Drill down along the A dimension.
Still not following the acronym order, but pursuing with the fourth one, that we can make a difference on.
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Ambiguity is a mask for non-decisions faces.
Pretending to be covered by ability to manage paradox.
VUCA is a driver of ambiguity by itself.
Therefore it is some kind of turbo self fueling. Some venturi effect.
Solutions all belong again to the toolbox of simplification.
And the other one of agility.
This hack is exposing some lessons learned and some innovative approach, with returns on experience.
Ambiguity is trickier than complexity.
It increases the pressure put on people first, and either pressure or deflation into each different elements a of the global structure.It is very disturbing, leading processes and decision making off balance.
Ambiguity is at work even in very small businesses, early stages, start ups.
So, A as All in one, it touches all businesses.
A as a Anonymous issue, as it impacts everyone in the day to day business, without clear trouble maker.
It is a non mandatory consequence of the creation of new categories of products, services, flows, trades and tribes. Works the same on administration or non profit organization, communities, neuronal networks, you name it.
....while a necessary maturity step is to reveal FACES carrying ambiguity.
It is often disguised under the mask of paradox.
Sub element of VUCA alignment
Ambiguity leads : Is it a door?
Is it a set of doors? With progressive opening angle?
Or the same door from different perspective, or moments in time?
Or is it a cube not yet integrated as a whole?
Do we have enough data, and context understanding, or the right viewpoint to make a fair assumption?
We propose to look at it as an illustration of Decision Gates, such as into an innovation process. So called new Product Introduction processes, funnels and alikes.
Metaphor of the A-suite (Take 1)
Sebastien Zanello, the artist. Copyright 2017.Photo FJ Leconte 2017
Ambiguity is choking growth or innovation, by slowing down processes or projects, and consuming energies.
To the point where individuals and sub part of organization get paralyzed.
Equals Zero agility, as we may create zero gravity with a rapid fall.
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Ambiguity is the root cause of many road blocks, mistake, and above everything : rework, useless loops into processes, and delays.
For what ?
Understanding, deciding, clogging decision gated processes with stressful roadblocks and delays.
Problem becoming : how can we mitigate that risk and balance the collateral damages of the burden of ambiguity ?
Opening or closing gates in a clear way.
Black and white. Shadowless.
"Make it crystal clear " is a nice motto, a noble objective for sure, but not a practical solution per se.
Bad news, we are regularly escaping from the stage of awareness,....as a matter of fact : denial is the dominant behavior when addressing ambiguity.
I witness and measure with objectivity that even in places where empowerment is quite effective, especially in so called agile and lean organization, it is not at all ambiguity proof.
For sure field observation and reality checks so famous within Lean tools ("Gemba walk" concept and actions) are helping to clarify some blur points, or distorsion between feelings and facts.
The efficiency of a decision relies upon the quality, the actuality and accuracy of the data brought to the scene and stage.Under sthe spotlights and scrutinity.
However the output of the decision often carries its own shae of new ambiguity.
Did we agree for a test or did we approve a solution ? does it apply into the tested scope or can we extrapolate application? Is it a temporary approval or a new policy ?
Solution is therefore to educate decidors to the same process control about this last step of problem solving or improvement, or new products reviews, budget decison and so much more.
Was the decidor the official responsible or accountable of the decision made.
Solution is to refer more often to RACI tools describing roles and responsibilities, in order to elimiante ambiguity about people consulted, but not legitimate as far as governance, to make a decision.It is a frequent case with experts, highly legitmate to make a recommandation, and statements, but not to take the decisions.Because of collateral effects that experts cannot see or put into perspective.
As long as collective intelligence does not reach a "meta-level", that is to say the ability to change the decision-making processes, cheap communication costs do not solve the issue of decision speed and transparency. And work outside of silos. In a free zone.
These last two elements are the only factors of enthalpy, that is the capacity to bond and link all kinds of energy positive relations, drving the global effectiveness and sustainability of any system.
Because most remain to the basic level, companies keep adding staff and control mean.
Wrong pick and high cost of re-insurance.
Simplification of the decision making process is a very efficient grid : it can count ho many gatess of decision and how many people are involved along end to end processes.
And it is easy to set objectives of over 50% less complexity and numbers of actors involved into the decison.
How do we do it ? By moving as many as posible from Responsibilities to Consultation status.
It is another practical application of the famous "Empowerment".
This shoud be helpful for those who struggle to translate the word into daily illustration.
Sub element of VUCA alignment
Ambiguity leads : Is it a set of shadows of doors ranked by size?
Or a distorsion of our highlights?
Or is it a flat view of a cube? Like data extracted from a datawarehouse?
Datascience results simplified for business executives?
Did we have enough data, and context understanding, or the right viewpoint to make a fair representation of the business reality?
Can we decide with so much ambiguity?
