The Four Work Arounds
By Paulo Savaget
Our society comes together on a foundation of rules. Rules in the form of religious practice, our
legal system, corporate policy, cultural rituals, social norms, and many more. These
categories of rules often conflate as they evolve over time and become engrained
in our lives. They shape the way we take on the challenges of our day-to-day life. Whether a large social problem or an intimate
personal problem the author advocates rather than fight the system, look at it
differently and you will discover a way around it.
The book opens with four world situations commanding a
solution where working around of the system brings novel ideas to the fore. The second section breaks down each work
around with essentially a field handbook.
The author stresses that it should be viewed as a handbook and NOT a
rule book. Giving up the titles of each
work around is not a spoiler, so here they are.
Rather than insist, I only tease you into reading the book. My work-around on you.
1.
Piggyback:
looks for existing infrastructure and latch your solution to it
2.
Loophole:
explore a rule where something was not considered
3.
The Roundabout: disturb and redirect positive feedback
loops
4.
The Next Best: focuses on repurposing resources
The thing I most enjoyed about the book is the
Attitude. I delves into the value of
having a deviant character. The book is
written as a PhD study and at the end of the book the author provides the foundational
notes, sightings from other PhD’s that supports his argument. In
the end a Deviant is one capable of “thinking outside the box” by not allowing
a.) rules to dictate his/her mind, b.) productively work around the rule. To finally find a book that lauds a characteristic
in me that my corporate leadership finds as a fault .I am finally vindicated.
You will enjoy the book as it is upbeat and positive.
I provide, as I often do, highlight quotes from the book. I marked in bold quotes that laud deviant.
Excerpts:
1.
"Can we learn from hackers and
deploy their methods to address our world’s most urgent and high-stakes
socio-environmental challenges?"
2.
"The secret of hackers is that
they weave through uncharted territory and, instead of confronting the
bottlenecks that lie in their way, they work around them."
3.
"After engaging with these
mavericks, it was time for me to do what researchers do best: find patterns."
4.
"the workaround masterminds tend
to mistrust authorities, thrive on urgency and immediacy, think
unconventionally, and act resourcefully. However helpful these early
observations"
5.
"I dove into the transcripts of my
interviews to “let the data speak” (a technique that researchers tend to love),
hoping to find patterns across the cases."
6.
"the workaround masterminds tend
to mistrust authorities, thrive on urgency and immediacy, think
unconventionally, and act resourcefully. However helpful these early
observations"
7.
"We are often burdened by the
inertia of patterns and habits and forget to look for untraditional
connections; piggyback workarounds can help us find opportunities across silos.
8.
"A piggyback workaround involves
shifting our attention from “what lacks” to “what exists” in a given situation."
9.
"“every single problem in
developing countries can be solved by the people and the systems that are
already there. It’s not a question of bringing in new people or parallel
systems … It’s about making what is already there work better and in a more coherent
way.”
10.
"He was particularly interested in
microcredit because he thought it was a promising approach to tackling poverty
and barriers to upward social mobility."
11.
"especially in places like Kenya,
where less than 20 percent of the population had bank accounts but many more
had mobile phones."
12.
"He wanted to create a service
that would permit microfinance borrowers to conveniently receive and repay
loans using the network of Safaricom airtime resellers that already existed in
Kenya. The new program could offer more loans and at better rates."
13.
"There’s much missed value that
falls between the cracks in our siloed structures. In addressing your own
challenges, I suggest you identify and pursue symbiotic and unconventional
relationships, be they mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic: look between
silos rather than in them, and think of how the successes of others can be used
for your own benefit. In other words, be a goby fish, a remora, or a roundworm
and think laterally about what, and who, is at your disposal."
14.
"smart heiress who just married
Bassanio), disguised as a man, comes to Antonio’s rescue. At the trial, she
turns around the wording of the contract to claim that it allows Shylock to
remove one pound of Antonio’s flesh, but exactly one pound—no more, no less,
and not a single drop of blood could be shed in the process. Portia’s
workaround is clever and effective precisely because it doesn’t confront the
brutality of the contract as a reason to nullify it. Instead it makes
enforcement practically impossible."
