I’m reminded that dropping a tool or technology into an organisation without considering the implications on people is one of the reasons technology implementations fail to deliver their promised value. This is true of a software upgrade, it’s true of a new operational dashboard, and it is very true of newfangled tools built around non-deterministic models. These new tools have the tendency to go off and do their own thing. Where the needs of employees are considered, it is often as an afterthought. Tool first, tell people to use it second. We make so many assumptions about how people will react to changes in their tooling. We promise these changes will have a positive impact on the business, but rarely are these promises challenged. As organisations across the world are letting people go in the hope that they can be replaced by a for loop and a statistical model, I would caution them to closely examine the promised benefits. Once you destroy a team, you can’t just put it back together.
My own efforts to help people use the tools they have access to have been hampered by hoops that I need to jump through in order to get access. With technology supposedly making things easier, it really hit home to me that much of what prevents us getting things done is well-meaning but poorly implemented controls. This week it was access to my virtual workstation and the requirement for scanners, proxies, monitoring agents, virus detectors, etc. to be in place before I could use the machine. I wasted hours trying to figure out why I’d get all the way through to my desktop only to be kicked back out because something in the chain didn’t match a version approved by an invisible policy. I never did figure out what it was.
Oscar turned 8 this week. He was at school for his birthday but had one of the best days at school ever. A couple of his friends brought in their instruments to school and played him Happy Birthday, the music teacher let him play the drums during the music lesson and an older girl gave him a drumming lesson over lunch. When I picked him up at the end of the day was beaming. He completely forgotten about the 24 Krispy Kreme’s that he took in to school in the morning.
My colleague, Nat, has managed to get tickets to EMF Camp for him and his son. I’m looking forward to catching up with him outside work and spending 4 days in field in Eastnoor surrounded by boundless curiosity and wonder. I haven’t started planning the trip beyond reserving a couple of phone numbers for the family and getting our 2024 badges out of the cupboard.
My friend Georgie ported her blog from Wordpress to Astro. She wrote about the experience.
We booked flights to China for the summer. This time we aren’t all flying together. I don’t get enough time of work and am not allowed to work remotely from there. If you are in either Beijing or Yunnan in August, let me know.
I dropped the plus, minus, next from my weekly reviews for now. Energy levels are low and I’ve not been looking at these with sincerity.
Week in Pictures
can I play the drum - after much deliberation, we agreed to a drum kit in Oscar’s bedroom, this is one for a separate blog post
果汁 and 冰激凌 - Ethan and Oscar named these two ‘fruit juice’ and ‘ice cream’
happy birthday - music, and drums in particular are a theme at the moment
heatwave - it’s too hot to sit outside for much of the day. It doesn’t feel right to be spending much of the day in the dark with the blinds closed.
warm evenings - the sustained run of warm stagnant evenings had meant sleep has suffered
afternoon tube - I’m so glad that the brief journey I had to do on the Tube this week was above ground and not during rush hour
homework time - last weekend of homework before the school holidays begin