The Chamber 🏰 of Tech Secrets is open. Having just passed the 4th of July 🇺🇸 its a good opportunity to ponder the concept of freedom.
What is freedom?
Let’s start with some definitions.
"Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose—and commit myself to—what is best for me." - Paulo Coelho
“Of Liberty then I would say that, in the whole plenitude of it’s extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will: but rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’; because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” - Thomas Jefferson
"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." - George Bernard Shaw
A few reflections on the notion of freedom
The desire for Freedom is innate: Every human desires, at very least, their own freedom and the ability to control some degree of their own destiny.
Freedom requires self-restraint: Implicit in freedom is a self-limiting of the full extent of ones own potential actions due to their power to restrict the freedoms of others. Those who will not self-restrain ultimately lose their own freedom (unless they succeed in achieving tyranny).
Freedom thrives within a preserving system: The ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness emboldened in the Declaration of Independence are preserved by a system of governance that ensures no single person or group exercises their freedoms to the immediate or eventual detriment of others, seeking to protect all from physical hard, financial harm, loss of property and the like. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.
Freedom is protected by checks and balances : The authors of the United States Constitution created a brilliant system of government that requires checks and balances to power combined with avenues for appeal and recourse for those actions which are perceived to be unjust.
Pondering the system that I have grown up with in the United States of America — albeit far from perfect in execution — I find myself extremely grateful for the purity of vision, thoughtful modeling, and successful implementation of a government by our founders that we reap the vast benefits of to this day. 🙏 🇺🇸
What does this have to do with Technology?
The desire for freedom is innate: Every vertical line of business, department, product team, software engineer, architect wants to have autonomy to create the vision that they have in their minds without restraint from outside forces.
Freedom requires self-restraint: Having freedom to build what you want when you want requires stepping back to acknowledge you are not the only team that exists in your organization (unless you are a startup). For startups, the necessity to find product market fit requires restraint to solving problems that others desire a solution for regardless of your personal or team desires.
Freedom thrives within a preserving system: The ability to build rapidly with quality works best within guardrails. Constraints breed creativity. This is why enterprises often have governance teams or functions like enterprise architecture to create a system that protects the autonomy of all teams from outside forces that might wish to gain control of their domain (yes, it happens). The placement of standards, best practices, and governance functions should provide a framework that allows for maximum autonomy within a larger ecosystem.
Freedom is protected by checks and balances: If there is governance there should be a system of checks and balances that ensures just requirements are set for teams to follow and a process to appeal those requirements should they be overbearing and impose on a team’s ability to exercise their creative capabilities. This could manifest as a process for exploring new technologies or escalating over the governing body in rare cases where they are being overly hard-nosed.
While governance — particularly in Enterprise Architecture — has fallen out of favor over the past several years and the freedom of product-led organizations has thrived, I believe it is important to remember that, to achieve posterity, the submission to minimal possible governance is essential.
The most critical element of successful governance, whether in nations or enterprises, is trust. Trust in institutions is quickly lost and slowly built, as we see scrolling twitter (unless you stopped scrolling twitter like I did last week). For those charged to govern, consider how you might maximize the total freedom of your organization which will build trust and foster innovation. For those who have submitted to governance, protect your freedom and autonomy and seek recourse when it is compromised.
The Chamber of Tech Secrets is closed. Thanks for reading. If you enjoy reading these posts, please click the subscribe button and share with your friends and co-workers. 🙏
This is my favorite topic, but I’ll stop will one last post that captures the power of unleashing peoples freedoms.
A car plant in Fremont California (now owned by Tesla) that might have saved the U.S. car industry.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/403/nummi-2010
In every aspect of our lives--in politics, in economics, in entertainment, and in family life--we demand the freedom to decide matters for ourselves. And yet when it comes to our work lives, far too many people are stifled, constrained, hemmed in, and tied down by bureaucracy and rules that have nothing to do with allowing them to do the best they can in their jobs. These constraints leave people feeling out of control of their work lives, which, in turn, leads to stress, fatigue, and disengagement from work.
"If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need." 1924
-William L. McKnight, CEO 3M
Freedom, Inc.: Free Your Employees and Let Them Lead Your Business to Higher Productivity, Profits, and Growth, by Brian M. Carney and Isaac Getz