Key point: The Operational vs. the Transformational

I’ve only been in the ‘official’ technology workforce for 15 years, but this is enough for me to sip a beverage, stare at the horizon and wax philosophical about the whole thing.

This involves pondering the patterns of the whole and of the parts, and the mechanics in which they interact. I’ve worked at no less than 8 companies (not including consulting) since 1995, and there has been much to see.

Here’s a key concept that, in retrospect, has shown itself many times. I doubt this observation is unique to me at all, but it’s fascinating to apply it to the world around. I’ll put it in italics so it looks real important:

The success of an organization depends on how it handles the difference and interaction between “operational” and “transformational” activities.

An operational activity is very simple. It involves doing the same tasks over and over very consistently and accurately. A bank teller, for instance, performs many tasks throughout the day….very accurately and consistently. A factory worker might assemble the same part over and over.

A transformational activity is deceptively simple. It takes something from one state, and changes it to another. A painter transforms. A car wash transforms.

These two aspects are very different. Yet they’re also very simple. Every activity can be labeled with one of these two categories. If it can’t, it can be broken down into sub-activities that fit.

..which is where most of the trouble begins. Activities are ‘nested’, which means that activities are made of sub-activities. From the atomic interactions of a cell in in a pilot’s arms, to the change in course of a bazillion ton 747, activities contain other activities.

Often activities contain radically different operational and transformational sub-activities. The car wash, for example, transforms many unique cars from dirty to clean. However, it does this very repetitively and with (hopefully) great operational accuracy.

This is important: Every time action passes from one nested action to the next, the different goals and traits must be seamlessly shifted. This shift routinely throws companies, churches, clubs, schools, banks, non-profits, and groups in general for a big loop.

It is not uncommon to see organizations ignore the shift altogether. Ever call customer support after a large company merger? Chances are that huge (probably individually profitable) transformation completely ignored the day-to-day operations involved in your call.

It is also common to watch organizations spend insane resources trying to make one type of activity act like another type. The federal government is great at operational concepts, but they’ll spend billions trying to transform in an operational way. It’s just not going to work. Instead of ‘nesting’ they just try to brute force it via reams of procedures.

You can also see this in how the government is trying to deal with terrorism. Shoe bomber? New operation: Check for shoe bombs! Liquid bomber? New operation: Ban liquids. If terrorists attack again, success will involve exploiting the disparity in transformational abilities and security operations.

When choosing leaders, management, or other decision makers (and we’re all leaders in some form or fashion), it’s important that they understand this concept. It’s also important to find people who understand their own personality and which way it leans. Most of us tend to find our comfort zone in one type of activity over another.

And that’s about it for a blog post. I could probably write a whole book on this concept alone, but I have some operational tasks to tend to.