The most productive state to be in is at the edge of chaos where there is maximum variety and creativity, leading to new possibilities. - "What are Complex Adaptive Systems", Trojan Mice, by Peter Fryer
"My thought when I saw that the newest storm was named Beta: now Google's going after the weather," says journalist and Paidcontent.org executive editor Staci Kramer. I'm struck at how much the software development vernacular has weaved its way into popular culture. (Beta version of a software product is like a first draft for a writer; you only show it to a few for critique and feedback. Although many companies today seem to open up their betas to the world and they are nearly final draft, that's not original use of 'beta'. Alpha is an even rougher draft.)
(Or maybe simply weaved its way into the blogosphere vernacular.) My sister is a university professor and she can't understand much of my blog. It might as well be written in Russian. "Jargon is like proprietary software in a world moving toward open-source," say Stephen Baker of Business Week in his recent post "Why Jargon Leads to Dead-Ends."
When I write only for the bloggerati, I miss out out. When I read only the digerati, same thing. When I devour only tech.memeorandum and the Technorati 100 blogs my world of possibilities and creativity shrink. (Uh, what's Technorati?, I can hear her ask.)
Why so? Breakthroughs occur at the borders between discliplines and cultures. Think of the advances in biotech and nanotechnology, and even digital media. It's people with different specialities--biologists, physicists, guitar virtuosos, computer scientists--blending their knowledge. - Stephen Baker
The reasons that the thought processes and attitudes and worldviews and business models of the software world have spread is because someone somewhere explained without jargon and without assuming a priori knowledge of the discipline. For instance, here's a jargon-free description of agile software development:
Agile software development is much like handcrafting candles: you can build a quality product one dip at a time... Even though it doesn't look like much, the very first dip creates an embryonic candle - a tiny but functional version of the final product. Each subsequent dip merely serves to increase the size (and capability) of the candle... You determine that the candle is "done" when it is big enough for your needs. - "The Butcher, The Baker, The Agile Developer," Software Test & Performance, October 2005 (PDF)
It's second nature to me as I'm a former computer engineer, but it's fascinating to watch software memes (Uh, what's a meme?) trickle into all kinds of areas from politics (Howard Dean) to marketing (citizen marketing) and beyond. And with blogs that worldview can spread quickly into all domains -- if we don't read and write only for the club.
"Jargon is a language of insiders. It undermines communication with everyone else." - Stephen Baker
Three years ago there weren't many PR professionals that would grok the following, much less advocate "open source" naked conversations. (Now it's old hat.)
Mozilla's Mitchell Baker did an excellent job of debunking this point of view, not by directly disputing it but by explaining exactly what's so great about Firefox: "Our goal is to make things easy to change," she said. "It's easy to try things out. You can try things out quickly. We can try 15 or 20 things at once and see which work."
And, she added, that "we" there? "It isn't us." That is, the people trying out 15 or 20 things aren't sitting in the offices of the Mozilla Foundation or even part of the core development team; they're all over the Web. And they can try those things out because, er, the code is open, not because the product costs zero dollars. Sure, most Firefox users aren't programmers and can't do anything with the source themselves. But they can benefit from a much broader set of improvements and options made possible by the open source model. - Scott Rosenberg, Web 2.0 Jottings, Oct 7, 2005
Re-read that and you'd note it's fairly clear language. It wasn't said just for geeks and chief technology officers. It's not clubbie. And therefore it may just plant a seed in a chef's or coach's or filmmaker's mind as much as it does a software development team.
There is a place for clubs. When I lived in Salt Lake, a group of radicals (it was radical then) banded together for mutual support and shared learning and dialogue every month to discuss agile software development. There I learned that local agile gurus like Jim Highsmith and Alistair Cockburn were influenced by complex adaptative systems and biology and rock climbing and fencing and exploratory oil drilling and Miyamoto Musashi. Somehow somewhere they went outside their domains and read up on biology and chaos and complexity theory. Although probably not in the clubbie academic journals. And they brought what they learned from their passions in climbing and fencing to the work.
Alistair and Jim are highly sought after consultants. When I was at a venture-backed startup back in 2000 (read: well-funded, none of this coming out of my pockets minipreneur stuff), Alistair cut me a deal. And still we could only afford a half-day of his time. Oh, yes, they're clubbies. Alistair corralled the rest of the agile methodology gurus (wasn't termed agile until this gathering) to Snowbird ski resort and that's where they collectively penned the Agile Manifesto and formed the Agile Alliance.
But more importantly, they're ambassadors. My sister could read and understand books like Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems (overview titled Messy, Exciting and Anxiety-Ridden) and Agile Software Development.
When Jim and Alistair spoke at an Agile Development Summit I organized, they spoke to the whole audience. Some of them were QA engineers, some of them were software engineers, some of them were business school deans, some of them were VPs of engineeering, some of them were executives, some of them were management consultants, some of them were project managers. And they wowed them. That was 2002. The ripples have spread far and wide. Many of those in the audience have quit their regular business school gigs or management consultancies (or whatever) to focus on applying agile to their domains.
So before you're tempted to be confined to clubbie status (it's an irrestible lure that I've succumbed to), don't forget it doesn't preclude you from being an ambassador. And reading and watching others in fields a world away from any of your own clubs.
p.s. I'm going to be an ambassador and also write more about writing, media, running, meditation, India, buddhism, defining moments, Tao, Thailand, grief, psychology and much much more here as I prepare for the tsunami anniversary trip. You'll be surprised how much of it is relevant to many arenas.
That reminds me I've yet to post (it's coming) a promised post on the beyond competition mindset. It's my most vivid and influential customer experience in the last 12 months. And it happened to me in a country far far away. In an industry that has nothing to do with what I do. And I learned so much anyway.
Update bonus from Kate Yandoh over at Worthwhile's blog: "Go pick up five magazines that you've never heard of in areas you've never chosen to read about. Flip through at will, maybe tear out some images or articles that speak to you in some way, then watch for breakthroughs.
Wow. Courtesy of Aquarium USA, Sing Out! Folk Music, Grassroots Motorsports, Modern Drummer, and Wooden Boat, some new thoughts about a web project, seeds for a future blog postings, a few new words and who knows what else are mine."
tags creativity innovation marketing language writing agile development product management citizen marketing
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