Part 1 of ?
This note will begin discussing Operations and our views on how Operations should be designed and conducted.
Summary
Introduction
Operations
To Do & Design
Messaging Applications
Overview
The Feedback Loop
WhatsApp and Operations
Use It
If You Have Slack / Teams
If You Don’t Have Slack / Teams
Closing Notes
Communities
Differences Between WhatsApp and Signal
In Summary
Introduction
Perhaps naively we will choose not to thoroughly define Operations (a nebulous term at best) in this note and instead focus on actionable content. This will be discussed later.
Our intention here is to outline processes and systems to support you and your "business". Whether you are
Running a revenue producing Wi-Fi business
Embedded in an enterprise scale juggernaut and looking to create some personal efficiencies to allow time for the wi-fi money escape
focusing on your day job and doubling down to show strong performance to avoid being laid off (as BowTied Bull has been recommending for quite some time)
We hope that we will be able to assist you.
These principles and our opinions are derived from our experiences and will be, by no means, exhaustive or even guaranteed 'good practice'.
We have not had an original thought in years: many concepts and models of cognition are drawn from, outright plagiarised, or cannibalised from other scholarly and less scholarly works. Rather than (poorly) summarising these concepts we have focused on suggestions for specific behaviours and taking action. You are also reading the badly edited missive of an semi-aquatic dwelling land mammal.
Operations
We shall now commence.
To Do & Design
In Operations, generally, your role will be broadly be split between "to do and design".
You will either be:
executing a process or managing a project, or
designing a procedure, process or policy for someone else (or you!) to do.
At the core of both To Do and Design is the flow of information and data. As an Operations professional you must be cognisant of the people, processes and technology which controls and directs this flow. (Yes, in that order; another discussion for another day).
We will initially discuss mobile messaging applications as a means of information and data flow.
Messaging Applications
We have chosen WhatsApp as our primary example in this note with occasional discussions of Signal.
However, other notable platforms include
iMessage
Telegram
Viber (Used widely in Philippines; and throughout "South America" )
Line (Thailand, Viet Nam)
Kakoa (Korea)
WeChat (China)
Whatsapp (UK, India)
Facebook Messenger (Australia, U.S.)
The above applications are largely similar in function and require a phone number to set up. The exception here is Facebook Messenger which requires a Facebook account (which can be later deactivated). For the avoidance of doubt WhatsApp is a Meta (Facebook) product. Remember: generally, if you are not paying for the product then you are the product.
Signal is open source and is broadly believed to one of the few remaining secure end to end encrypted message applications. Further discussions of cyber security are beyond the scope of this note and we would recommend other resources
Overview
It may seem strange to begin discussions here with "consumer" / "normie" applications largely intended for social purposes rather than other applications marketed for businesses such as Slack, Microsoft Teams (Teams) and Discord.
However, their very familiarity and ubiquitousness means that these applications, whether deliberately or not, often end up being used in business contexts.
You will also often find that smaller organisations, even though they have Slack or Microsoft Teams will still constantly use WhatsApp, often defaulting to it. Even larger organisations with an extensive suite of messaging and "collaboration" tools will also use WhatsApp for specific projects or more informally.
Why?
From the user's perspective
They are already familiar with the concept, interface and some basic forms of (net)equitte
The Boomer Thumbs Up remains a classic generational divide however
The application is mobile accessible and designed for mobile (much less of an issue in "modern" times)
The application can be more stable and reliable than other options
The most important point however is that for most people there already exists a very, very strong feedback loop attached to messaging applications and their phones.
The Feedback Loop
To briefly recap:
Most people are strongly incentivised to constantly check their phones to check messaging and other applications. Together, they provide reinforcing dopamine (notifications, personal messages) and near infinite source of novel stimuli (Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIN).
This attraction is further compounded by some applications headhunting straight out of the gambling industry. When combined with a wealth of data from millions of users, and AI / ML experts to develop and test models to drive engagement and usage, it's no wonder that these applications are very addictive and constantly accessed by near reflex action. Checking their phone is the first thing that many people do upon waking up, and many are hard pressed to stop until sleep takes them.
This feedback loop is a powerful concept that will return to many times throughout our writing. Often in Operations you are either introducing a new processes, or trying to change an existing process. Both of these endeavours are much easier if they are "grafted" onto an existing process or habit. Rarely you will work with a "green fields" / clean slate, and if you do such new efforts risk being sidelined by the weight of well reinforced existing habits ; in this case merrily checking a constant stream of messages and responding with alacrity.
WhatsApp and Operations
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