Today I had a keynote presentation at the CIO Budapest event. The timeframe was not enough to go deep dive into the storyline, but I would like to post here the complete store.
When I had the opportunity to present at this event, I have to think a lot, which would be the most important message to share. Finally, I concluded the most relevant information. I want to share a related story.
In 2017 I got a nomination for the Microsoft Global CIO Summit conference, which is a really special event. From all around the world, they invite only one hundred C level executives. I have to write an introduction to my attendance, but it was interesting for them, to invite me. I was the first person from Hungary who attended this event. There were a lot of interesting presentations, but one was only, which relevant to this event.
The CIO of Bank of America talked about that his CIO role will disappear in a few years. It was weird to hear these thoughts, but it repeated in this august at the Hungarian IT Leader Association's Info boat event. I was thinking about this information a lot, and finally, I concluded to the answer.
To find out, we need to travel back in time to the 90'-s. Imagine a well-known organization. For me, it is easy, because I work at OTP Bank :) That time if you have any problem with a computer, or with a program, you called "The IT Professional". If you talking with a leader who was a leader at that time, they still asking for "The IT Professional", when they have any issue. That time IT didn't have the complexity, as we have these days. Just think it over! Just imagine how much IT roles you can enumerate!
UX/UI designer, DevOps engineer, Virtualisation expert, Scrum Master, etc...
Impossible to have deep knowledge of all of the possible fields. Easy to understand, the CIO position will break down into multiple roles. As, the number of different fields increases, the time will come sooner. Everyone has to decide, which field they will take. If the leadership will distribute to different persons, how it will work? We will find out soon!
Our world is getting more and more complex. Good to have a map for navigation. I found this map when I met with my schoolmate from elementary school. She introduced to me Ken Wilber's Integral theory book. The book gives a good overview, which dimensions we could use for our personal development. We will have a better overview of every problem. To imagine the possibilities, imagine the following different situations:
If a child steps on a chair, what view will see?What will see if someone climbs up on a viewpoint at the top of a mountain?If someone travels from one place to another, what will they see from the window of the airplane?Finally! Imagine what had Felix Baumgartner seen, when he jumped out from the capsule at an altitude of 31.3 Km?Stay at the past example for a few more moments! Imagine another dimension for the last examples! How much more effort you need, to reach the higher altitudes? You need the same extra amount to have a larger overview of our world.
For organizational leadership, we have the same situation. You need significantly more effort to have a more complex organizational model.
After I found Integral Theory, I was curious, how we can implement this theory in organizational design. I found the answer in the work of Fréderic Laloux. He put extremely significant effort into the research of the organization evolution from the prehistoric age to nowadays. This slide symbolizes great, the organizational evolution. If you go from left to right, you see the evolution from hierarchical to decentralized. Thanks to the change, the decision paths will be shorter, and the organization will be more effective.
After you see, this way of working, a question arises! How can we operate this organization without having chaos? Let's turn back to the title of this presentation: The Blockchain inspired organization. The most exciting feature of the Blockchain is the protocol, which describes the ruleset of the solution. Until someone compliant with the Blockchain protocol, they can do transactions on the Blockchain network. We have the same in our organization. We made a precise ruleset! Until you are compliant with these rules, you can work freely, and you can make decisions. Exactly, this is the function, which makes these organizations effective, and they can react fast to changes! Imagine where you find the information, which needs action?
If you have an IT problem, who will see first this problem? Leader, or the administrator? If all team have authority, who see first the problem. How can they react to that problem? No need to go through the nervous system from the sensor to the brain for a decision.
If we operate transparently, everyone will know about this information, who needs it. If we have the best practice, everyone able to use it.
Ideally, teams work in parallel, so there is much more hands-on access to the systems. But what's the problem here? Currently, most companies have monolithic systems. This way, only a few hands can work at a time, and delivery speeds cannot be scaled. For more people to work at once, they must start slicing the mammoth. That's how we get to the microservice architecture. This new dimension that will help you achieve faster results. There is a substantial unique opportunity for micro-services to cut from the systems to grow. What customization we have done from system to system so far is now enough to do it in one service. Consider what this means when a need for a new regulation or security requirement. And you have to implement just one place.
Huge potential!
If we need to create a new service, we can start with a massive box of LEGO kits. In each case, you have to program only the difference. Sounds perfect for the first time! There must be a shadow side!
