On Making a Radical Change

Leading change within organizations is an all-consuming activity. It dominates my life because human beings change so long as they do not have to change personally. Any change is uncomfortable, awkward, and challenging to process, mainly when it involves a person's career. This week, I am making a significant change in my life, and I feel compelled to talk about it. 

I have two rules regarding this blog. I avoid discussing partisan politics because there are better places to find that content. I also do not talk about my personal life. The apparent reason is that I consider it vain and not crucial to my overall mission of talking about making business more sustainable, satisfying, and sane. I share my thoughts about software development, agile, leadership, entrepreneurship, and improving business each week. I have upheld these rules for over twelve years. I am a lonely voice in the wilderness. Today, I am going to break with tradition. 

My career is typical of many people of my generation. I attended college only to graduate into an unwelcoming job market, and then I stumbled into a different profession after spending my young adulthood working various odd jobs. The internet and technology gave me a livelihood and a calling. I did pay the price for that call. Being a junior programmer meant years of career instability. The constant stress of fixing problems for impatient employers with tight deadlines impacted my ability to remain married and live a healthy lifestyle. The blog you are reading was born during the wreckage of my second divorce.

My tool for dealing with stress and failure was food. I ate, and I overate. I gained weight by combining this pathology with a sedentary career and lack of exercise. At my heaviest, I was three hundred and forty pounds. Consequently, this neglect leads to complications like gout and high blood pressure. During the summer of 2022, I was on vacation, and my weight prevented me from enjoying myself. The heat was too much. Walking from place to place was exhausting, and I felt like I was a wet blanket with the woman who loved me. It was a moment of clarity, and I decided I needed to change. My obesity was starting to impact my relationships and my health. This week, I am undergoing weight loss surgery, starting a year-long process of living a better and healthier life. 

If I had to take this drastic step to effect change, I wonder why executives and professionals struggle to make a change when they have their moment of clarity. I can speculate, but it will not be helpful as I need to concentrate on my health and the journey I am about to begin. 

Change can happen in small increments or through drastic action. Weight loss surgery is necessary if I want to stick around and continue my professional mission of improving the business world. I will be a different person with the same dedication to making life better for everyone who works in an office one cubical at a time. 

Until next time. 

The Sky is Not Falling in the Technology Sector

The internet is a beautiful place. At any moment, you can look up any piece of information. For instance, if you want to learn about penguins, you can visit this Australian website to get the latest news. Likewise, if you are searching for a different kind of wildlife, you can check out a furry convention in the American mid-west. The volume of information is so staggering that it can often induce a feeling of paralysis. The reason for this paralysis is that high-quality information usually exists side by side with rumors, speculation, gossip, and outright falsehood. It takes a skilled eye to tell the difference between a meaningful piece of information and something you can safely ignore. The current economic news out of the technology industry is another example of this information tsunami. Today I want to put the hysteria in context. 

It has been a bad week in the technology sector. Google's parent company Alphabet laid off 12,000 employees, and Capital One gave 1,000 agile employees notice this week. The news was so bad that it became a topic of conversation at my company's lean-coffee meeting. What is going on and why?

The easy answer is that technology companies were over-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic. The workers needed to accommodate binge shopping and streaming with people stuck at home. As things began to return to usual, those people were no longer necessary, and capitalists decided to shrink their workforces. We also witnessed companies paying the price for making poor decisions. For example, Amazon grew its warehouse operations too quickly and now must cut back. Another poor choice was Mark Zukerburge creating a fifteen billion dollar money pit called the metaverse. Sooner or later, companies have to face economic reality and cut back on jobs, particularly if they lose money. 

It is easy to get caught up in the gloom and doom. In the wake of this bad news, the internet and social media have been filled with plenty of poor takes on what is happening. Most people need to understand that even with these layoffs, there is a shortage of people who know how to write software and maintain the complex networks and databases that run the global economy. The prospects of these people who are collateral damage in the economy today have the skills and expertise that many companies today demand to be competitive. It stinks to get fired or laid off, but they will bounce back better than before.

A worse take is that it is payback for years of employee entitlement in the technology sector. I even see articles claiming CEOs rooting for Elon Musk and his desire to transform the Twitter workforce into a 'hardcore' team. As a survivor of the dot.com crash of the early 2000s, what is happening is a natural cycle of boom and bust in technology. Venture capitalists want to earn money from their investments, and shareholders need to receive dividends. The cutback in staffing and perks is a natural result of the tension between the demands of workers and business owners. As the talent pool becomes more shallow, I expect bonuses and perks to come back. 

The final lousy take is the layoffs at Capital One represent a rejection of Agile as a way of delivering software. I am not on the inside of the organization, but it was clear to me that the company was paying lip service to agility while not doing what was necessary to be successful. I liken it to a person unwilling to exercise and eat better with the expectation that they will lose weight. Sjoerd Nijlan points out on Medium that the callous nature of laying off the entire agile staff at Capital One looks more like an admission they were unwilling to change than a failure of agile. Frankly, I want to hear from people on the inside to understand the experience of attempting to transform a company that was unwilling to change. 

