Deep Dives

Buckminster Fuller, author of the ground-breaking book “Critical Path,” inspired many people. He was the person who created the term “Spaceship Earth” and invented the geodesic dome, among many other things. One of his most potent concepts was when he reflected on trim tabs. Airplanes and ships use trim tabs to help move their control surfaces (flaps and rudders). They are attached to a large control surface, which would otherwise be difficult to move. They look like flaps on the flaps of airplanes.

Bucky once said:

“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary. The whole ship goes by, and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab:

“It’s a miniature rudder. Moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. It takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, leaving you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that, and the whole big ship of state is going to go.”

So I said, “Call me Trim tab.”

 

The components of the Amplio System

Amplios components can be used individually or as a whole.

Amplio is a collection of 10 different components.  While designed to work together, each one can be applied to whereever you are to achieve improvement.  These components are:

  1.  The “physics of flow” which provides insights on what causes your problems and how to fix them.
  2. The Amplio Learn Kata which enables those trained in Amplio to teach it to others.
  3. Jobs to be Done Thinking which is an integration of the Jobs to be Done Framework with design thinking and how to go from strategy to deployment. This is a far more advanced product management approach than the common use of epics, features, and stories.
  4. Value by Design is a way to set up your organization to create more value in less time and with lower cost by focusing on the quality of the product. It mirror’s the Toyota Production Systems approach translated to product development.
  5. Using the values, success criteria, and constraints of key stakeholders to determine what to build creates a focus on eliminating rework.
  6. Amplio has quick starts if desired. But much of the time it is better to do a diagnostic, see where your problems are, and determine the best solutions for them. This enables Amplio to be used to improve frameworks you may be using.
  7. Effective management. Effective teams need to be working in an effective system. Amplio provides roles for management to create these.
  8. Value stream management and effective organizational structure. How to organize your people is not as simple as getting cross-functional teams or release trains. Amplio has a collection of value creation structures tht can create a structure fit for your people and needs.
  9. Attending to the cost of delay isthe key for quick delivery of value. Amplio’s approach creates alignment about what is of greatest value to the stakeholders involved. Alignment is both more effective and less expensive than coordination.
  10. Continuous learning and transition management is required to create improvement across an organization.
  • Physics of Flow
  • AIR / perceptual dynamics
  • learning dynamics
  • diagnostics
  • stakeholder alignment
  • adaptive practices
  • organizational design
  • VDO
  • coaching
  • Value by Design