Let’s Get On With The Next Job

Organisations are socio-technical systems. Don’t forget the “socio” bit.

I’ve enjoyed a few days at the OR Society conference, learning from researchers pushing the edge of operational research.

AI hype is overwhelming and noisy, and we need to learn to ignore it.

Real organisations need much more than a network of AI agents.

Leaders have to set direction, work out which way the organisation is headed.

Managers and workers have to make sense of what is going on and what needs to be done.

And engineers and technicians need to build useful, practical, and sometimes novel solutions.

There is a prophesised world where AI will do all these things and people will be irrelevant.

We need to remember that right now, that world is imaginary, and is one of several possible futures.

Arguably, it’s not ever a terribly likely future.

But we have the world as it is now.

A complicated place, with complex problems.

And, as my kid’s rugby coach constanty reminds the team, let’s get on with the next job.