These layoffs take a severe toll on the people who used to work for those companies. Layoffs impact not only the former employees but also their families and communities. Empathy and understanding are necessary for these folks going through a difficult time. We also need to acknowledge that while they are suffering, these workers will be back in the workforce because they have skills that are in high demand. The sky is not falling for the technology industry and agile; instead, it is one of the many cloudbursts in the turbulent atmosphere of technology and capitalism. People will get rained on, but the good news is that most of us have umbrellas and a place to find shelter until the storm passes. It will pass.

Until next time. 

Can Someone Give me a Call!

It is a familiar aphorism in intellectual circles that history does not repeat, but it often rhymes. Last week, I talked about how technical debt and poor maintenance helped ground Southwest Airlines during one of the year's busiest travel periods. This week, the FAA software, which helps maintain air traffic safety, crashed, causing planes to halt for the better part of the morning. 

The system in question is called the NOTAM, which stands for "notice to Air Missions." It is a general-purpose system that tells pilots about hazards they might encounter moving commercial flights from place to place. An air show could fill up the airspace around Wichita, or a flock of birds could clog up a flight path to Cleveland. Air traffic controllers and pilots count on this system to avoid accidents. When the system went down, air traffic came to a crawl, and customers were grounded. 

As the crisis unfolded, it became clear that a software update caused the crash and upset the system. Someone uploaded a corrupt file, killing the central NOTAM system and the backup. The responsibility for uploading that system was with an outside contractor, not an FAA employee. My heart sank when I learned this because I made a mistake like this on a much smaller scale. I broke 56 credit card transactions out of 1800 for TOMS shoes during the holiday shopping season in 2008. It was a fraction of a single day's business, but it was enough of the hassle that TOMS shoes threatened to stop paying the consulting company for the trouble caused. Our company was withheld payment from TOMS for December even though we fixed the problem within twelve hours. A week before Christmas, my company fired me, and to this day, I still harbor some ill will toward TOMS and its brand. 

I imagine a consultant is looking for a new job after making a similar mistake. Unfortunately, I think that mishaps like this happened because the FAA and the contractor created a NOTAM system that was fragile and easy to break. According to John Cox, an aviation safety expert, an outage like this has not happened in 53 years. Fifty-three years without an outage is a mighty impressive record in the IT industry. Reliability like this gets CIOs extensive bonus checks. Still, it looks terrible that air traffic controllers and pilots are grounded because a software update did not go well. 

Delta airlines CEO Ed Bastian called the shutdown unacceptable but said that the incident was not the fault of the FAA but instead the result of a lack of funding. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington said that Congress would hold a hearing on the subject. In my last blog, I said moments like this were necessary to point out system problems and call attention to maintenance and technical debt. A moment of clarity should focus the minds of members of Congress and members of the executive branch toward improving the system.

So far, the FAA website has one update on January 11th about the outage, and the news has moved on to other subjects. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said that they have made some changes to prevent this from happening again. Still, I suspect it will take more than changing the procedures to ensure something like this does not happen again. I am suspicious that decades of technical debt and outdated servers are at the heart of the NOTAM system. It looks like the perfect project for an Agile coach and change agent to make a difference. Secretary Buttiegieg, give me a call, and we can talk about how I and CAPCO can help update your systems. 

I must confess that I am a little glib about the subject, but technical debt is a big deal. We have spent plenty of time and energy making systems efficient, so they are not resilient when bad things happen. Making systems faster, better, and cheaper is essential, but it undermines our trust in those systems if they are not resilient. Eventually, that lack of confidence will hurt the airline industry and the country. That is something that no one wants. 

Until next time. 

Southwest and Lessons of Technical Debt

Kicking over an ant hill resembles an Irwin Allen disaster movie. It is a frantic and desperate scene. Insects scurry in all directions attempting to make sense of the catastrophe and repair the damage. Some ants try to bite or sting the offender who upset their home. It constantly happens in nature, and the scene is repeated in business as unforeseen events conspire with neglect to create desperate situations for professionals. The latest example is the recent trouble at Southwest Airlines as it attempts to recover from bad weather and worse software. Today, we kick over a metaphorical ant hill and look at how to avoid this catastrophe. 

News stories circulated over the holidays about Southwest Airlines and countless passengers stranded in the middle of holiday travel. The press was so bad that Southwest offered 25,000 free air miles to its passengers as a sign of goodwill. How on Earth did this happen, and why? 

While working on my MBA, Southwest Airlines was a thorough case study on how to run a business properly. Flight attendants worked with management to understand scheduling. The organization and its labor union have a collaborative relationship. A reality TV show featured Southwest gate managers highlighting customer service challenges. Seeing headlines featuring incompetence and dissent within the Southwest organization was discouraging. 

How did such a great business fall so quickly? The answer became clear when Business Insider shared an open letter from the head of the pilots union, which pointed out that the former CEO, Gary Kelly, did not invest in updated software for pilot scheduling. Kelly also packed the organization with cronies with a common background from the accounting program at the University of Texas. Discussion about how to run the business moved from the pilots and other employees to the executives' leadership surrounding Kelly. It was great for the organization's profitability, which made money when other airlines faltered, but it was a situation where the qualities that make Southwest unique atrophied. Most damming was the deliberate neglect of technical debt in the company's software scheduling of pilots. 

