Gene Kim, co-author of bestsellers like 'The Unicorn Project' and founder of Tripwire, shares insights on wiring organizations for success. He highlights the importance of 'social circuitry' in fostering team independence and integrating functions. Gene discusses 'slowification'—strategically slowing down for better outcomes—and emphasizes simplification and amplification in problem-solving. He draws lessons from notable case studies, exemplifying how thoughtful leadership can create safer, more effective work environments.
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insights INSIGHT
Three Layers of Work
Work consists of three layers: the objects, the tools, and the social connections.
Successful organizations prioritize the "social circuitry" layer to integrate functions and remove barriers.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Checkbox Project Failure
A large company needed a year and $28 million to add a checkbox due to poor team coordination.
This highlights how failing social circuitry, a leadership responsibility, hinders even simple tasks.
insights INSIGHT
Two Problem-Solving Zones
Problem-solving happens in two zones: the danger zone and the winning zone.
Leaders should create "winning zones" by slowing down, dividing problems, and making failures obvious.
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In this novel, Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford tell the story of Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, who is tasked with turning around the company's failing IT department. The book delves into the challenges of IT management, the importance of DevOps practices, and how these practices can lead to significant improvements in efficiency, reliability, and customer satisfaction.
The Unicorn Project
Gene Kim
The Unicorn Project is a fictionalized story about a DevOps transformation taking place at Parts Unlimited, the same company featured in 'The Phoenix Project'. The book follows Maxine, a senior lead developer and architect, who is exiled to the Phoenix Project after contributing to a payroll outage. She joins a group of corporate rebels aiming to overthrow the existing bureaucratic order, liberate developers, bring joy back to technology work, and enable the business to win in a time of digital disruption. The novel introduces the five ideals of Locality and Simplicity; Focus, Flow and Joy; Improvement of Daily Work; Psychological Safety; and Customer Focus, which are crucial for creating an environment that fosters business innovation and productivity[1][2][3].
Wiring the Winning Organization
Wiring the Winning Organization
None
Steven J. Spear
Gene Kim
The DevOps handbook
Gene Kim
The DevOps Handbook provides a detailed and practical roadmap for improving IT in any organization by bridging the gap between development and operations teams. It includes case studies from companies like Google, Capital One, Netflix, and others, demonstrating how DevOps practices can enhance business outcomes. The book focuses on culture, automation, measurement, and sharing, and it extends the solutions presented in 'The Phoenix Project' to cover information security and compliance. The second edition features new case studies and insights from renowned researcher Dr. Nicole Forsgren[1][2][4].
How can leaders wire their organizations to win? Gene Kim explains that work consists of three layers - the objects we work on, the tools we use, and the social connections between people. Successful leaders focus on this third "social circuitry" layer to integrate functions, remove barriers, create independence between teams, amplify weak signals of failure, and practice "slowification" - strategically slowing down to speed up long-term results. He also introduces two other principles - "simplification" and "amplification." Simplification involves breaking down complex problems into manageable parts, while amplification focuses on creating a management system that ensures even the weakest signals of failure are detected and addressed early.
Meet Gene Gene's Story: Gene Kim is the co-author of several influential books, including The Unicorn Project, The Phoenix Project, and The DevOps Handbook. His latest book is Wiring the Winning Organization. Gene was the founder and CTO of Tripwire, Inc for 13 years, an enterprise security software company. In 2014, he launched DevOps Enterprise Summit, an annual event that has attracted over 10,000 technology leaders to date. He has spoken at over 100 companies and conferences, including Apple, Target, IBM, Nike, Principal Financial, lululemon, and Microsoft. His books have sold over 1 million copies. https://itrevolution.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/realgenekim/ Book Recommendations
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