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Not sure that you can fix a calcified bureaucracy with "doctrine". I sort of get the angle, I think -- if the org operates within a rigid rule framework, you need to speak their language to get anywhere -- so, doctrine is best, because everyone is used to being told what to do? I feel like that approach is counter to the spirit of innovation, that's akin to being forced to have fun; nothing truly innovative will come from it. I think it's more of a lost cause, really. If you want to work on cool new stuff, don't work at a large org. I play the "innovation hero" role often enough, and the diversity of pushback we encounter is impressive. It ranges from thinly veiled hostility, the sdev equivalent of NIMBY, lies through omission, through nonviolent noncompliance, all the way to blithely unaware absurdity. One amazing moment stands out to me - we were jumping through the usual hurdles as described in the article, trying to get a prototype to prod, and in one meeting the head of IT indignantly exclaimed "I am not here to solve problems!". To paraphrase a scene from the Big Short: he wasn't confessing, he was bragging. The top brass exist to stifle any and all deviation from the norm. Another commenter in this thread makes a very good point: most of these innovation initiatives die stillborn, because the existing power structures exist, their MO is to maintain, and the C-suites would rather buy a successful startup than take any political risks internally. |
I think they mean doctrine as in military doctrine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_doctrine), which is a somewhat different idea than, say, religious doctrine. Religious doctrine can easily get rigid and legalistic, and compliance with it can become an end unto itself. Military doctrine is something a military would use in order to make the organization effective at a certain kind of task or endeavor.