Summary of SWARMing: Scaling Without A Religious Methodology • Katherine Kirk & Dan North • GOTO 2018

00:00:00 - 00:40:00

Katherine Kirk and Dan North discuss how scaling without a religious methodology can be achieved by focusing on data collection and learning, adaptation and collaboration, and mastery. They also mention the need for education and leadership in order to be successful.

• 00:00:00 Dan North describes how he has been helping organizations scale without adopting a religious methodology, by engaging with clients and development teams. Katherine Kirk will discuss how scientific principles can be applied to explain how scaling occurs. The two will then discuss what Dan has done with some organizations on the back of this approach.
• 00:05:00 The speaker discusses how cost accounting principles can be used to help identify where value is being created in an organization and where value is being stuck. They discuss how local performance targets don't work, and instead focus on identifying and resolving bottlenecks. They discuss how throughput can be used to measure how much is being done in a given timeframe that is contributing to value.
• 00:10:00 The video discusses how various stakeholders, including developers and business analysts, have tried different agile methods, but found that they stopped working after a while. The presenter suggests that this is because they are 'walking around at the back' and not getting feedback.
• 00:15:00 Buddhists 2,500 years ago noticed three characteristics of existence that can help reduce difficulty in life. These are change, context, and the arrow of time.
• 00:20:00 This video discusses the three elements of the SWARM model: interdependency, dissatisfaction, and adaptation. The video provides an overview of how these elements can lead to problems in an organization. The video then discusses how scrum or kanban can be used to address these problems.
• 00:25:00 In this video, Katherine Kirk and Dan North discuss how entropy and the arrow of time affect the natural process of degradation and the need for organizations to continually innovate in order to stay viable. They also mention that any pre-packaged solutions will eventually expire, and that religion plays a role in humans' need for certainty and answers.
• 00:30:00 The speaker describes how people need to have a variety of different skills in order to scale a business, including knowledge in business, scientific method, communication, and leadership. She also notes that these skills are not enough, and that people will need to put in some effort and time to learn them. Finally, she urges people to have difficult conversations about these topics in order to move forward.
• 00:35:00 The video discusses the concepts of swarm and scaling without a religious methodology. It recommends starting small with data collection and learning from mistakes, and then adapting and collaborating to scale. Finally, it discusses mastery, or understanding how to work with the grain.
• 00:40:00 The speaker discusses how the universe works and how one cannot cheat success. They encourage listeners to look for the things on the right, as opposed to the left, in order to break the cycle of dependency and dissatisfaction. The speaker also mentions the need for education, practice, and leadership in order to achieve success.