ask fundamentally different questions

The most powerful use of digital tools is not to cut costs, create efficiencies, or even move faster and with greater agility, but to ask fundamentally different questions. It is through exploring these new possibilities that we can solve complex problems and make more meaningful impacts for customers, employees, and the communities we serve.

Effective Digital Transformation Depends on a Shared Language, by David C. Hay, Thomas C. Redman, C. Lwanga Yonke, and John A. Zachman. Harvard Business Review. December 14, 2021

technical debt

Companies all over the world are embracing digital transformation — the use of new (or already existing) technological capabilities — as the means to better work with their customers, distance themselves from (or keep up with) their competitors, and connect various aspects of their businesses. But to succeed in this endeavor — or even to simply get the most from their current tech — they must rid themselves of a heavy burden: technical debt. Put simply, technical debt occurs when you choose an imperfect short-term solution that will require a more substantial fix later, and includes disparate systems, added software to accommodate them, and added effort to work around them.

Because technical debt is the result of shortcuts — choosing quick fixes over a long-term investment — it causes plenty of problems in the here and now. It adds enormous friction any time people need to coordinate work together across silos. There’s also the ongoing expense to exchange data between systems; the unquantifiable costs associated with being slowed down by your systems, whether you’re in the midst of digital transformation or responding to a competitor’s move; and the price you must eventually pay to redesign and simplify systems. And technical debt and its costs compound over time.

At first blush, executives may dismiss technical debt as the province of their IT departments. That conclusion camouflages the root cause of the issue, however. In truth, technical debt stems from the way the businesses are structured, and how departments develop their own systems and languages for getting their work done.

Effective Digital Transformation Depends on a Shared Language, by David C. Hay, Thomas C. Redman, C. Lwanga Yonke, and John A. Zachman. Harvard Business Review. December 14, 2021

the essence of digital transformation

The essence of digital transformation is to become a data-driven organization, ensuring that key decisions, actions, and processes are strongly influenced by data-driven insights, rather than by human intuition. In other words, you will only transform when you have managed to change how people behave, and how things are done in your organization.

The Essential Components of Digital Transformation by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. Harvard Business Review. November 23, 2021

the leader as architect

 

The leader as an architect: How Kennedy developed a structural blueprint of core connections via four sensegiving actions. 

Inductive theoretical model of how leader sensegiving enables employee connection-building.

"I'm Not Mopping the Floors, I'm Putting a Man on the Moon": How NASA Leaders Enhanced the Meaningfulness of Work by Changing the Meaning of Work. by Andrew M. Carton. Administrative Science Quarterly. 2018. Vol. 63(2)323-369

we've got that man to get to the moon

 

The U.S. was the first country to put a person on the moon when Neil Armstrong bounded from the Apollo 11 staircase onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. I was drawn to this case after reading a book in which several NASA employees attested to feeling strongly connected to the organization's goals an aspirations - a perception many said they had never experienced outside of this period at NASA... 

James McLane, chief of NASA Space Environment, said, "I can remember when no matter what came along, we used to say to each other, 'We've got to get that man on the Moon,' and mean it. We really meant it, you know..."

Flight director Gene Kranz exclaimed, "We are going to write the history books and we're going to be the team that takes an American to the moon..."

Lola Parker (a secretary) noted, "I don't know of anybody who was a clock puncher. No matter what role they played, that was in the back of their mind: we've got that man to get to the moon..."

Another telling example was that of Charlie Mars. As an electrical engineer, he was far removed from landing on the moon in an objective sense, yet he identified his actions as if he was going to the moon: "One of the things we had was a common goal; and we all realized that we were into something that was one of the few things in history that was going to stand out over the years. 'We're going to the Moon. We're putting a man on the moon!...'"

James Jaaz said that despite working in low-status roles long before the moon landing - including as a "data runner" and an "extra body" who ran errands - he felt a personal connection to NASA's core objective, and he spoke as if everyday actions represented the ongoing achievement of landing on the moon: "Being a 'data runner' was a great experience... I shared... the overwhelming sense of accomplishment felt by my co-workers. I believed that landing on the Moon was what NASA did and was proud to be a part of it..." 

When astronaut Scott Carpenter was asked in an interview to discuss orbital flight and control systems, he responded in a way suggesting that he did not construe his work in terms of these everyday actions. Instead, echoing his belief that the moon was a "high purpose"..., he described his work in terms of the aspiration that the moon stood for: "We... continue to expand our knowledge of the universe, hopefully for the benefit of all mankind..."

Notably, the construal of day-to-day work as "going to the moon" was not limited to astronauts and engineers but extended to employees at all levels - including secretaries and interns. This reality echoes a legend in which Kennedy, touring NASA headquarters, encountered a custodian mopping the floors. Kennedy asked the employee, "Why are you working so late?" The custodian responded, "Because I'm not mopping the floors, I'm putting a man on the moon."

"I'm Not Mopping the Floors, I'm Putting a Man on the Moon": How NASA Leaders Enhanced the Meaningfulness of Work by Changing the Meaning of Work. by Andrew M. Carton. Administrative Science Quarterly. 2018. Vol. 63(2)323-369