15. "The loophole either capitalizes on an ambiguity or
uses an unconventional set of rules when they aren’t the most obviously
applicable. In this chapter we will delve into stories of scrappy organizations
and feisty individuals"
16.
"The loophole wasn’t perfect, but
Pinto explored possible solutions rather than the perfect path. By applying a
seemingly unrelated set of rules to the problem, we can explore possibilities
that are feasible and deliver on our most urgent needs."
17.
"“We know that bypassing [laws] is
actually facilitating legal change as well … It catalyzed the possibility for
the mainstream political organizations to take a stance.” By being adaptable
and learning to look for opportunities, Gomperts created initiatives that
demonstrate how loopholes can be both accessible and consequential."
18.
"“We know that bypassing [laws] is
actually facilitating legal change as well … It catalyzed the possibility for
the mainstream political organizations to take a stance.” "Do you consider
patenting unfair because it prevents people from getting medicines that could
be more widely and cheaply available? Or do you think patents ensure inventors
are rewarded for their discoveries—and, if society"
19.
"Gomperts didn’t have a law
degree, but she used innovation and creativity to work with and around national
and international conventions; she didn’t"
20.
"That’s how he keeps pushing the
boundaries. Laufer thinks that access to healthcare products can eventually
become a matter of assembly if we know how to put the pieces together, as with
the EpiPencil. “It shouldn’t be harder than Ikea furniture,” he told me. At the
time we spoke, he was developing an open-source Apothecary MicroLab: a
general-purpose chemical reactor built from materials cheaply purchased online,
which could be used to synthesize drugs at home."
21.
"“Well, if you synthesize the
medicine correctly, great, but if you mess it up, you may die. Would you take
the risk?”"
22.
"He says that pharmaceutical
companies and governments often use these barriers, such as intellectual
property rights and “quality control,” to legitimize the accumulation of wealth
by a few while neglecting the needs of the many."
23.
"Do you consider patenting unfair
because it prevents people from getting medicines that could be more widely and
cheaply available? Or do you think patents ensure inventors are rewarded for
their discoveries—and, if society"
24.
"Whether the impact of using a
loophole is positive or negative depends on your moral views on the specific
circumstance."
25.
"You don’t have to be
categorically for or against loopholes. You can think of them as a means for
achieving your desired outcome."
26.
"When they zoomed out of what
constrained them and focused instead on less common types of rules or paths
less taken, they found loopholes that empowered them to get what they wanted in
a technically right but unconventional way."
27.
"Roundabout workarounds disturb
and redirect positive feedback loops, which lead to self-reinforced behaviors.
Let’s look a bit more closely at what feedback loops entail from a systems
thinking perspective."
28.
"I had a little bird, Its name was
Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza."
29.
"Sometimes we have to stay locked
away to avoid the worst effects of a pandemic; other times we need to work
underground to gain the space and time to fully develop a transformative idea."
30.
"In most companies, employees need
managerial permission to develop new ideas or projects. When an employee’s idea
is in its early stages, it’s particularly hard to convince managers of its
potential. Supervisors are often wary of wasting the company’s resources.
There’s an inherent tension between autonomy and accountability in the
generation of innovation, especially in large companies, which struggle to find
a balance between giving employees flexibility for creativity and setting the
boundaries that guarantee that workers’ efforts benefit the company’s
priorities and respect its resource constraints. Balance between autonomy and
accountability is complicated because both control and freedom can be
self-reinforcing and spiral out of control. The more people can experiment with
their ideas, the more they feel they can contribute, and they tend to continue
to explore. The opposite is also true: the more people’s ideas are ignored, or
the more managers impose rules that constrain creativity, the less employees
think they can propose or engage with innovative projects."
31.
"Rangaswamy taught me that the
core of roundabout workarounds is to dance with inevitability."
32.
