The System Is Your Success
Or Your Failure
One of my Roman Empires is the idea of systems.
I wrote about Deming’s beads previously, which is worth revisiting if you need a refresher:
When the System is the Problem
The Systems We Work In Often the system is the real problem. In a classic example of this, Dr. W. Edwards Deming created the Red Bead Experiment: To summarize the video above, there are several workers who randomly pull red and white beads from a bin using flat tool with holes in it that catches beads. A team of inspectors counts the red beads and then a recorder records the number of red beads. The fewer red beads each time, the better (red beads representing defects and white beads representing good work).
Systems determine everything we do, even if we don’t see the system. Our work, our lives, our actions, are all shaped by the systems we operate in.
In the case of Deming’s beads, the workers were given strict rules on how to operate within their system. And then were rewarded and punished based on how well they did, even though they had little control over the outcomes.
A bad system beat good workers consistently.
The Electoral College
Given we’re in an election year in the United States, our system for electing a president—the Electoral College—gets a lot of attention. And for good reason. It’s a terrible, outdated system that has tremendous negative effects on American elections.
For example, our current system means that presidential elections are essentially decided by a few counties in a few states. Since most states in the US will reliably vote for one party or the other, candidates can focus all their time and effort on a few areas in the country rather than appealing to the broader population.
It also discourages voters in many states where the majority are in the opposing party (and actually props up the two-party system itself).
The election system, in many ways, creates and perpetuates the problems of the US government.
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A Flawed Product Development Process
I was talking with a friend recently about the product development process at their company.
He lamented that the teams he was working with were stuck in a vicious cycle.
The engineering teams he works with have been traumatized by so much rework over the past year that they won’t even begin to consider a new feature or idea from the product team unless every detail is painstakingly articulated for them so they won’t be held accountable for anything that wasn’t explicitly written in a ticket.
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