Chasing the Rabbit: Official Blog by Author Steven Spear

The principle thesis of Chasing the Rabbit is that the tremendous gap in performance between high velocity organizations and their rivals depends on two distinctions, one structural, the other dynamic.  

The structural difference is whether or not functional specialties are managed in isolation or always in service to the process or system which creates value for customers/clients/patients.  

Then, there is a dynamic one.  The great organizations are constantly identifying flaws in the ‘jobs’ they are trying to do for the mark, the configuration of the products and services they’ve created to do those jobs, and the design and operation of the systems that deliver those products and services.

This week, I had the distinct privilege to participate in a progam at the Harvard Kennedy School of Goverment, Leadership for a Networked World.  What was fascinating was how value creation in the private sector depended on fire sighted innovators coming to the same conclusions–the pieces had to managed in servcie to the whole, and whatever you design, it will be imperfect, so you have to discovery your way to ever better solutions.

While the examples were boundless, here are a few.  The Department of Defense official who explained that design requirements for programs might run thousands of pages.  Why? There was an expectation that everything be specified in advance to ‘guarantee’ an on-time perfect delivery. The reality? Nothing was ever on time let alone perfect.  The alternative was to go for ‘requirements’ of a few dozen pages, carefully tailored to a few line ‘mission objective,’ with the intent of quickly delivery 60% functionality rather than 100% never.  The result?  Users were normally delighted to get 60%.  It beat the zero they were dealing with in the interim AND it gave them opportunity to redefine–based on real experience–what were the most important mission functionalities of the program.  In short, they had figured out how to compress learning cycles and so achieve better results, more quickly, with less effort.

No less fascinating were comments by LAPD Chief William Bratton who explained the evolution in policing during his 40 year career. The progression was from ‘pre-professional’ policing–give people badges and guns and have them enforce laws as they saw fit, ‘professional’ policing with an inordinate emphasis on post crime investigation but far less crime prevention and finally a migration into crime prevention and provision of safety.

In this latter phase there is great emphasis on seeing little indicators–broken windows, fare beating on mass transit, etc.–as indicators of bigger problems down the road and on recognizing that safety from crime requires a holistic approach–not just police work but police work in conjunction with education, social services, community organizations, and so forth.  Add to that the use of real time data and data processing to ensure that current, coherent information is available when and where needed, the potential for a safe, civil society with protection of civil liberties is greatly enhanced.

For another take on the program, please visit a blog posting by John Sviokla, now of Diamond Consulting, and of Harvard Business School for twelve years.

On using IT to bring current, comprehensive information to decision makers, please see my post about electronic medical records.

Happy Presidents’ Day!

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3. Can We Afford Quality in a Downturn? Can we not?!
4. BusinessWeek.com Video: High Velocity Lessons in an Economic Downturn
5. Discovering our way out of crisis…