President Trump pays attention to user experience as amassed in big data (e.g. what supporting voters believe). The impacted community reels (e.g. the streets teeming with concerned people). The first implementations display bugs that the larger world is aghast at (e.g. the refugee policy). Something is copied that previously worked well somewhere else(e.g. the inaugural cake).
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We’ve seen each of these — and each is a common symptom in a development project taken off a release program where every detail is planned years in advance and put into an agile development methodology. Trump is running the Presidency as he ran the campaign, like a just-in-time set of agile sprints. In agile the structure is flat, the objectives are near-term results that execute in the field (aka the real world) every few weeks vs. rigidly designed plans designed for a politico’s echo chamber but that may never see implementation. User’s needs are continually met by increasingly complete plans. Wherever possible prior plans that work are copied, not started from scratch. The focus is on results, not plans and not political points.
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In agile successful code is often copied. A president that can copy a successful inaugural cake design could copy the best parts of Obamacare into Trumpcare. In agile one rapidly adjusts where policy/code had unintended impacts. Trump is no Republican, and Democrats have a unique chance to influence him by inspiring his deal-maker tendencies. However, the flip side is he does not take to insults well and by insisting on calling him names they bring out his worst: his instinct to retaliate. Agile lauds novel or unusual approaches to solving problems. If they work, great; if they don’t they’ll be dropped in a future sprint.
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Just as in the development community the shift in approach causes stress, so will this presidency. Flaws mean an opportunity to fix in the next sprint in an agile world. Pointing them out should be encouraged, not shut down. There is hope in the willingness of people to march that flaws will be quickly understood. Free speech should be an asset to an agile presidency. If there is a risk to Trump’s agile presidency, it is that he will not recognize flaws as future opportunities but rather as insults.
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In any case, the reaction may not be solution expected: this president believes in a smaller government and we’ve a had nearly a decade of people in power that believe in federal government based monetary solutions to problems. This president may enable private state-based solutions vs. providing public funding. It may help to differentiate government reducing proposals (e.g. funding cuts to your favorite program) and coercion reducing policies (e.g. permanent Hyde amendment so that pro-life money does not pay for abortions) from those that violate consciences built on American values(e.g. unjust refugee policies, prohibitions on free speech of government employees). That later many on both sides of the aisle will need to protest.
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One novel approach Trump takes is tapping billionaires for service. Every time the media rises up to complain about these billionaires I think of Longwood Gardens. A Dupont project in Pennsylvania it was built by a wealthy man who recognized his riches were in part a product of rising on other people’s backs. The gardens and fountains provide a very beautiful place to the public long after his death. Every aging billionaire has benefitted from many others in one way or another, and those with a conscience in their later years have a desire to give back — more concerned with legacy than money. The better angels of these people could result in massive benefit to our country.
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One approach he’s taken from corporate take-overs is when you want to reduce costs rapidly you leave seats vacant until you are convinced you need them filled. You take every opportunity to flatten the organization and leverage retirements. The political approach is the opposite: to fill seats with friendly people that will carry out the party’s views. Trump is an outsider, his approach is that of corporate take-over and his promise is to cut the organization’s size, except for military which he has promised to grow. We should not be surprised if he initially leaves many seats vacant. They can always be filled in a future sprint.
Originally published on Medium in the publication We are all Overcomers. Order historical fiction novel Rekindled with the button below.
