Once Upon A Time: Why Operations Mythology Matters

Operations people frequently communicate and learn through stories and mythology. Much like fairy tales: some of this mythology is healthy, some cautionary and some moralistic. Your Operations mythology is a strong element in how your organisational culture is shaped and more importantly can influence how your Operations team makes decisions.

I (with some help from Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm) am going to examine why these stories and mythology matter. We’ll look at how these shape your culture and set the mood for your Operations team. You’ll see why and how mythology, whether you’re in a giant enterprise or a tiny startup, often subconsciously influences the decisions and choices you make and the risks you’re prepared to take.

Finally, I’ll present some ways you can tell good stories, build healthy mythology, make use of that mythology for profit, and how you can eradicate the mythology and stories that give your Operation’s team nightmares.

Transcript

1. James Turnbull @kartar Once Upon A Time Why Operations mythology matters
2. who operations chap Puppet chap erstwhile Ruby chap funny accent (photo by Jennie Rainsford)
3. other matters author hack-n-slash developer pontification http://www.jamesturnbull.net https://github.com/jamtur01 http://www.kartar.net
4. books Pro Puppet Pro Linux System Administration Pro Nagios 2.0 Hardening Linux
5. the logstash book www.logstashbook.com
6. Mythology
7. Myths
8. The Headless Horseman
9. The Bermuda Triangle
10. Bloody Mary
11. What is a myth?
12. Hidden truth Higher meaning
13. Hippy shit
14. Ideology in narrative form. Bruce Lincoln
15. "The real interest of a myth is to draw a circumference around a human community and look inward toward that community, not to inquire into the operations of nature." Northrup Frye
16. It's how communities build bonds
17. Enforce social norms and behaviour
18. Enforce hierarchy and status
19. Why are myths so powerful?
20. Hard to dispute
21. Allegorical not reductionist
22. Usually about something bigger than us
24. Epic stories and journeys Gods, monsters, heroes and villains.
25. The Hero's Journey
27. The most famous journey of all
29. An Operations Hero's Journey
31. A special kind of myth
32. Folklore
33. Artifact Cargo coding Why do we collect and/or keep this shite? What does this script, host, service, application, setting do?
34. Discourse Stories Warnings Watchwords
35. Ritual Cargo cult behavior Formalized process Secret neckbeard incantations
36. Why should I care? "People stick in companies as long as they can tell a good story about it." Romy Misra
37. Good myth Bad myth
38. Why are bad myths bad?
39. Change We can't make it
40. Hierarchy We're stuck with it
41. Isolationist We've got no mates
42. What should I do?
43. Breaking down bad myths
44. Question all of the things All knowledge is derived from and maintained by social interaction. Myth is reinforced with fear and language.
45. Data trumps myth Use science. It's cool.
46. Retro-mortems Break complex phenomena and then analyze the relations between them.
47. Systemic Therapy Approach problems practically Do not assign blame or victim- hood Identify stagnant patterns of behaviour Help systems and people change themselves
48. Building good myths
49. Reality is socially and linguistically constructed
50. So lead by example
51. Use the right language
52. Tell good stories
53. Reward and celebrate good myth making
54. Reward the deconstruction of bad myths
55. Questions?
56. references Ichabod pursued by the Headless Horseman by F.O.C Darley, 1849 (public domain) Social norms enforcement by Miss Manners Inigo Montoya by kevinbolk Bermuda Triangle image by Kuriddiw McFlag by Keoni101 Ducks by Scrumshus The Fish was this big via jussta and Cheezburger Not All Men Are Created Equal © BBC