The Cyborganization: A Study in Tech Somersaults

A few months ago, I wrote some notes on Twitter that I have recently been reminded about.

When working in a startup, you tend to inadvertently find yourself using this app today and another tomorrow. It’s almost like you have become an unwitting volunteer to be some sort of App-store guinea pig as you search for the perfect segue/synergy between your (majorly) productivity apps. This in itself might be a good thing. Or not.

Many people who know me know I am a man in search of a scent (incidentally, have you read Patrick Süskind’s. Parfum? You should. Creepy stuff, so naturally I love it) and I randomly (last week) picked a bottle off the shelf and was greeted with a scent that, today, is the best scent ever to grace my lean 6'2 body. Maybe tomorrow I’ll grow bored of it, but today it is the very pheromone of God.

Anyway. That little digression was to tell you I am usually in search of the perfect something and I usually would leave no stone unturned — as long as it is an affordable stone,all things considered — in my quest to have the perfect app blend. That was the reason for the ‘research’ that birthed ‘Heads Up’, my list of 20 apps Nigerian professionals should at least consider having on their smart devices.

In the office, we are regularly trying out new tech for optimization. So, today we could say ‘oy, good lad, Slack is the best thing ever! When would it have Flow integration?’ and the next day we’re talking about how Asana does most of the work of three apps combined and we should probably review the yearly subscription cost of this other app, shouldn’t we? Ah, does the CRM feed data directly to your dedicated mailer and does the customized emailing tool have a WYSIWYG editor that can rival MailChimp without being ridiculously crippling in all ramifications?

What is the implication of introducing a new application to your team? The end goal is always ‘optimized performance” (and occasionally, reduced cost), but what are the non-implied costs that come with experimenting in the middle of an ongoing work schedule? How often do these app shifts derail productivity until every single member gets the hang of this new tool? That is the question, dear Watson.

And that is where my theory of Cyborganization comes in.

THE GRAND THEORY OF CYBORGANIZATION AS PROPOSED BY HERR VUNDERKIND

So here I’m thinking that every company — tech or otherwise — will eventually come to be functionally tech-savvy to various degrees. Ultimately, if they play in these climes for long enough.

We have traditional companies in Nigeria that are waking up to the fact that they can do more with integrated technology. This means, of course, that they are already probably sighing at the tedium that comes with migrating from legacy systems into the new frontier. Oh, the pain! Oh the agony!

But the benefits of upgrading systems and best practices are always worth it. The problem is it can be a bit of a bother — and these guys have 15 reasons why adopting new technology can go and suck it.

There’s levels to this thing, tech adoption, there is. You could go for a little app makeover or a full software touchup or — my God!- a complete hardware overhaul. Out with the telephony cables and oooh shiny wi-fi!

These are the simple levels of adoption, from the staff perspective. Remember — when you create new tech, people need to think in new ways — and the thing is, these platforms usually come with documentations. The standard docs tend to try to help you ease into the mix of things, but honestly if you aren’t a techie to start with, I would totally empathize with you if you just throw your hands in the air and yell ‘what’s all this, Jackie!?’

Companies, however, no wan know. You are expected to move you team mates to this new ZXCVBNM app by Monday morning, STAT, and performance levels are expected NOT TO DROP! Keep it moving, people! Move it, move it on the assembly line guys!

This agility, unfortunately, might be plausible only in the dev team, but not everywhere else (and even in the dev team, there might be a noticeable judder as new ‘environments’ are set up, yuno…)

So here’s how it works in a series of tweets:

In summary: in the beginning of any cyborganizational shift, the process is largely manual (files are logged in actual, physical files in cabinets and the printer works overtime). The space of time between planning to execution is fairly short — as oga barks a command, someone dey run go do am. There are no standardized metrics with which to judge individual team mate performance and no eTrail to monitor output.

At the CRITICAL MERGE POINT (the point where the new tech is introduced into the work dynamic), plan-to-execution time drops sharply (this, presumably, precipitated by the need to work in a different way that requires the usage of the particular tech. ‘But oga why can’t just-’ ‘Use the app-’ ‘But we never sabi-’ ‘I spent money on the app. Use the app!’)

At this point, most people do not really see the benefit of the new tech (and oga probably adopted it because someone he admires told him it worked well for him — and he said it in such impeccable English too!). Unfamiliar metrics are logged in this time -incorrectly, of course — and the wrong Key Performance Indicators are tracked. In this phase, many tools will be used and dropped quickly. This is the stage I like to call the quest — the search for the perfect tech segue/synergy. The more traditionally-minded staff will resign, be sacked, or stay on and wear permanently exasperated looks.

IF YOUR TEAM SURVIVES BEYOND THE CRITICAL MERGE POINT, HOWEVER, we would arrive at the CYBORGANIZATION, a beautiful point I tell ya!

When the cyborganization is set up, weekly/monthly reports are no longer a sweaty, anxious, tense and generally panic-stricken affair: since everyone has logged their input/data correctly, all it takes is some guy to just print the already-made thing like -walahi the thing dey sweet me ooga!

Planning and troubleshooting is easier because anecdotal instances are hastily dismissed in the face of shitloads (pardon my Igbira) of data. Plan-to-action time gets faster and can actually be measured and optimized in real-time! Iterations are minimized, and the process of evaluating a team is easier — just download one or two things and — o tan! — you can easily know your star players and go to work on the team members lagging behind.

Also — and this is the best part — the CEO has a God’s Eye View on the entire organization and can find out what everybody did while reading the papers in the bathtub.

This is the cyborganization point: when the human components (the actual staff) meld beautifully with the machine (the tech) to form this fluid, glorious cyborg!

Do you know any real-life cyborganizations? Let me know in the comments section!