Deriving a set of Case principles from AntiFragile
John Hagel pulls seven principles out of Taleb's Anti-Fragile that could serve as a manifesto for Case (Keith Swenson brought this to my attention):
- Stick to Simple Rules – don’t attempt to model complexity, but rather let humans fill the gap with real intelligence.
- Decentralise. See the S+C book on networks in the Cynefin model.
- Develop layered systems. I'd map this to the level 0 to 3 support model, plus the Standard and Case layers at right angles to those.
- Build in redundancy. Avoid the temptation to reduce action to the minimum necessary to do the job, in a misguided attempt to reduce costs. The S+C book talks about how firemen clean fire engines and practice drills. Lean is not case work's friend.
- Resist urge to suppress randomness – uniformity is not the goal. Likewise the S+C book discusses how diversity produces the best ideas for future standardisation.
- Ensure everyone has skin in the game – it is about shared responsibility, not elimination of any need to know who is responsible. Empowerment.
- Give higher status to practitioners rather than theoreticians – the theories are mostly wrong, but the practitioners are the ones who know it. Experienced case workers know better than just about anyone else.
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