I talk about technical debt as an agile coach and consultant. I have written about the subject on several occasions. Software and data are as vital to customer service as adequately trained people and well-maintained aircraft. As software continues to eat the world, it is incumbent that business leaders pay attention to the operation of their software systems because if they do not, they will experience expensive and embarrassing episodes of business interruption. It appears that Kelly, who is still the chair of the board of Southwest, is being exposed to that costly lesson.

Technical debt in a business organization point to deep organization failures. If a business fails to update its systems, it shows it does not care about the proper operation of the company. Somewhere, someone calculates that updating systems does not have an immediate financial benefit, so they neglect it. Over a series of years, the systems become more brittle and unable to deal with changing conditions. The result is ill will from customers, lawsuits for poor service, and a large financial hit to the organization. All of which could have been avoided if leadership had paid attention to the technical debt sooner. The east coast snowstorm around Buffalo was the final straw, and it took Southwest longer to recover. 

I am not surprised by this story. Many organizations have this problem, and it takes an event like this to make it relevant to business leaders. In truth, having your organization experience something like this is an excellent way to avoid inertia and complacency. By having your metaphysical ant hill kicked over, you pay attention to the operational issues that matter. Southwest will pay for this; I hope they have learned their lesson.

Until next time. 

Looking ahead to 2023

I am confident that when historians look back on 2022, they will see a fragile global culture and society. The New Yorker magazine pointed out that after a certain point, the sensation of an emergency feels like the wind and rain – part of a regular weather pattern. As an emotional coping mechanism, ironic resignation can be helpful, but you're still cold and damp when caught in bad weather. As the foul weather blows, plenty of people are looking for ways to provide umbrellas, raincoats, and rubber boots. I am trying to be helpful, and I thought I would kick off the first blog of the new year after my holiday sabbatical with my annual predictions for the year ahead.,

Welcome to Gridlock –

If you thought politics and government were weird in 2022, wait until the new year. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives is a razor-thin four seats which means we will see how well the Republican caucus can act united. It is not some tiny feet because a defection will give Democratic legislators a victory. It will also amplify the members of Congress who are good at attracting attention instead of getting things done. 

It also means that we will have a divided legislature between the House and Senate, so for a change, the House will become a place where legislation will go to die instead of the Senate. If you dislike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, you will grind your teeth watching Lauren Boebert with subpoena power and a speed dial to conservative media. Expect plenty of shouting, investigations, and futile gestures to come out of this Congress. In the meantime, events on the ground will move faster than the government.

An AI for everyone –

Computers and neural networks are making logarithmic progress. The news about chat GPT is impressive. It can have conversations for typical customer service interactions, write basic python code, and write essays for lazy college students. It is great news for computer scientists, but it raises many questions. In his book "The Precipice," Toby Ord points out that artificial intelligence, without proper regulation or understanding, might threaten human survival by treating humans as a threat to its existence. It feels like the classic science fiction movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project." I share many of Ord's concerns but am more worried about what this will do to the business world and education. 

Teachers are in an escalating war with students who want to use Chat GPT to create essays and do research. So far, experienced teachers have pointed out that Chat GPT only does "C" level work, but the technology will improve, giving students less incentive to write and do their research. I suspect it will negatively impact the average person's writing ability, making it harder for employers to find and hire people who understand the written and spoken word. It will be a net minus for society.

From a business perspective, employers will need fewer white-collar workers to do routine work for their businesses. Now an AI can review insurance claims or process accounts receivable. It is an easy decision for the business person because AI does not get sick, gossip around the office, or form labor unions. What happens to the workers displaced by this technical advance? The answers are unclear, but if you are good at math and technology, I recommend you learn more about neural networking and artificial intelligence because those who excel at those skills will make plenty of money.

Fediverse – Yes, Please

When Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he took over in famous fashion walking into the offices with a sink. He then tweeted, "Let that sink in!" Since that moment, the company has been on a strange and ugly journey to become profitable. As a casual Twitter user, I did not feel safe or welcome under the new management, so I quit. I then joined Mastodon, and while smaller, it seems like a more pleasant community online. It is also part of a more extensive network of services known as the "Fediverse."

This system is unique because it treats social media, podcasting, video, and pictures like e-mail. All you need to do is build a server, and you are in business, and the systems are interoperable. People enjoy social media and connecting with others. Mastodon and other Fediverse services are an alternative to the extensive technology services with their inherent problems with harassment and privacy. I am still trying to decide about the blogging tools, but I hope that changes in 2023. Otherwise, consider me an early adopter and drop me a line at @ewisniowski@mastodon.sdf.org. 

Quick hits –

The Chicago White Sox will be in the MLB playoffs in 2023. The Chicago Bears will be a .500 team. My father and I will be first in line to see Dune part 2 at the theater. I am going to lose at least fifty pounds after weight loss surgery. I will continue to help others in the business community from getting cold and wet with the continuing storms that blow through the global economy. Finally, the new year will be a wild ride, and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Happy New Year, and until next time.