17: Ducks in a row
In recent emails, I’ve been sharing the thinking behind the design of a performance guidance system. A system that tells us what to do, when to do it and how it should be done.
Our satnav for work.
And what we’ve uncovered throughout the conversation are two types of workflow:
Conditional workflows i.e., workflows triggered by external conditions such as the Making a video workflow (conditional on a client requesting a video), and
Cyclical workflows i.e., workflows triggered by the passing of time such as the Submitting my tax return workflow and the Weekly review, Daily startup and Daily shutdown workflows.
Now, regardless of which type of workflow we use, defining the work is not only helpful to improve our own performance, but also to help others.
And taking it one step further - workflows also give us the ability to delegate.
We often hear people complaining about being busy, but when asked why they haven’t delegated their work, they reply “it’s just faster to do it myself” - but that’s only because the workflow hasn’t been defined!
And yes, it does take some time up front to do this (did I mention I took a week off work to build my system?! I dread to think how much time I’ve spent tweaking - but probably not as much as it’s saved me).
So, I completely sympathise - in a world that’s speeding up, who has time to document their workflows?
But avoiding this will no longer be an option. As we move into a world in which AI can do many of our tasks, the business will require high value workflows to be defined so AI can be leveraged.
Case in point - AI agents. To build an agent, you have to give it instructions, context and guardrails, so it can deliver satisfactory outcomes.
And this is the mistake some are making - they’re hoping AI will magically figure out this detail.
But it can’t!
Think about it. Think about everything that sits inside a workflow, but that isn’t documented. All the micro-decisions, exceptions, trade-offs, judgement calls, nuance, contextual hints. AI can guess - and it can guess pretty well. But if we want reliable outcomes, all of this stuff needs to be made explicit.
And so, not only is what we’re discussing here essential for improving human performance, it’s also essential in the design of a hybrid-agentic future - which is what every business leader is being told they need to design for.
Which is why I’m so stoked to be involved in L&D right now.
There will be disruption.
But for those of us who’ve committed to doubling down on the first principles of performance improvement, it’s a very exciting time to be working in this field.
And I’m stoked to be on the journey with you :)
Yours,
- Ant