"Employees working around
corporate rules create a clandestine space to work on projects that haven’t
been authorized. In extreme cases, they flout direct orders, but in most cases,
they simply continue on with their project until their work is sufficiently
developed and they are ready to reveal their idea."
33.
"To date, the appeals court has
not made a ruling, but by taking the case to the court of public opinion the
Guarani-Kaiowá staved off immediate eviction."
34.
"Packard later awarded the
bootlegger the Medal of Defiance “in recognition of extraordinary contempt and
defiance beyond the normal call of engineering duty.”
35.
"Roundabouts don’t so much tackle
systemic challenges as interrupt self-reinforcing behaviors and buy time to
mobilize, negotiate, and develop alternatives, alleviating an urgent problem
while building momentum to pivot in a different direction."
36.
"To date, the appeals court has
not made a ruling, but by taking the case to the court of public opinion the
Guarani-Kaiowá staved off immediate eviction."
37.
"Don’t undervalue the power of a
patch, especially in cases where time is short, information is limited, and the
need to make a decision is urgent—such as in the event of an outbreak of a
global pandemic."
38.
"Situations in which stakes are
high, resources are scarce, and time is short can become laboratories for next
best workarounds.”
39.
"White decided to work around
these constraints. In his words, his workaround “didn’t come because of any
sort of high-tech solution, it just came from using what was already there.”
40.
"The workaround tactic works
particularly well against a confrontational opponent."
41.
"Next best workarounds can be
stand-alone fixes that address problems quickly, but sometimes they pave the
path for structural changes. They require using what’s available rather than
what’s ideal,"
42.
"Marty then underscores the
circuitous tactic. Even if faced with a question that she felt strongly about,
he tells RBG, “You should evade. Should women be firefighters? With all due
respect, Your Honor, I haven’t considered it because my client isn’t a
firefighter. Or you can redirect: With respect, Judge, this case is not about
firefighters, it’s about taxpayers and there’s nothing inherently masculine
about paying taxes. Or crack a joke: Your Honor, anyone who’s raised a child
couldn’t possibly be intimidated by a burning building. And then bring it back
to your case.”
43.
"Next best workarounds can be
stand-alone fixes that address problems quickly, but sometimes they pave the
path for structural changes. They require using what’s available rather than
what’s ideal,"
44.
"Next best workarounds can be
stand-alone fixes that address problems quickly, but sometimes they pave the
path for structural changes. They require using what’s available rather than
what’s ideal, such"
45.
"In all cases, using next best
workarounds means sidestepping complexity in pursuit of an immediate goal."
46.
"Next-best approaches showcase a
special aspect of all workarounds: they shine when the most obvious solutions
have failed or are impossible to execute."
47.
"Next best workarounds aren’t
necessarily about providing a one-to-one replacement for the “perfect”
solution—which would be a more direct approach; rather they’re about
sidestepping obstacles and working with the possible."
48.
"Next-best approaches showcase a
special aspect of all workarounds: they shine when the most obvious solutions
have failed or are impossible to execute."
49. "First, we’ll critically reflect on the value of
deviance, zooming out to think about how workarounds can enable us to deviate
effectively and gracefully from all sorts of conventions, from explicit rules
to implicit norms."
50. "Because it’s human nature to play by the book and
place judgment on those who break rules, many of us believe that the world
needs to enforce more order and more discipline upon those who deviate. I think
we don’t deviate enough."
51.
"The problem is that when we
blindly accept the order and discipline that authorities impose, we ignore that
rules aren’t necessarily fair. In other words, there’s nothing inherently
positive in following rules, and there’s nothing inherently negative in
deviating from them."
52. "A better way of looking at conformity and deviance is
by contrasting ourselves with machines. Conformity means doing as we’re told,
or as we’ve been programmed to do; it means we haven’t critically evaluated our
options or acted based on reasoning. Simply changing the analogy makes us
realize that deviance is what humanizes us, what makes us stand out."
53. "In contrast to authoritative rules, our traditions
conceal the most imperceptible social norms. Many are experientially invisible
to us because, as French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu puts it, “what is
essential goes without saying because it comes without saying.”
