Vicarious achievement
I have a passion for doing the right things for business results, whether improving or replacing processes. I have come to believe that the conventional wisdom of safe and incremental improvements, of using people as though they are interchangeable machine parts, of relying upon formal and audited processes to cause the necessary communication are false. I now believe that accidental communication, in corridors and canteens, ad hoc meetings and co-located cross-functional teams, these are the trappings of how great things get done. I have sat in my ivory tower for too long now and I long to get back into the thick of true accomplishment.
I used to think that the architecture team needed to sit in the midst of the designers and the developers because our company’s processes were not mature enough, that the accidental conversations where problems and solutions are discussed were a sign of a rapidly growing organisation. I now believe that processes cannot replace the values inherent in proximity and casual contact.