Who loves spaghetti? Sincerely! Many love it, but only as food and not as architecture. Nowadays, we have numerous management discussions that this is the legacy of Legacy systems. In spaghetti architecture, all system speaks to systems directly, and this is a huge problem! If, with hundreds of systems, we find ourselves in such serious trouble. What is the problem, when we are generating thousands to tens of thousands of unique stand-alone microservices? You need to set permissions, logging, integrations one by one, everywhere. How do we call this situation? I haven't found the right words for it yet! Perhaps chaos would be the best way to describe it! Although we could call it Cloud!
I think the key to the solution is the same as the one already mentioned for the organizations! That's how all mosaics fit into place! Proper regulation and integration. I regularly tell my team. Before we jump into a task, think twice!
Before anyone starts the big microservice transition, it's crucial to figure out the regulation!
Let's develop our micro-service environment in a uniform, integrated way!
Do not set permissions, security, logging, operation requirements one by one! You can eliminate plenty of later headaches with pre-invested work. Another area that can cause a lot of headaches in such environments is operating.
Let's think! If you need to find out what has happened through a sophisticated 30-40 service and ten possible infrastructure elements per service, how much more significant is the problem compared to current monolithic systems?
That's why distributed tracing tools were invented, providing instant access to a complete call log of a screen or transaction. It's like working in a monolithic system, but we don't lose the ability to scale by element.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, problems need to be addressed in a complex way. Here too, it is not enough to deal with the technological part. For the individual components to work effectively on their own, there must be support from the organizational side as well!
Essential, to let go of control as a leader, and have trust in the protocol what we invented.
Colleagues will also be more aware of their work, with the power of empowerment. As an observer leader, we have the responsibility in two fields:
Monitor the effectiveness of our processes and, if necessary, adjust the protocol.Provide all the resources, what the organization needs to perform its work.If we have a proper protocol, that alone is not enough. Departments can make decisions, but we cannot be sure that they are pointing in the same direction. For independent teams, half of our long-term goals, to move in the same direction, it is essential that we formulate our evolutionary goal, concisely, in a way that is understandable to everyone. Teams will consider in each decision whether or not the decision serves the long-term purpose. There will be incredible awareness, and quick reaction from this on the different teams and everyone will progress towards the defined goal.
There are plenty of digital transformation projects, but few with such explicit goals!
The organization gets tremendous agility if you use the right toolbox! Everyone is moving toward a clear, unified goal, and they can respond almost immediately at the lowest organizational level because they are empowered and solve the problem wherever the problem occurs.
There is one more important thing I haven't talked about so far. Colleagues in teams are not alone. Decisions are made using collective intelligence. If we are thinking together, better decisions will be made, compared always to decide alone. I have high confidence in my colleagues' decisions. When recruiting, I was careful and careful to hire the right professionals. If I hired competent professionals, why wouldn't I leave them to make a professional decision? Of course, the responsibility for their choices is always mine.
Moving further up the topics so far, we can see another factor increasing complexity. The economic environment in which we work.
A network similar to those mentioned above is emerging in the economy.
Let's think about what made Facebook a considerable success. In contrast to the print and online press, they entrusted the community with content services. It has achieved a scale that is unimaginable in a traditional company.
Similar social content production led to the success of the Youtube video content provider. The younger generation is seeing a lot more engagement with content on such a page than traditional video content like television or cinema.
It is no longer just a content service where this model appears.
For example, there is Airbnb, which has developed a broader real estate portfolio with community-shared properties than any hotel group. Here, the power of the community was the key to the business model.
We can move on to the community financial system embodied in blockchain solutions. This area, today, raises more questions than it answers, but analysts predict within a few years that it will drive more traffic than VISA and Mastercard combined.
We can also take domestic examples like MolLimo, which implements a community car-sharing business model. Here, too, the power of the community is what takes profitability to a new level.
Increasingly, network-based business models are emerging that outperform traditional companies in the view of efficiency.
Since the audience is mainly IT professionals, I would like to give an example in this area as well.
Probably one of the oldest models here, which is much earlier than the above examples. Open-source. I think this area is almost everyone's concern today! Looking at the open-source community, it is far more significant than any current software development company.
It is worthwhile for everyone to think about how this will work in their sector. The whole economy is moving in this direction, and it is useful to start preparing for it on time.
To remain competitive in the future, we need to take very courageous steps!
We have to step out of our comfort zone significantly. This year, I jumped off a plane at 4000m. I can tell you that this is a significant step in getting out of the comfort zone.
I advise you to be brave enough to give up your habits! Try new things, both at work and in private life.