How prolonged and ineffective data strategy; poor data culture, and data-debt has led to organisational schizophrenia!, and what we can do about that.
A blog by Martin Erasmuson
As we find ourselves in the thick of the 4th Industrial Revolution with the exponential growth of and demand for information at its core, the current COVID 19 crisis has thrown a spot light on antiquated information infrastructures. We stumble from crisis to crisis with severe consequences that seem obvious in hindsight, before reverting to our old way of thinking. As we step into a deeply uncertain future, is it finally time to admit to that uncertainty and implement a Military Grade Information Infrasructure that can respond to continuous change?
Microsoft Flow is both a ‘Good-Cop’ and ‘Bad-Cop’ with potential for great benefits and risks in equal measure.
A blog by Martin Erasmuson.
For the non-technical Senior Manager.
“We’re going to do,” said the manager “an organisation-wide data audit.”
“If you like, yes,” said the Information Architect.
“Will that help?” asked the manager.
“No,” said the Information Architect, and gave him a friendly smile.”
― Martin Erasmuson, Information Architect (adapted from ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
A blog by Martin Erasmuson.
Everything is a work-in-progress; things being born/created/built, and other things dying/being dismantled/demolished. Certainly some milestones, like those commemorated by plaques in building foyers, ‘Opened by His Worship Mayor no-one-remembers’ and at the time no doubt accompanied by ribbons, a photographer and a brass-band; but ultimately the building is demolished, the plaque goes to the museum and it all becomes just another historical footnote.
A blog by Martin Erasmuson
There is a natural tension between expediency and thought-out decision making. In that sense information-debt is not necessarily bad. I’ve blogged before about adaptive-strategies and a ‘Good Enough is Perfect’ approach. On a personal level, I’ve used the company credit-card tactically for ease of accounting or while waiting for company invoices to be paid. So, debt is not bad per se. Sometimes a heuristic method is appropriate and necessary, acknowledging that a particular solution is not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but is sufficient to move a project forward, while acknowledging there is likely to be a ‘debt’ once the optimal solution is discovered and re-work is necessary.
A blog by Martin Erasmuson.
The ‘Gone-Viral’ nature of Social Media is now typical of the general business environment. Rather than relying solely on corporate KM systems, organisations must create a culturefor discovery of the information they need, when they need it. That needs to work in concert with deep agile capability to VERY quickly pivot resources to respond to (name today’s crisis here) along with a heuristic, ‘good-enough-is-perfect’ attitude.
Western Governments and organisations have spent decades evolving policies, statutes and by-laws into layers of bureaucracy for everything imaginable; and a few ‘unimaginable things as well. For example; in the UK, “it is illegal to import potatoes into England and Wales if you have reasonable cause to suspect that they are Polish” (it’s the ascent that gives them away) or; in July 2013 a law was passed in China that states “it is illegal for adult children to ‘not’ visit their parents ‘often’” with a footnote that “they are also required to attend to their parent’s spiritual needs” (Wow – though technically they did invent zen).
I still meet the odd business-as-usual (BAU) ‘Digital Transformation Denier’. Frankly I think the jury is out. The digital transformation wave is hitting the beach now. The question; in my view, is not ‘is it happening’ but rather ‘do I want to be on the wave or left behind’? The key question then is ‘how to catch the wave’? This blog is directed at that last question.
