I want to adapt slightly a great quote I found in an article by Jacob Harold. He's addressing non-profits, and his focus is what he calls “medium data”. Contrasting with big data, “medium data is a humbler but essential prerequisite: structured information about who you are, what you’re trying to do, and what’s happening.” Here's the doctored quote, with apologies to Harold: Every [organization] may well be its own unique snowflake, but if we focus only on what makes us different, we’ll never reap the rewards of [...] data.
This is a powerful response to an age-old objection to standards – “our company is unique, so you can't expect it to conform to a common standard”. Yes, we're all different. But that doesn't mean we're all alien to each other.
Organizations share maybe 90 per cent of their DNA with each other. The ten per cent difference makes all the difference to success. But the 90 per cent similarity is where all the potential cost traps are. If you have sand in your engine, it's stored in the 90 per cent. Failures of agility are also often down to failures to recognize the standardizability of the 90 per cent.
Even better, it turns out snowflakes aren't as unique as we think. If you get down to very small scales, then of course snowflakes are all different – just as no two organizations will ever be exactly identical. But, to the naked eye, there's a limited number of snowflake shapes. David Bradley points out in his debunking book Deceived Wisdom that all snowflakes grow with hexagonal symmetry. From a practical point of view, there's a finite number of shapes they can take.
Your organization is a snowflake. Every organization is a snowflake. That's why we can work together profitably, learn from each other, and share common assets – like standards. Up For Debate
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