54. "It is also the reason deviance can be freeing. It
allows you to think critically. Will you do what’s expected, or will you carve
out your own path? RULES EXERT POWER Conformity can be very harmful, and
deviation is cognitively emancipating. But there’s yet another reason to
deviate from rules, one that I learned from French philosopher Michel Foucault.
According to him, each period of history has its own “epistemes”: dominant and
often implicit knowledge assumptions that determine what is possible or acceptable
as they influence how we make sense of the world, our values, our preferred
methods, and our sense of order. These assumptions don’t distinguish between
true or false, but rather between what may or may not be considered scientific."
55. "Part I, deviance entails unconventional approaches that
use parts of the status quo that work (as intended or not) in order to change
the parts that don’t."
56. "The more we blame individual deviants, the more we
ignore the root causes of our problems. When we move away from individual
blame, we observe that the root causes of our problems reside in all sorts of
rules—formal or informal, authoritative or customary—that shape how we think
and act and what society expects of us. That is why we are better off examining
and defying the “rules of the game” instead of blaming the players. It isn’t
only fairer; it is also much more effective."
57.
"She later published a book on it
called Eichmann in Jerusalem:"
58.
"Scientific knowledge therefore
justifies rules that exert power and impose discipline upon others."
59.
"Because it’s human nature to play
by the book and place judgment on those who break rules, many of us believe
that the world needs to enforce more order and more discipline upon those who
deviate. I think we don’t deviate enough."
60.
"Because it’s human nature to play
by the book and place judgment on those who break rules, many of us believe
that the world needs to enforce more order and more discipline upon those who
deviate. I think we don’t deviate enough."
61.
"As American jurist and Harvard
law professor Paul Freund put it: “The Court should never be influenced by the
weather of the day, but inevitably they will be influenced by the climate of
the era.” Though changes in rules (and their interpretation) may reflect the"
62.
"Personally, I don’t wait for the
green pedestrian figure every time I cross the street in Brazil. But when I
lived in Germany, I felt pressured to wait with the crowd because no one else
crossed. Both cases show how I conform, but in Brazil I simultaneously conform
and disobey. With this nuanced view we realize that disobedience is deviant
only if it stands out from what is seen as ordinary or the standard practice in
our respective contexts." "Through his apparent trickery Eshu
challenges what we take for granted and helps us discover new perspectives and
possibilities. "“contradictory certitudes”: the different (and often
incompatible) diagnoses of reality."It may be just as nourishing as
fruit from higher up in the tree, and you don’t risk harming yourself in your
quest for higher fruit."
63.
"climate of an era, if you’re
concerned about today’s rain and don’t want to get drenched, you may want to
work around these rules instead. The Workaround"
64.
"Through his apparent trickery
Eshu challenges what we take for granted and helps us discover new perspectives
and possibilities."
65.
"“contradictory certitudes”: the
different (and often incompatible) diagnoses of reality."
66.
"The problem is that many
consultants don’t challenge clients’ assumptions. Instead they validate and
expand on what is known, based on information provided by the managers who
hired them. Were these consultants to embrace complexity, they would investigate
with less depth and more breadth."
67.
"We must recognize that we make
decisions without having the full picture and that we are better off pondering
(and defying) our assumptions than thoughtlessly building on them. "“Hacks
don’t come from people who have been faced with the problem every day because
they are sort of numb to it.” Most experts’ cognitive thermostat is set to a
low simmer of anticipation: they live in the near-future tense, always
expecting what comes next. On the one hand, this keeps them focused. On the
other hand, it limits their ability to see beyond conventional approaches."
68.
"If we learn to value generalist
knowledge, we can bring a wide breadth of experience to our hyperspecialized
world by employing lateral thinking."
69.
"Complex situations have no clear
cause-and-effect relationships; they may rely on self-reinforcing behavi
70.
ors, be contentious or disputed, and
the myriad interpretations they spawn might mean that they have no single
solution at all. Complicated approaches rely on knowing too much and trying to
contend with every aspect of an issue."
