Automation in an AI-Driven World
In August, Eric Reichwaldt, co-founder and executive director, Shyft Solutions, Omaha, Nebraska, spent time with the chapter sharing his thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI). Reichwaldt posed the question, “How do we assess risk?”
Reichwaldt pointed out that trust should be engineered, not granted. Reichwaldt referred to a passage in the book Loonshots by Safi Bahcall, where we should be rigid when we need to be and then we should adjust to be fluid as necessary. Reichwaldt then posed five questions that are worth asking in a business.
1. Does our system inspire trust? He talked about a passage in the book Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet, where the idea espoused is “trust is not the absence of controls.” It is knowing that the controls work. An organization needs to build trust where everyone is a leader. Everyone should be able to trust the system.
2. Do we have strong alignment? From the book, Team of Teams by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the thought conveyed is communication is not the goal. Shared understanding is. It’s important that everyone knows what they need to know. Visibility enables autonomy.
3. Who is the team waiting on? Reichwaldt mentioned the book the Phoenix Project by Kim, Behr & Spafford through which he learned we don't manage dependencies. We want to eliminate them. Each dependency creates a queue, a dependency where someone else must act.
4. What can we automate? He referenced the book Continuous Delivery by Jez Humble & David Farley in which the idea is to automate what should never vary. Businesses need to have the software in the hands of the developer and automate the things that can be automated.
5. How quickly do we learn? We don't want to collect findings, we want to close the loop. He said Feedback only matters when it changes what we do next. Reichwaldt talked about the final book Scrum by Jeff & J.J. Sutherland in which speed is not about typing faster but learning faster. Speed is where every lap replaces assumptions with reality.
Reichwaldt also asked, “How can someone integrate AI into their workflow?” He said you can use AI to help validate the five aforementioned questions, but use software to help validate. He said that AI is a signal amplifier. It does not fix the system it enters. It multiplies it.
Reichwaldt concluded with this thought: Before AI writes more code, ask why the code we already wrote takes weeks to ship.
Reichwaldt pointed out that trust should be engineered, not granted. Reichwaldt referred to a passage in the book Loonshots by Safi Bahcall, where we should be rigid when we need to be and then we should adjust to be fluid as necessary. Reichwaldt then posed five questions that are worth asking in a business.
1. Does our system inspire trust? He talked about a passage in the book Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet, where the idea espoused is “trust is not the absence of controls.” It is knowing that the controls work. An organization needs to build trust where everyone is a leader. Everyone should be able to trust the system.
2. Do we have strong alignment? From the book, Team of Teams by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the thought conveyed is communication is not the goal. Shared understanding is. It’s important that everyone knows what they need to know. Visibility enables autonomy.
3. Who is the team waiting on? Reichwaldt mentioned the book the Phoenix Project by Kim, Behr & Spafford through which he learned we don't manage dependencies. We want to eliminate them. Each dependency creates a queue, a dependency where someone else must act.
4. What can we automate? He referenced the book Continuous Delivery by Jez Humble & David Farley in which the idea is to automate what should never vary. Businesses need to have the software in the hands of the developer and automate the things that can be automated.
5. How quickly do we learn? We don't want to collect findings, we want to close the loop. He said Feedback only matters when it changes what we do next. Reichwaldt talked about the final book Scrum by Jeff & J.J. Sutherland in which speed is not about typing faster but learning faster. Speed is where every lap replaces assumptions with reality.
Reichwaldt also asked, “How can someone integrate AI into their workflow?” He said you can use AI to help validate the five aforementioned questions, but use software to help validate. He said that AI is a signal amplifier. It does not fix the system it enters. It multiplies it.
Reichwaldt concluded with this thought: Before AI writes more code, ask why the code we already wrote takes weeks to ship.