Tag: Planning Archives — Duck for Cover

From automated coffee to automated everything with the internet of things

Back in the 1980s, Mr Coffee automatically brewed your coffee for you in the morning. No, this wasn’t a friendly fellow with a convenient surname. It was a machine designed to appease your caffeine addiction.

Years later, the fad of automated coffee is still present but we all seem happy enough to walk to our favourite café and wait in line for one made by a chirpy barista.

But while we wait, our smartphones automate and connect with the entire planet appeasing an even larger suite of needs: social, entertainment, communication, education and so on. I call it ‘Mr Phone’.

These devices have already changed us. They have connected us to the lives of friends and family as well as our work colleagues. It’s often the first thing we check in the morning, right before that semi-automated coffee.

The smartphone is essentially a part of us whether we like it or not. But what if this was just the beginning?

An interesting global megatrend called ‘the internet of things’ aka ‘Mr Everything’ looks to radically transform us. Essentially, it involves the interconnectivity of everything around us through technology.

Here’re a few changes to your life once the internet of things really takes off.

You won’t need to take care

When cars can talk to each other and the infrastructure around them, they will be unable to collide. This means the almost elimination of road trauma and eventual redundancy of law enforcement on the road.

You won’t need to plan

Your pantry and refrigerator will automatically scan to see if you are getting low on groceries and will automatically scan supermarkets for the lowest prices online. The supermarket will deliver the items to your door or log your shopping list for when you arrive.

You won’t have to worry about your health

Personal sensors will allow monitoring of health remotely, freeing up hospital beds. Significant changes in health will automatically trigger the medical response who will be available before you even realise you are in danger.

You will be mentally healthy…finally

Your smartwatch will be able to measure your heartrate and infer your mood. It will be able to talk to other devices to examine your habits, alerting you to modify those habits that contribute to a decline in mood.

You will be allowed to be absent-minded

Your keys will be connected and so will never be lost. Your smart locks will close behind you and refuse to lock if your keys are inside. Your car will prevent you from running red lights or even speeding up at the yellow light. It will be talking to the intersection before you even get there.

Oh, and you will still have coffee ready for you when you wake up.

Do you really use that plan?

Published on November 28, 2014 in Work Psychology by drnduck

“You won’t get anything done by planning” – Karl Pilkington (The Podfather Trilogy)Does that plan really help? Even when it gets to 100 or more pages? Perhaps you’re working with not just one but dozens of plans, constantly being circulated, revised and ultimately not followed.

What about the types of plans?

There’s business, project, program, safety, quality, test, evaluation, construction, design, completion, change management, stakeholder management, communication, audit, inspection, development, training, strategic, tactical, operational, succession, financial, resource, retirement, recovery, travel, environmental, emergency, crisis management, implementation, insurance, contingency, and health plans. There are even plans to coordinate the ever growing number of plans.

With all these plans in place, at least we’re meeting our milestones and achieving everything we planned for…right?

While that planning document might look impressive, it ultimately depends on people to implement it. Here are some psychological factors that influence the effectiveness of planning and the execution of these plans.

It’s hard to predict the future

“That just doesn’t happen”Planning essentially involves trying to think through how the future will play out. There are, however, several psychological biases that undermine our capacity to do this. For example, humans have a tendency to underestimate complexity when thinking about the future, called the planning fallacy. That is, we dream up idealistic scenarios and downplay the risks–the optimism bias–and forget a lot of the complications that slowed us down last time.

Let’s form a team

“Let’s lock ourselves away and smash it out”Of course, teamwork is important but when planning as a group, the planning fallacy is exacerbated. Groups tend to be even more optimistic when planning for the future and they are also motivated to align and agree, called groupthink, rather than debate, challenge and explore better alternatives.

We need a detailed plan

“Put together a detailed plan”No doubt, the analysis and planning activities that went into the plan can have enormous benefit but details and complexity do not mean something is of high quality. Humans often believe more detail equals higher quality or credibility–the effort heuristic.

It can also give us a false sense of security. After all, if we think something looks more credible, then we don’t necessarily challenge it. Worse still, there may be some important and clever ideas buried in a sea of detail that never see the light of day.

What about the people?

“It’s all there! People just need to read it!”Ultimately, a plan is only effective when people persist in executing it. For example, research shows that when people simply reflect on why they are pursuing a goal, they are able to persist at completing this goal for longer. Presumably, asking why helps you reinforce the purpose behind the goal. However, under time poor conditions, where we don’t have the concentration to ask why, performance deteriorates.

There is also a long line of research that shows that people simply prefer to pursue tasks that they want to pursue rather than those they are obliged to.

Although this sounds basic enough, how many times do organisations use performance monitoring, compliance activities, and mandates to try and get people to do things?

What’s the solution?

You mean, what’s the plan?

Planning