Mapping, Doctrine, and Culture in the Future of Organizing — with Simon Wardley

Podcast Notes

Wardley Mapping is a method used to help generate a shared understanding of strategic landscapes and their evolution. From all levels — individual businesses, industries, to Nation States and even culture — it can be applied to pretty much anything. And as our adopters know well, Wardley Maps are a key feature of platform strategy design. And the person who invented these maps is joining us on the podcast today: Simon Wardley.

Simon Wardley is a former CEO and advisory board member of startups (all now acquired by US Giants) and a fellow of Open Europe. He’s a regular conference speaker and a researcher for the Leading Edge Forum. Simon uses mapping in his research at the Leading Edge Forum, covering areas from Serverless to Nation State competition whilst also advising/teaching clients on mapping, strategy, organisation and leadership.

You’ll hear about why the Economy should start learning from China, why Tech should go serverless, why Businesses should focus on doctrine, and what Simon means when he says Society should have that “We vs Me” conversation. You’ll probably find that this episode is worth listening to a few times to get the depth and breadth of the conversation!

We suggest you keep the Wardley’s Doctrine table handy while listening.

To find out more about Simon’s work:

• Website: https://learnwardleymapping.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/swardley
• Medium: https://medium.com/wardleymaps
• Wardley Maps: https://list.wardleymaps.com/

Other references and mentions:

• Simon Wardley, Wardley Mapping, The Knowledge: Part One, 2020: https://www.amazon.com/Wardley-Mapping-Knowledge-Topographical-intelligence/dp/1913805182/
• Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff, The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life, 2010: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Strategy-Theorists-Success-Business/dp/0393337170/r
• Giancarlo Gonzalez Ascar, From Intention to Action: A Plan for the Digitalization of Puerto Rico, 2020: https://www.amazon.com/Intention-Action-Digitalization-Puerto-Episode/dp/B08HGTJHJR/
• Jonathan Allen and Thomas Blood, Reaching Cloud Velocity: A Leader’s Guide to Success in the AWS Cloud, 2020: https://www.amazon.com/Reaching-Cloud-Velocity-Leaders-Success/dp/B086PTDP51
• Margaret Mead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead
• Elizabeth Shove, Mika Pantzar, Matt Watson, The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and how it Changes, 2012: https://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Social-Practice-Everyday-Changes/dp/0857020439
• The Entrepreneurial Age: Networks and a fragmenting world — with Nicolas Colin: https://stories.platformdesigntoolkit.com/the-entrepreneurial-age-networks-and-a-fragmenting-world-with-nicolas-colin-718c066b19bc
• Control and Coherence in the New Strategy Playbook — with Rita McGrath: https://stories.platformdesigntoolkit.com/control-and-coherence-in-the-new-strategy-playbook-with-rita-mcgrath-5346fefc7a36
• Re-bundling the Firm around Problems to Be Solved — with Sangeet Paul Choudary: https://stories.platformdesigntoolkit.com/re-bundling-the-firm-around-jobs-to-be-done-with-sangeet-paul-choudary-af69f7d2bcbb
• Boundaryless whitepaper (2020), New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking — Designing Products and Organizations for a changing world, https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/DOWNLOAD-NF

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast/

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music

Recorded on 27 January 2021.

Key Insights

1. Simon points out that he is “quite well known for being somewhat harsh about stories”, since stories are highly political instruments that are linked to the story-tellers. Instead, Wardley Maps allow you to create a shared understanding of a landscape, in whichever sphere or arena you work. They allow you to challenge the map, rather than the person behind the map.

•  Listen to Simon explaining how mapping is fundamental to all his thinking from min 04:30.

2. Understanding the definition of success by “the spread of our beliefs and our values” enables us to connect economic, social, technological and political spaces. If we think about a country like the US, beliefs in democracy has been tightly — albeit questionably — coupled with economic success. But when another nation (like China) is more successful, it undermines those beliefs. When it comes to businesses, the idea of competing on beliefs and values relates to the ability to apply universally useful doctrine (Simon identified over 40 in his Wardley’s Doctrine table above). If you’re good at doctrine, you understand users, their needs, and you understand the landscape.

•  Listen to the discussion on how competition of values connects technology, society and politics from min 19:08.

3. Co-evolution of practice is at the roots of universally useful patterns and principles of organizing. For example, as technology evolves, you often get co-evolution of practice. Simon explains this in relation to cloud: the shift from computer as a product to computers as a utility (cloud). Consequently, we have a shift of practice, from practices built around computers as products to practices with computers as a utility. According to Simon, the successful organization is about using principles to make it highly adaptable, adopting new practices as technology evolves. Amazon and Haier are two examples. He suggests that “if you took all the technology away from Amazo, and gave it to somebody else, give Amazon 10 to 15 years, they’d be back in the same position they are because they have a really good set of principles”.

•  Listen to Simon’s ideas around co-evolution of practice around min 27:40

? Boundaryless Conversations Podcast is about exploring the future of organizing at scale by leveraging on technology, network effects, and shaping narratives. We explore how platforms can help us play with a world in turmoil, change, and transformation: a world that is at the same time more interconnected and interdependent than ever but also more conflictual and rivalrous.