71.
"The foundation of the workaround
creative process is the recognition of what you know and what you know that you
don’t know."
72.
"Fortunately, the start is just a
start. A better approach is to systematically and simultaneously tinker with
both—the problem and the default reaction—by looking more closely at the
foundation of your knowledge. Once you assemble a foundation, you may even
forget where you started."
73.
"The beauty of asking why a
problem still exists is precisely that doing so permits you to refine the way
you look at the systemic nature of some of your tough problems, making you
realize the extent not only of your knowledge but also of your ignorance."
74.
"It is difficult to break free
from linear, stepwise problem-solving approaches, but the essence of a deviant
approach, one that is favorable for a workaround attitude, is that you won’t
follow orders—and “orders” means both what is imposed on you and a presupposed
sequence of how things are meant to be done. So chill out, look at the building
blocks (or don’t), and follow your instincts."
75. "PROMPTS FOR A LOOPHOLE • What are the vulnerabilities
of current systems? • Where does or doesn’t a limiting rule or obstacle apply?
• How can you follow the mandate but not the spirit of the rule? • What are
different sets of rules that could apply?"
76.
"What or who needs to get through
the obstacle? • How strictly enforced is your limiting rule, or how can you
make the law or convention more difficult to enforce? • How can rules be
reinterpreted to your benefit?"
77. "PROMPTS FOR A ROUNDABOUT • Is there any
self-reinforcing behavior? • Why is the behavior self-reinforcing, and how does
that behavior interact with other needs? • How can you create a distraction
that disturbs the momentum of the self-reinforcing behavior? • In what
circumstances does the self-reinforcing behavior not exist? • How can you delay
the self-reinforcing behavior? • Who behaves differently, or who is the
outlier, and in what circumstances?"
78.
"How can resources be repurposed
or reinterpreted to achieve different goals? • How can resources be reassembled
in unconventional ways? • What’s the lowest-tech solution for this problem? •
What’s the highest-tech solution for this problem? • What functions exist
beyond your accessible technology’s originally intended design?"
79. "PROMPTS FOR A NEXT BEST • What resources are easily
immediately available?"
80.
"This involves planning less,
engaging in more horizontal decision-making, changing course to respond to
opportunities as they arise, pivoting and stacking to make the best of
unforeseen opportunities, and deciding how to scale your impact."
81.
"In other words, we regret our
failures to act more than we regret our failures themselves."
82.
"Instead of attempting to
anticipate and decide upon every detail at the outset, encourage yourself and
those around you to take small, exploratory steps. Because, as Canadian
educator Laurence J. Peter says, “Some problems are so complex that you have to
be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them,” stop
aiming for intelligence and perfect information and start acting. Since
workarounds require less time and resources than standard, well-planned
approaches, you don’t have much to lose. It’s then"
83.
"easier to build on what works and
pivot away from what doesn’t without having to rethink the entire operation."
84. "Implementing and facilitating workarounds necessitates
a willingness to play by ear."
85.
"reflection and reformulation can
foster an environment that encourages lots of trial by accommodating low-stakes
errors. This type of creative momentum is key—and it requires acting your way
through your challenges and changing course when needed."
86.
"Workarounds happen in all kinds
of organizations of different sizes and sectors. From hierarchical mining
conglomerates to hyped start-ups, three key attributes in corporate culture can
shape how people create, pursue, and value workarounds: dynamism, pragmatism,
and accountability. The three best practices to implement them are to act
first, then think; get to good enough; and ask forgiveness, not permission. We
will now dive deeper into each of them."
87.
"ambivalence and doubt, because
the world around us is complex and constantly changing. I encourage you to
embrace that uncertainty and explore the opportunities it produces—then reflect
on your reactions."
88.
"A culture of pragmatism doesn’t
need to be initiated from the top down; employees can trigger these changes by
working around norms and challenging others to see the value of an imperfect
and more experimental approach."
89.
"Instead of idolizing these
so-called change makers, I suggest focusing on two key aspects that the
management community"
