More with less

The challenge
How can we make whatever we do in schools

• as simple as we can
• as functional as we can
• as cheap as we can
• as freely inter-connectable as we can

Rationale
We need simple ways of doing things: they need to

• be functional - simple, reliable, predictable
• be cheap - available, easy to do and easy to use in new ways and contexts
• be high performance actions returning substantial value
• be useful as building blocks, that is,

• they connect with other things that we do and 
• they connect people who share interests and responsibility

Quotes

• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" - Einstein
• "You know you have achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away"  - de Sainy-Exupery

Reference:
George Whitesides: Toward a science of simplicity (TED Talks, Apr 2010)

The case for innovation

We are entering an new stormy era. Governments do not have the financial resources to do all the things we want them to do in the way that things have been done in the past. But even this is not fundamentally new:

"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." - Abraham Lincoln 1 Dec 1862

One of the major constraints is that we are "enthralled" (Lincoln) and/or "entrained" (Snowden) by the past. So we try to improve and reform on the basis of the past. But will this work? Consider this!!

Dave Snowden has proposed that there are three necessary, but not sufficient conditions for innovation to take place. These are:

1. Starvation of familiar resource, forcing you to find new approaches, doing things in a different way;

2. Pressure that forces you to engage in the problem;

3. Perspective Shift to allow different patterns and ideas to be brought into play.

The cutbacks and the need to continue create the first two conditions. The third condition is a matter of choice and opportunity. Some possible perspective shifts available for you to choose are here. The opportunity to choose will be a combination of

• your awareness of the possibilities (the cutbacks should generate a steep learning curve)
• external constraints imposed by the system and the expectations of stakeholders.

Cutbacks and innovation - doing more with less

The vast majority of governments need to reduce their spending. Ours is no exception and this is not going to change. It is a world-wide phenomenon. The challenge is how to do more and more with less and less.

The "more" is about providing/adding more value. The "less" about spending less time, effort, social capital, $....

Cost and value are connected but their relationship can change and can be changed.The present budgetary difficulties represent an opportunity for real innovation. But the key is to understand the links between costs, activity and value. Finding new and better ways to do what needs to be done (activity) can greatly improve the relationship between cost and value.

Build capacity and resilience

• Find the Holy Grail in your situation and ask "Whom does it serve?"  (see the Fisher King)
• ACT on sound theory, principles & heuristics - needed in periods of rapid change and uncertainty
• Work from the present reality - good, bad or indifferent
• ALWAYS start by making things easier - reduces costs; releases resources; enables people to more and better
• FIX the Broken Windows - tackle the common, important issues collaboratively
• LEARN from what happens - do prompt post-mortems and immediately update planning for next time (PDSA)
• be business-like - STOP doing things that don't produce value - 100% cost saving; no change to value
• DON'T ask permission - just DO IT: if it is the right thing to do, you don't need permission
• use focused technology (tools) in new and more productive ways. "Innovation comes from people who are responsible only to themselves."
• develop better working relationships: it is everyone's job to
• know what is happening
• work with others to make sense of, and  improve, what is happening
• make it easier for the next person to do their work well
• reduce waste and rework
• make policies and regulations helpful (make things easier)
• find or create synergies - break down barriers to collaboration
• move from "either-or" (win-lose) thinking to "both-and" (win-win) thinking
• improve processes continuously
• understand the difference between change and improvement
• work towards well understood shared purposes
• understand and manage your levels of response
• provide flexibility to increase responsiveness and initiative
• discover what's already working and support its wider deployment
• focus on solutions (not problems)
• avoid counter measures - get it right the first time - counter measures are waste
• invest in prevention (SWPBS, restorative practices, SEL...
• align and improve activity (purposes, processes, systems) before changing structures
• reduce multitasking - it slows things down!!
• understand and respond according to the phenomena involve
• fix the simple things
• get good advice about the complicated things
• try some safe-fail experiments for complex things
• impose order if there is (genuine) chaos

These kinds of development work best as decision making moves away from traditional command and control, production line and linear systems thinking towards more open and flexible arrangements. It works best as decision makers understand their task is to nurture emergence.

The starting point for such a shift in the thinking of policy/decision makers is to acknowledge that

• under stress, there is a natural urge for management in increase their use of command and control
• while they may be in charge, decision makers are not in control
• they are somewhat removed from the action that is the source of real value
• no-one has the whole story of what is happening
• the staff in the field frequently save an organisation from its own plans and policies (by creating and implementing the necessary workarounds)

The initial steps may be to

• revisit and re-affirm core purposes
• rethink working relationships
• join the dots - understand how and where value is produced, and how value flows, throughout the organisation
• reduce spending as required
• manage for it is ideal
• simplify as much as possible

The implications are that it takes the knowledge and efforts of everyone, working in collaboration, to make the organisation more cost effective. Unilateral decision making by management is unlikely to achieve the best possible outcomes - it is rarely more than tampering. Tampering increases costs and reduces value.