1. “How are companies
inspired to embrace
new developments
that sustain work?”
Ewan McIntosh
Future workplace defined by
- a large pubic sector learning to be smaller
- large corporations struggling to innovate and connect in a faster world
but the nature of companies is evolving fast

2. The VSSME
Future workplace defined by
- a large pubic sector learning to be smaller
- large corporations struggling to innovate and connect in a faster world
- a legion of micro businesses or VSSMEs (93% of Scotland’s companies are micro businesses, with fewer than 10 employees (2010 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/
cmselect/cmscotaf/writev/support/m03.htm))
Many are local shops and services, others are local but should be aiming for global. Others are purely global, and gain no benefit from being based in Scotland at all.
Like mine. We work with creative industry etc..
Our Scottish turnover in the past two years doesn’t even reach half a per cent. 30 per cent comes from Australia alone. The Middle East and the US feature strongly, too. We stand to turn
more revenue over in public sector contracts with Francophone Europe and Spain, countries with poorer credit ratings than our own, than we do in Scotland.
There is a dilemma - stay in Scotland because of some sense of pride, convenience for company setup... or move to a place that provides more revenue, has cheaper tax regimes but a mild
inconvenience of setup.
Short term pain for long term gains, a long term loss for Scotland.
So where does this challenge come from? It’s the way connected, micro companies operate that is moving faster than the population and public sector at large in Scotland, and much of it is
based on the potential that digital offers

3. The VSSME
The Very Small Small or
Medium Size Enterprise
Future workplace defined by
- a large pubic sector learning to be smaller
- large corporations struggling to innovate and connect in a faster world
- a legion of micro businesses or VSSMEs (93% of Scotland’s companies are micro businesses, with fewer than 10 employees (2010 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/
cmselect/cmscotaf/writev/support/m03.htm))
Many are local shops and services, others are local but should be aiming for global. Others are purely global, and gain no benefit from being based in Scotland at all.
Like mine. We work with creative industry etc..
Our Scottish turnover in the past two years doesn’t even reach half a per cent. 30 per cent comes from Australia alone. The Middle East and the US feature strongly, too. We stand to turn
more revenue over in public sector contracts with Francophone Europe and Spain, countries with poorer credit ratings than our own, than we do in Scotland.
There is a dilemma - stay in Scotland because of some sense of pride, convenience for company setup... or move to a place that provides more revenue, has cheaper tax regimes but a mild
inconvenience of setup.
Short term pain for long term gains, a long term loss for Scotland.
So where does this challenge come from? It’s the way connected, micro companies operate that is moving faster than the population and public sector at large in Scotland, and much of it is
based on the potential that digital offers

4. The VSSME
Wicked problems
Definition of wicked problems:
1. The causes of the problem are not just complex but deep ambiguous; you can tell why things are happening the way they
are and what causes them to do so.

5. The VSSME
Wicked problems
Bill Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft: "Designers thrive on problem setting, at least as much as problem solving."
Tim Brown: "Poor design briefs are not normally the ones with too many constraints (although that can be an issue), but the
ones that take all opportunity for discovery and surprise away." The design thinker has a stance that seeks the unknown,
embraces the possibility of surprise, and is comfortable with wading into complexity not knowing what is on there other side.
Companies commissioning services

6. The VSSME
Wicked problems
From mystery to algorithm
Ray Krok

7. EWAN
Ray Krok: machines a milkshake. Mais, il avait un client interessant

8. Ray Krok

11. Aesthetics

12. Menu furniture

13. Bread and pasta baked on premises

14. Roger Martin’s Mystery to Algorithm
Driving through the knowledge funnel
Roger Martin
Companies often stay in heuristics - personal talents which keep people in highly paid jobs
Doing this means more can be devolved to people who are not the originators of ideas
Frees up high level thinking to develop new IP. It’s not about dumbing down their ideas, it’s about
freeing that up to develop new ones.

