In a world that’s getting more and more complex - and where software (and hardware) makes up more and more of the value chain of any offering, whether we’re talking services, products, scientific research, or even spiritual well-being - keeping your high-level strategy and operational realpolitik aligned, your employees happy, and your customers pleased with the value creation you’re making may seem like a somewhat illusory goal.
But we dare say that it is not, even if it may be a challenge.
Join us for our Atlassian Event on June 29th where we’ll showcase how complex business and human value creation can be combined, and read more on our background for doing so in this post.
Business Value Creation and the People Involved
One of the main goals of any business is to design, produce, and serve some value to its customers. It sounds pretty simple, some would say, and indeed it could be, but in reality reality quickly becomes complex, and the processes and methods of creating, capturing and offering that value become complex as well.
Value comes in many forms, ranging from the visual appeal, choices of materials, and build quality of a new pair of sneakers; to the intrinsic qualities and user experience of a new smartphone app that proves just a little more satisfying to use than the five others that you’ve downloaded.
No matter what value you’re creating, you’re probably (still) doing it with human effort as a cornerstone, and whenever you have people involved, a deliberate effort to support that human effort with means of communication, coordination, delivery, and feedback is required.
That is to say, if you don’t facilitate the value creation effort itself, the value creation does not have a good foundation, and the effort will, at best, be of fluctuating quality, and, at worst, be short-lived and painful for the people involved.
The Systemic Perspective
One of my core orientations is toward the systemic principles of communications and leadership, in which the individual, and how he/her is able to express oneself, is - to a large degree - seen and interpreted in context of the social and biological systems that the individual is part of. In a positive, supportive and inspiring work place system, the individual is able to flourish, whereas that same person may be passive and slightly burnt out in a negative, fearful and uninspiring system
The concept of systemic leadership (along with much of the school of systems thinking) is grounded in sociology, biology, psychology, anthropology, and communications theory, and with it comes great emphasis on the importance of the quality of the communication activities between the people within the system. It is, so to speak, in the communication with others within any given system that we exchange the qualities of the system itself.
Culture and Atlassian Tools
Culture eats tools for breakfast. There’s no reason to pretend that great tools can fix or save a horrible workplace culture. There’s simply no way to make up for that, and if your management tries to fix what is essentially a cultural problem with a new toolchain, run while you can, because the pain will only continue - and the value creation severely inhibited - until something changes.
However, if you have a good workplace culture which supports creativity and professionalism, which is supportive and inclusive, and which does not fear a high degree transparency, then having great tools can help you scale that culture - and rev up your human and business value creation abilities.
At Translucent we work with Atlassian’s tools, which we believe are some of the best tools avilable for supporting complex value creation processes in modern organizations, and from more than 160 projects we have seen just how much more value can be created, captured, and served when you use tools that are emblematic of good practices of specifying, developing, communicating, reporting, and managing human and business value creation activities.
June 29th Atlassian Event in Copenhagen
During our June 29th Atlassian event in Copenhagen we’ll give you some examples of how complex business value creation with inherent systemic qualities can be performed across several domains, and how doing so supports great workplace cultures.
We’ll be looking at three main areas:
- Using the principles of Continuous Delivery and DevOps to release high-quality software early and often
- Supporting ITSM processes with service desk systems
- Managing complex project portfolios with many interdependencies.
And, along with them we’ll also have a look at some new products from Translucent that supports your human and business value creation effort.
So, sign up for the event today while seats last, and have a great time with us! And remember: culture eats tools for breakfast, but getting inspired together with others eats being square. :-)
Looking for a software development partner? Then get in touch with us and discuss your needs. We can help you with web applications, master data systems, enterprise system integrations, smartphone and tablet app development, IoT architectures, blockchain technology, containerization (Docker and friends), and data science and machine learning projects.
