. The common complaints I’ve heard in 1:1s, and what impedes technical progress and the happiness levels of people working within the business, are the result of bad relationships and inter-team attitudes. So, what does any of that have to do with AI? Understanding that success in a technology-focused company is a people-centred endeavour, helps teach us how AI tools help, and where they are dead-weight or actively negative influences. The places they can ease our pain, and where they will just increase it. In the last couple of years we’ve integrated more and more AI-first approaches into our ways-of-working. Time enough to see where the impact has been, where things haven’t changed, and some of the second-order effects of this step-change.
Operating in complexity
There is a natural human drive towards consolidation over exploration. Inherently we can feel that successes are something to be protected, perhaps to build on, but never to take risks with. This is a easy mindset to develop, but why is it dangerous? At first glance, there are many positive aspects, especially for close-horizon time scales. But across longer periods of time, the negatives significantly outweigh those positives. We find ourselves favouring entrenchment over mobility, and change and innovation become suppressed. So how can we optimise what we have, explore new possibilities, and stay future-focused?
Consolidation and exploration - balancing evolution and revolution
There is a natural human psychology for consolidation over exploration. Inherently we can feel that successes are something to be protected, perhaps to build on, but never to take risks with. This is a easy mindset to develop, but why is it dangerous? At first glance, there are many positive aspects, especially for close-horizon time scales. But across longer periods of time, the negatives significantly outweigh those positives. We find ourselves favouring entrenchment over mobility, and change and innovation become suppressed. So how can we optimise what we have, explore new possibilities, and stay future-focused?
Evolving Relationships
Commercial businesses and governmental departments can be some of the largest and most diverse organisations in any county. No matter the strengths of its internal capability there can never be enough expertise and enough flexibility in staffing to cover all its activities and transformational projects. This is where the benefits of external suppliers and collaborations can come in.
Hierarchy Formation in Flat Organisations
The natural and unmanaged formation of groups and sub-cultures in companies, as in broader society, is a well-established human behaviour, leading to many social and intellectual benefits. The diffusion and generation of information and ideas with other people, and connecting those that share an interest or view.
The Psychology of Continuous Integration
Operations people, we love to automate. In the case of continuous integration we want to be able to deploy to production, every day, multiple times a day. Our commits trigger building, testing and deploying through a pipeline untouched by human hands. Or, so the theory goes…