From my talk at Service Design in Business, 25th November, 2016. http://bizservicedesign.net/2016/sessions/index.php?session=19 To provide a service, organisations must co-ordinate activity across many different entities. These can be departments of people, IT systems or suppliers. With conflicting motivations, they often work against each other, and the customer. Customers don't care that these entities are separate. They see organisations as one single entity, responsible for providing a promised service. They expect an organisation to co-operate with itself. I'll talk through various theories and practices to explain why problems within organisations occur, and what this means for the services they provide. I'll then talk through the importance of mental models in collaboration, their origins and some techniques for visualising shared mental models.

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GROKKING THE ORG
An attempt to make sense of the curious
behaviours of big organisations
Mike Laurie

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Andrew is in the queue at
Sainsbury’s.
His card is blocked by a fraud
detection algorithm blocked his card.

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Monique calls a mobile telco to set up
a new contract.
She gets cut off after 45 minutes of
conversation.
When she calls back, she needs to go
through the whole process from
scratch.

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Anji just moved house, so she
changed her address with the bank.
Months later she notices that she’s
no longer receiving mail from the
bank.
After calling them, she realises
they’ve misspelled the name of her
street.

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Today's problems come
from yesterday's solutions.

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Problems are not the
problem; coping is the
problem
Virginia Satir

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Frontline coping tends to
favour the service provider,
not the customer.

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Anatomy of a blueprint
WHAT CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE
BACK OFFICE INTERACTIONS
IT SYSTEMS

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Anatomy of a blueprint
WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
WHAT EMPLOYEES DO
SCARY TECHNICAL BITS

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WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
WHAT EMPLOYEES DO
SCARY TECHNICAL BITS
Anatomy of a blueprint

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Anatomy of a blueprint
WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
WHAT EMPLOYEES DO
SCARY TECHNICAL BITS

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None of this tells us WTF is
really going on.

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Anji just moved house, so she
changed her address with the bank.
Months later she notices that she’s
no longer receiving mail from the
bank.
After calling them, she realises
they’ve misspelled the name of her
street.

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Jay Forrester
In general, the difficulties of
an organisation arise not from
outside influences (as almost
all of us would like to think),
rather than what we do
ourselves.

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What is the biggest obstacle to
the success of your business?
The economy
Competition in the market
Not being able to increase prices/fees
Red tape
Taxation, VAT, PAYE, National Insurance, business rates
Cash flow
Regulations
Late payment
Obtaining finance
Recruiting staff
Shortage of skills generally
Availability/cost of suitable premises
Shortage of managerial skills/expertise
Pensions
No main obstacle
0 0.045 0.09 0.135 0.18
15%
0%
1%
2%
2%
3%
5%
5%
6%
6%
7%
8%
8%
11%
18%
self-serving
bias

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systems dynamics notation

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glass
water
flow
water level
information
desired water
level
flow
(controlled by a
policy to achieve a
goal)
goal
feedback
stock

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WHAT YOU SEE IS
ALL THERE IS
Daniel Kahneman

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If you want to understand the purpose of
the system to customers, don’t ask the
business, observe what the system does.

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tree
growth
living
trees
logging
tree
deaths
lumber
inventory
customers
sales of
lumber
plant
seedlings
nursery
sell
seedlings
My mental model of…
The London Log Company

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My mental model of…
Spotify
customers
song requests
spotify
audio
server
song
streams
spotify
merchant
account
spotify
investors
subscription
fees
artists
labels
transfer
rights
streaming
royalties
streaming
royalties
royalties
dividend
payments
spotify
engineering
Spotify
accounting
salary
payments
funds
platform
improvements
upload
music
upload
music

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Modelling examples
Insight Maker TfL Escalators MIT Sloan Simulations

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Why do any of this?
• Gain a shared understanding across functions
• Prototype new operational models
• A better understanding of where to intervene
• New frames for old problems
• Anticipate possible unintended
consequences

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Some patterns & theories

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Constraints control
performance
SALES
50
ADVISORS
1K NEW
LEADS
PER WEEK
CLIENT
MEETINGS
REPORT
WRITING
PRODUCTS
SOLD
CAPACITY: 35 HOURS
PER WEEK

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INTUITIVE HEURISTICS
“when faced with a difficult question,
we often answer an easier one instead,
without noticing the substitution.”
Daniel Kehneman

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BIKESHEDDING
AKA Parkinson’s Law of
Triviality

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MULTIFINALITY
Organisations don’t have
a single purpose, they
participate in a value
exchange where all
parties benefit
Ludwig von Bertalanfy
customers
song requests
spotify
audio
server
song
streams
spotify
merchant
account
spotify
investors
subscription
fees
artists
labels
transfer
rights
streaming
royalties
streaming
royalties
royalties
dividend
payments
spotify
engineering
Spotify
accounting
salary
payments
funds
platform
improvements
upload
music
upload
music

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Marketing Legal IT HR Finances
CONWY’S LAW

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Theory X Theory Y
dislike work
don’t want responsibility
must be coerced
require supervision
are intrinsically motivated
accept responsibility
require little direction
solve problems imaginatively
Assumes that employees…

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Didactic Dialogic

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CUSTOMERS
SERVICE
VALUE
DEMAND
FAILURE
DEMAND
VALUE DEMAND V.S. FAILURE DEMAND
The failure to do
something right first
time for the customer
leads to unnecessary
demand
John Seddon, Vanguard

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Feedback loops

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“I never decide if
an idea is good or
bad until I try it.”
Rick Rubin.

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Thanks
hit me up - mikelaurie@gmail.com