15. The VSSME
Wicked problems
From mystery to algorithm
And it spreads to every area of business - seeking technologies that do accountancy,
payments, invoicing like ‘pro’ companies (and often more effectively).
Most managers in business crave their job title and eeping that title is ms akin to keeping

16. The VSSME
Wicked problems
From mystery to algorithm
Jobs to projects
In most organisations people have defined job titles,
PROTECTION
The activity of moving knowledge through the funnel runs against most people's logic if it means that their job responsibility and title
becomes defunct - whose goal in this room is to do themselves out of a job?
And the logical activity for making knowledge move through the funnel is the project, where everyone takes a project-specific role,
roles changing with each project, playing to the (ongoing learning) strengths of each person on the team.
This means that they take responsibility for themselves and their work (my responsibilities) instead of for the task in hand (our
responsibilities).
RISK
When you’re looking after ‘my responsibilities’ then you’re less prepared to take risks - the failure comes back to you. It means that
even if innovatino is outsourced, it is doomed to forever remain the pilot programme.
SILO AND DISTANCE FROM INNOVATION
The attitudinal baggage that title brings is not just silo-isation of departments - it’s blindness to innovation taking place outside, even
innovation that has been contracted. A reduction of Govt has turned people into commissioners of action, rather than taking an interest
in what’s happening. When progress is made, fast, they often find themselves ‘out of the loop’, because they’re relying on non-digital
traditional comms to keep a grasp - meetings, reports, PRINCE2 reports - rather than joining the community of practitioners in the
place where that innovatino is happening.

17. The VSSME
Wicked problems
From mystery to algorithm
Jobs to projects
Reliability to validity
Reliability is what has been proven in the past to work (but whose future is just as uncertain in a time of flux). Validity is what
might be right, even if it's not been proven before.
A growth mindset, where a person constantly learns and relearns in order to survive and thrive requires validity over reliability,
knowing that deadends and failure can be learned from to create successes for the longer term benefit of the organisation.
"Companies are good at producing 'hothouse tomatoes'", says John Maeda… "Perfectly formed and identical, edible but not
delicious. Most don't yet know how to integrate the 'heirloom tomato' - the tomato that looks a little different from the rest,
lovingly grown by hand with attention to detail, mouthwateringly delicious."
The Cirque de Soleil Case Study. An organisation that is highly artistic but which manages the balance between flexibility and
specificity in its management of a $600m dollar business with 13 shows in four continents that is based on the creative risks
taken every day by its performers and show managers.

18. http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/5544592972/
The Cirque de Soleil Case Study. An organisation that is highly artistic but which manages the balance between flexibility and
specificity in its management of a $600m dollar business with 13 shows in four continents that is based on the creative risks
taken every day by its performers and show managers.

19. The VSSME
Wicked problems
From mystery to algorithm
Jobs to projects
Reliability to validity
This balance is a huge challenge for VSSMEs as they often work faster than the managers managing them in larger corps.
How can those commissioning services or products from agile companies create space for innovation:
- better briefs, specific but flexible
- more literacy of the development cycles of small, agile firms e.g. design thinking, agile development, scrums
- an understanding that big biz and public service might have to work in the way of the VSSME, not the other way around
- who is responsible for safeguarding the design thinking ethic of the organisation, looking at things from the user’s
perspective (and that includes the perspective of partner companies).

20. The Network
Society is social
The Network itself is crucial
We look out; public servants in Scotland look in (filtered access in schools and govt, the concentration on intranet tech
instead of sharing thinking and process for comment)
We make decisions with a view to them being altered vs making decisions, ‘consulting’ with the public and going ahead
anyway.
We crave opinion, not just facts and data.

21. The Network
Society is social
The plural of anecdote is not data
The Network itself is crucial
Roger Brinner
We crave opinion, not fact.

22. The Network
Society is social
The plural of anecdote is not data
Face to face, not just virtual
A challenge for rural groups, but also for remote ones
I live in Edinburgh but work with clients all over the world. The online community of Scotland is
hard to connect with - certain mental bandwidth, certain time, certain relatinoships
150 people Dunbar Number
Face to face is often required to keep a lasting relationship, but with most countries, online is
enough for a first deal.
In Scotland, anecdotaly everyone seems to want to meet.
The use of face to face networking as free labour, rather than the place where the deal is decided.

23. The Network
Society is social
The plural of anecdote is not data
Face to face, not just virtual
Network literacy is
never just caught
Most people in Scottish business feel LinkedIn is useless. We know this because SE’s
LinkedIn groups contain few members, and even less action
Most Scottish business see comms as something that gets outsourced - their outsourcing
their network, and outsourcing their potential sales route.
96% of our business comes frmo social media. With the keen online relationships we have,
around 87% of customers repeat.

24. ewan@notosh.com
@ewanmcintosh
notosh.com
We learn actively about how to harness our networks - we do it ourselves, we read, we
meet up with colleagues to share techniques and stories.
A digital workplace in Scotland needs to see the network as its backbone
We connect. WE have the conversations directly with the people who can influence our
thinking.
We never outsource it.