Bang…
There’s been an explosion. Not a Car Bomb or a Molotov Cocktail, nothing that crude, it was much more sophisticated, it was an Infrastructure Bomb, it…
- Shredded your systems
- Destroyed your data
- Pulverised your processes
- Macerated your MI
- Splattered your specifications
- Brutalised your business rules
The whole lot is gone… wiped… deleted. The waste recycle bin has been emptied, no backup to be had.
But the I-Bomb didn’t result in total destruction. It was humane. It didn’t touch a hair on the heads of your employees. They came through completely unscathed with all their knowledge, contacts, experience and ideas intact.
What would you do?
How would you rebuild your business. Would you replace everything that was destroyed, putting it back exactly as it was — re-paving the cattle path? Or would you do something different?
- What products would you offer?
- How would you organise yourself?
- What systems would you develop?
- What infrastructure would you build?
- How would you run your business if all the constraints came off?
If the I-Bomb fell perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, perhaps it would be an Ideal World Bomb.
Unfortunately there isn’t a bomb
You can never escape the investments you have made and the history you have built. You have far too much invested in it and it would cost far too much money.
Or maybe there is…
Perhaps your legacy systems are a time bomb, ticking away quietly to themselves. Will they go bang or will they just smoulder away, slowly burning everything?
Legacy systems lock in legacy strategies ~ Anon
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I love this, James. I often refer to it as a “controlled burn.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_burn)
Ah, if only… imagine the potential…
Annette :-)
You would rebuild like you would a house, everything would be new. Ensure your structure is strong and will stand the test of time. Then you can start slotting things into place to ensure it is a great place to work and never do things the way you did before as it’s like a second chance to change. Change is a always a challenge.
A second chance to change would be a wonderful thing.
I think the real trick is to create that chance.
Re evaluate which type of foundations you want. Use the materials and labour you want and this time around leave some place for growth and creativity.. I know, utopic, but helpfull.
I like the idea of leaving space for creativity. How do you do that?
James
Name a room CREATIVITY in the new structural foundation where anyone can write their thoughts on how they would help build the new infrastructure, get those involved that really want to be!
Have an internal Blog site, have whoever is interested post, comment keeping in mind that it has to be done in a constructive way. When they are working on making things better for themselves or collectively.. people tend to get creative. Especially if the first rule is something like:”No idea is too crazy”..
Lovely idea, it is a pity that most organisations don’t take that approach
Hi James,
What an interesting idea. I would imagine that in the process of starting again we’d probably, and naturally, look to what was before as a place to start. However, the process of replicating what was before would force us to look at it more closely, discard many things and add new things.
I once read somewhere someone say that the only real change comes at the point of crisis. Therefore, if we want real and fundamental change do we have to manufacture a crisis? Or, just identify a future one?
Adrian
An interesting point Adrian. Pity it is usually too late at the point of crisis