If we come back to the proposal about liiustration Decision gates, can we be fooled by the shadow of what the new products are supposed to bring as far as features, or value ?
Metaphor of the A-suite (Take 2)
Sebastien Zanello, the artist. Copyright 2017.
Photo FJ Leconte 2017
So the first step toward the solution is to face the puzzling multiple choices carried into ambiguity parameters.
The solution is a change plan driving a transformation requiring muscles, heart and a collective mind.
A plan identifying the set of 1% individual decidors and all governance instances and visiting and convincing each of them individually and as groups in decision making stages.
Heart and mind are the main focus to make it a real transformation leap and DNA addition.
Lessons learned show clearly that the success factor and winning tactical choice is to get a maximum of decidors aware, deyond denial, and capable of driving simplification through clarity on their own.
Organization Ambiguity undermines and slow down decision making .
It reduces agility.
So any reduction of ambiguity, that translates into clarity about what to do and about boundaries : what not to do, limits of compliance or empowerment, is creating additional agility.
A dimension is the tricky entry door to tackle the VUCA and get visible impact on daylife at work.
Sub element of VUCA alignment
Ambiguity is more difficult to handle although it can be measured and reduced or eliminated in a couple of elements of the business value chain of activities.
Especially at Decision Gates.
It is therefore the place where to put all efforts to reduce ambiguity.
Ask more details about all the dimensions of a decision making or the decision by itself is the way.
What is not intuitive is that while simplification of the process is helping to clarify the final decision, or explain that too much simplified description of priorities or decisions may carry ambiguity, as it does not describe all scopes and details.
It is a balance and it is sequence : simplify, reduce complexity then decision making review can reduce ambiguity.But we will see that Volatility may be a part of the root causes to be worked on next steps.
Ambiguity is more difficult to handle although it can be measured and reduced or eliminated in a couple of elements of the business value chain of activities.
Especially at Decision Gates.
Reducing ambiguity will help reducing useless complexity.
Looking at complexity, we also see that it carries additonal elements at the root of ambiguty into the application of decisions as the scope is made of many dimensions and viewpoint angles.
Complexity (containing ambiguity of interpretation of data)
Sebastien Zanello. Copyright 2017.
Photo FJ Leconte 2017
1. Denial : executive and managers ofteh believe that decision are clear enough for action by teams.
As much as teams do not dare to recognize they are puzzled and hesitating between interpretations or even between their own understanding versus ambiguty in the decision.
2.Accountability : confusion do exists between agility presented as an excuse for tactical pivots (necessary) and later change of position (into a stage gates process for instance).
It is fair to recognize a change in data or in decisions, although accountabiity should go back to teams whend decidors ask for full decision power.
3. Paradox shield : an intellectual bias is often revealed when the skill to manage paradox is required from managers when it is in reality, pure ambiguity.
Paradox is about something looking like not logical or rational but right because of context, or viewpoint, or sequences.
It has very little or nothing to do with ambiguity, all about lack of clarity and scope of application of a decision or a guideline, rule, policy, expectation etc....
We will see in next episode that is also combines with the U from Uncertainty...another dimension of the challenge.
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Ambiguity is the mask, faces and disguise of non-decisions.
Pretending to be covered by ability to manage paradox, a big misunderstanding of paradox, or a big lie about management and skills.
Ambiguity is a frequent brake too often activated mainy to gain time or to lower the risk of a decision, not as a risk mitigation but as a shield against accountability.
Facts give evidence about how it piles up and blocks decision making processes that are gates and loops plugged into the whole organic system
It is becoming a thick and inefficient nervous network of sensors.
It increases lead time and processes times with frictions, pain points and "W as Waiting", one of the 8 categories of waste.
Overprocessing is a second victim on the crime scene.
Nt to mention "Mis-use of human capital/ skills" when the right people are not empowerd and everybody must waith for approval from an overoaded, bottleneck decidor.
Aa a summary of previous sections : 3 practical steps are easy first shots
1. the use of RACI grids, but it needs t go down to a ratio calculation in order to target a 50% reduction of RA steps and people involved (a RACI score), by a transfer to Consulted category, and another move to Informed (easier categry to manage at a time of costless share of information
2. The addition ot formal decision of additional inputs and details such as the scope limits and links to time (temporary or new rules to spread).
Decision must
1. bring clarity
2.reduce ambiguity
3.Not add additional ambiguity
I call it : "Ambiguity free decision".
3. Training and coaching of executives and managers, all in charge of both teams an decisions to check on clarity and to quit the paradox umbrella (often an unfair biais as we stated).
We can give many more details about the ambiguity part in further drilling hacks.
We hope it is already a lot of food for thoughts and inspiration for your own first step to wash some of the lack of clarity and responsibility slowing down your decisions workflows.
Next episode will link and bridge to the Uncertainty elements....stay tuned.
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