From ignorance

13 min read

I was postponing the moment to write these lines, finding multiple excuses, but the main one was “I don’t know enough”. I like learning and I like reading, and what I find more rewarding is the moment when I share. Making other people feel what I felt when I understood or when I was enlightened by that piece of information. But every new article I read, every new podcast episode I listen to, add a new perspective, sometimes turning completely my previous understanding. Maybe if I read a little more I’ll be able to convey a better message.

Somewhere I read “reading is procrastinating”. If you tend to behave in an insecure way, you need to prepare yourself thoroughly to lower the volume of your inner critic. Just a little bit more. And I realised that was my excuse to put off this task ¹.

So, my first step is to accept that what I write here is an incomplete picture, the one that I’ve formed while reading and studying. And tomorrow, when I’ve read a new book or when I’ve had a new conversation, my thoughts about the subject, my knowledge or my opinion may be different, and this doesn’t have to be an excuse to not share today.

The Why

But first, why do I want to write now? This comes from the usual Sinek’s question “Start with why” [2], making explicit my purpose. And from the revealing question “what’s my hidden agenda?” (ask yourself that question again).

Why do I want to write now? I have two complementary answers to that question. One is that I am asked for written references to the topics I like to speak about. Usually, the ones related to Lean and Agile. We’ve offered courses, sessions and conversations, but there is an audience who prefer to invest their time first, to judge whether investing more time would be useful. And they ask for “reading material”, so some people still prefer reading over watching videos. I’ve been looking for existing material and there are many topics I couldn’t find any we could use.

The second answer is that I want to write now. Oh! That’s not a good motivation! I know, but I feel compelled to put into words what I’ve been learning and share it with whoever wants to read. I do believe in the written form, taking the effort to decode and process, being able to scan and access only relevant parts. I like the two-dimensions and I prefer the physical form. Adding pictures, taking notes on the side. It helps my memory to remember “that was on the bottom-left part of the page”. Some people may benefit from this.

Sometimes, when I am interviewing people to join Ocado, I ask them what’s their preferred way of learning new things. Some answers are: in-class learning, conferences, on-line courses, from other people, reading articles or books. I am not taking notes of their answers and a work interview context would not be the best set-up for gathering this insight, but I hear a lot about reading (or it’s my bias that only recalls these answers.) I remember my answer when I was asked this question in my interview for the Catalyst role. I said that my preferred way to learn is to teach: making the effort to share what I think I’ve learnt. Do I see writing as a way to learn myself?

The written form is accused in Phaedrus. Plato suggests that the use of written words will make people more forgetful, as they will rely on what’s written instead of making an effort to use their memory. He adds that whoever reads something written may think they’ve learnt something, but they cannot ask questions. I agree that I prefer a conversation and discuss our ideas, so that’s something we can do if you want to.

I may be wrong and mine may not be the best reason, but I want to write. I am fortunate I like reading and I hope that by sharing by thoughts some people may be able to add new perspectives to theirs.

The What

I’ve mentioned above Lean and Agile as one topic I will write about but it’s not the only one. From Engineering Practices and studying productivity there are many other topics that emerge and I would like to write about them.

When I was thinking about the components of productivity I created a mind map with the related topics. I realised that there where many contributing factors to productivity. In the first level, I wrote: organisational structure, leadership, culture, methods and technology. I realised that there were many layers, different heights I could observe the problem for: the line of code, the pipelines that build it, the individual that thinks about it, the team that discusses the options, the department that sets collaboration standards, … After adding these elements to my map I realised there were many things inside. Trying to explore the individual I could think about creativity, time management, focus, communication, coaching, mindset or learning.

I like to think about my knowledge as a big hall full of doors. Some doors are open and clear, and others have a clear name on them and they are closed. The ones that are open are the ones I’ve studied, the ones I’ve explored. The ones that are closed with a label on them are the things I know I don’t know, and I may be interested in the future to explore. The hall is big and the light is dim. Sometimes new doors appear I was not aware of, and some doors disappear if I am not interested. I am sure there are many things I don’t know I don’t know, in pure Rumsfeldian knowledge ². Every time I open a door I discover a new hall, full of new doors. There are a few paths I’ve explored in that labyrinth and I’ve found a few connections that I think are worth sharing.

I will try to traverse doors that started in the path labelled “productivity”.

The other questions

I already asked for the Why and the What and many other questions come to my mind, as usual.

• Who else is going to be writing here?
• Who is really the target?
• How often do I intend to write? And to publish?
• What should be the format? Technically and content-wise. Blog, micro-content, article, …? Instructional or experience-oriented?
• What should be the language to use?
• How will I know this effort has been effective?

I don’t have a clear answer for many of these questions. In some cases I have an intuition to validate, but not in all cases.

It is about learning

Learning may happen by chance, just by being exposed to new knowledge, or it may happen by a deliberate effort. That effort takes curiosity, but also humility and courage to recognise that you don’t know. We can be blind by hubris, or just by pure Dunning-Kruger effect ³. As Edgar Schein suggests [4], it takes an attitude of humility to learn from relationships.

Learning is not downloading knowledge into your brain like in Matrix. It takes effort, and sometimes time to digest, even practice.

Humbly proud

I decided to use this title to reconcile with Ocado values. I love We are in it together and We can be even better but I felt that We are proud of what we do was in direct opposition to one of my personal values, Humility. When I explained We are proud of what we do to new joiners I used to say “you should read it as we want to be proud of what we do”, because that way the value shapes your future behaviour and is not a source of complacency.

Now, I have realised that I was fighting a false dichotomy because pride and humility do not have to be in direct opposition if you take an integrative thinking approach [5]. I still struggle a little bit with pride but now I can see its value and I am comfortable to write that, sometimes, I feel humbly proud.

Off we go

I may not be the best prepared to write. I may not have interesting things for you, but sometimes you have to find your public, and you cannot please everyone. I am grateful you made it until here and I would like to offer good reading time for you. I am sure it’s going to be for the good of both. Bear in mind I consider we both join this trip from ignorance.

Toni Tassani — 14 March 2022

This article was originally published on 8 February 2021 on the company intranet.