ShootingAndAimingStances

Oblivious

There is nothing to aim at, nowhere to go?

Conditions or beliefs required to succeed:

And if we experience an attraction or repelling, humans and collectives thereof can be perceived to use one of four ways of dealing with aiming for and shooting at targets. Depending on what product is required of a system to solve a particular problem, one of these aiming and shooting stances can be determined and agreed upon as way of "getting somewhere" ...

http://www.moebius.nl/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,17/Itemid,203/

... and we also need such awareness for each and every problem or obstacle we will meet underway.

Investigating likely system responses in an aware manner can reveal and predict system pressures that we may need to deal with on a journey for learning steering and anticipating stances. And having figured out which stance I need to solve a particular problem, is only the beginning of solving it. A required stance may not be one that I know (well) how to do. A stance may be uncharted territory in and off itself for a product and/or context.

Variable

We aim at a target, and when we miss, well, ... we missed, and we take aim again. We are learning to shoot. This approach suits innovative projects where we are willing and aware of entering The Great Unknown. There seems to be no other way for entering uncharted territory than by traveling it and charting it. When used for the wrong product type this stance results in blaming. No one will dare take accountability for any of the problems. Not me!

Conditions or beliefs required to succeed:

Routine

We aim at a target and when we miss we investigate why our body missed hitting the target. We are learning to learn how to shoot better, as in, we are learning how to aim. This approach is suitable for consolidation and balancing. When doing this, the products are processes. Examples of typical systems that can be effectively developed in this way are archiving systems. When used incongruently this stance can result in placating. People will spend most of their energy and time on the system, and the system will come to a grinding halt in terms of learning how to deal with changes in its environment. Every attempt to change anything is done in a routine manner, even when not intended as a routine. Foreign elements get rejected, encapsulated or fought.

Conditions or beliefs required to succeed:

Steering

We aim at a target and when we miss we investigate why we aimed at something else because, obviously, our body shot something else. We are learning how to aim better. With this approach to aiming and shooting we can best create systems on demand. When used improperly this stance can result in head (executive system) and body (operational system) going to war in love/hate relationships or existing in total misunderstanding of each others pressures and their own pressures in irrelevance, resulting in a HeadlessBody with lots of rumors and puzzles flying. People start solving apparent non-problems as if the world depends on it. Other people vote with their feet - now that is really useful for solving any real problems!

Conditions or beliefs required to succeed:

Anticipating

We imagine aiming at several likely targets, but do not really have to shoot the arrow each time. We are learning to predict likely effects of our aiming and shooting stances for that particular product or context for a receivable we are to deliver. This way of aiming and shooting is highly recommended for producing secure and reliable products. Perhaps it is required. When used for a non fitting product this stance can result in superreasonable behavior of the system. A MadStakeholder system in which its people loose time, energy and resources to tracking changes in executive management moves instead of a target.

Conditions or beliefs required to succeed:

Variable and routine stances seem widely known and practiced by many companies, even when products were chosen that would have been better served with aiming and shooting stances mentioned in the steering and anticipating pattern. Many companies and individuals appear to get stuck in the second stance as some sort of addiction to balancing, I suspect in shying away from awareness of The Great Unknown.

Congruent

There is everything to aim at, and everywhere to go?

Conditions or beliefs required to succeed:

You can find more on working with these stances, states or cultural patterns in the Quality Software Management series of JerryWeinberg: http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/books.html

-- NynkeEtkFokma