Fragile? Processes, Automation, Outcomes, Decisions . . .

Fragile Automation – Processes, Outcomes, Decisions . .

This week’s brain food was an excellent post by fellow London resident Glen McCracken.

He articulated, very clearly, something that has been bugging me for a while . . .

“Automation is making your company fragile”.

We love to talk about automation like it’s a cure-all:

“Streamline the process”
“Remove human error”
“Scale without headcount”

BUT . . .

And it’s a big BUT . . .

Every time we automate something we don’t fully understand, we are not reducing risk – we are hiding it, compounding it even.

To “fully understand” means not just to understand the tasks being automated, but the upstream elements of the process and the downstream impacts. Things outside our control.

The law of unintended consequences . . .

Like not knowing there is a problem until customers are already impacted, and the service / support capability is on red alert.

Removing effort does not necessarily improve outcome.

Glen argues that “when done right, automation is magic. It removes friction. It scales output. It lets people focus on what matters.”

But the key phrase is “done right”.

I am reminded of the great quote, perennially insightful . . .

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation (process) will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation (process) will magnify the inefficiency”.

Think about the implications of that for a minute . . .

Glen makes an interesting point that “automation should be earned, not just installed”.

We should;