@johncutlefish's blog

I am currently writing weekly here and have all my 2020 posts here.

Before Adding Process

Published: June 17, 2018

Before adding a new process / working agreement…

Look for these warning signs and antipatterns:

  • Good for the part, but not the whole?
  • Addresses symptoms, not problem?
  • Treats problem as local when global? Global when local?
  • Makes work (and the flow of work) less visible?
  • Solves multiple needs suboptimally vs. better spot solutions?
  • Makes identifying key constraint(s) more difficult?
  • Obscures economic trade-offs?
  • Fundamental attribution error? Over-indexes on individuals
  • Efficiency at the expense of efficacy?
  • Predictability at the expense of beneficial variability?
  • Trace-ability at the expense of outcomes?
  • Limits flow/quality of information? Lengthens feedback loops?
  • Limits valuable conversations/interactions?
  • Difficult to observe/sense impact?
  • Intentionally opaque to avoid harmful micromanagement?
  • Not valuable to customer? Not valuable to team?
  • Removes a valuable forcing function?
  • Reduces decision transparency/quality?
  • Not safe to fail? Wide blast radius. Non-reversible.
  • Reduces psychological safety?
  • Trust proxy?
  • Proxy metrics?
  • Drives a wedge between groups/individuals?
  • Perverse incentives?
  • Driven disproportionately by short-term needs? 1 1Xn3ytqbjryrjVj3aWFZCQ 2x