Process Experiments

Purpose

One of the great challenges and defining characteristics of running a great organization is the tools and processes by which the company runs.

Therefore, it is worth a conscious effort for our team to learn to be very good at choosing tools and processes.

The goal is simple. Tools and processes should be chosen and updated in ways that:

• Minimize disruption to existing team members.
• Maintain “backward compatibility” with our existing tools and systems.

Scope

Defines how to change tools and processes at Countable Web Productions. This indicates the responsibilities that you have if you want to make a change to the company.

• This applies to changing software tools, meetings, reporting conventions, workflow and other processes.
• ANYONE can change processes in the org this way. EVERYONE must follow this process to make changes.

Dwarf Fortress Metaphor

We like the (flavourful, fanatasy themed) metaphor of imagining we are a mining colony of Dwarves. The main colony needs a stable base to extract minerals efficiently, and should avoid being disrupted unless there is a major opportunity that outweights the benefits of stability.

So, every Dwarf (team member) will probably have ideas where the next large vein of gold is. Everyone from the dwarven leaders all the way to individual miners.

It’s often problematic when anyone, especially leaders, share too many ideas. Instead, dwarves should go off and mine on their own or in small groups. They should tell their team where they are going “I’m going to search for rubies in the easter catacomb.”

If they discover rubies, that is the time to make a lot of noise and get all the dwarves excited and rally the team’s resources to extract the precious stones, not before.

Guidelines

If you want to change something in the org,

• Overall, the approach is to test lots of things, and drop most of them.
• We should be trying many tools and methods, and only adopting the top 10% widely across the team.
• Discuss the problem with relevant team members first! Not ideas, and not solutions!
• Try solving it yourself with an experiment which is as easy as possible.
• It’s up to you to sell the opportunity. Never expect your team members to change they way they work, unless you make a compelling case about how it benefits them.
• If it’s an easy change, it must have at least a “medium” benefit. If it’s a more difficult change, it must have a “huge” benefit.
• The team should be ruthless about only allowing changes that have evidence that they are way better.