We use conferences to influence IT in Russia

The topic of conferences for IT analysts is my pain, love and passion. For several years now I have been making efforts to make their content more valuable to us. I really want to catch up and surpass the West in technology. And conferences are one of the excellent tools for disseminating best practices.

Below I present to you material based on my report Increase your influence on IT in Russia by 100 timeswhich I did at the Smart Speaker Conf in the spring of 2024.

If you like the video more, it is at the end of the article.

On May 20, 2023, the government of the Russian Federation presented the concept of the country's technological development until 2030. This document identified four main risks:

Insufficient adaptation to global IT trends
Lag in the pace of innovative and technical development
Talent outflow
Breaking production chains

The first to feel the realization of these risks were IT specialists who had previously worked in Western companies, and after February 22, they suddenly found themselves in Russian ones. I myself belong to this class, and I can confidently say that we used to have the opportunity to work with advanced technologies, use the latest tools, form distributed teams and attract the best expertise from around the world, working in distributed teams. We applied international practices and created effective processes, products and systems. Everything was great.

Our satisfaction with the quality of the environment according to the KANO model

And today we lack critical IT technologies, we lack tools. And it would seem – well, with our expertise, we will be able to catch up with this, build processes… For more than two years, my colleagues and I have been trying to introduce the best international practices in modern Russian IT companies.

It doesn't work! – Why?

The answer lies on the surface:

The best practices work in clear and simple systems, where processes are clearly structured, responsibilities are identified, success criteria and role models are set – where everything is known and clear. Even middles and juniors feel comfortable working in such systems, since the rules have already been created.

This is the same lower right corner of the Kenevin framework that I hope you are familiar with. There is no need to invent anything here.

However, to create these systems we need specialists who can work in difficult conditions, where we we know what we don't know. Using standards and frameworks, such people create best practices that will then be applied by those who work in clear systems. These are systems where seniors work.

Even more difficult are intricate systems in which we don’t know what we don’t know. In such systems, it is impossible to determine in advance what is connected and how. We don't know what we don't know. This is where new practices are needed, and this is where experimentation works.

Through research and perception, we create new structures – those good practices for the next quadrant. This is where models, BOKs, standards, frameworks, and so on are born…

The only thing worse is chaos. This is a state where one slight movement of any particle can cause an unpredictable reaction in the entire system. Enormous efforts and a gigantic distance traveled collapse in an instant into zero movement. And here we have no time to think – we need to quickly respond to incoming impulses. Here you have to rely on intuition, which is sometimes uncharacteristic for IT specialists. It is simply impossible to do otherwise. We need new practices that have not yet been created.

Once upon a time in philosophy classes, when I was still in graduate school, we were told that the meaning of human life lies in reducing entropy. That is, in reducing the degree of uncertainty and unknown. Thus, the meaning of our work is to move the system clockwise – from chaos through confused systems to complex ones and then to clear ones. However, in 2022, the pendulum swung further, and we went from clear to chaotic. The most necessary tools and technologies were taken away from us.

There are two ways out of chaos. The first is the directive introduction of new rules that will help streamline actions. However, this method only works in small, stand-alone companies. It is hardly possible to talk about this method for the entire industry or country. The second path is a gradual movement clockwise, from chaos to clarity, which will necessarily require training of all those who will be useful in this process.

How to do this? In chaos – we don't know what will work. We need the fastest possible reactions to what is happening. We need the ability to think outside the box, find the maximum number of approaches to solving problems, have several opinions at once and the ability to change paradigms, views and concepts from which we look at tasks and problems.

But, even if the world is filled with geniuses with such thinking, alone we will be looking for repeatable working solutions for a very long time. There will be too many mistakes to make. It will take too much time. Their number can be reduced through the effective exchange of critical information

Best practices don't work anymore – you have to come to terms with that. The time has come for everyone to learn from everyone, regardless of experience, age and other merits. You can see for yourself how cheerfully the younger generation outperforms experienced experts, using new and unexpected moves. And then fast and high-quality communication of experimental results is critically important for us: we want to receive:

exactly what you need
exactly when we need it
and with the quality that is important to us now

That is, we need something that is tried and tested, practical, effective and profitable, adaptable and scalable. All this is short, clear, intelligible, with examples. And we don’t have time to study for a long time.

Here she is the real value of real networkingwhich many people talk about, but few know how to use!

What is the problem with gaining knowledge from networking?

Most often we receive new information for our learning on request. That is, we study what is already known, described and accessible. These are articles, videos, courses, and simple mentoring. Continuing to operate in this model, we will always be in the role of catching up.

The least effective training is on occasion: posts in tg channels, podcasts that turn up, webinars, meetups, typical conferences – everything is a matter of chance.

The most difficult training to obtain is ahead of the curve: we receive information about solutions to problems one step earlier than we were able to realize them. Thanks to the fact that we are in a single field with those who set similar goals for themselves, we actively study the problem field around us and increase our readiness to quickly respond to new unexpected impulses. And only active forms of interaction work here: mentoring, clubs, conferences

It is clear that on-demand learning can work in clear and partially complex systems. After all, it requires built-in practices or at least rules. This is a format in demand by juniors and middles, and seniors are already missing it.

The vast majority of modern conferences are about these two quadrants. And what’s interesting: the more complex the situation in the world, the more such conferences there are – about the best and good practices, which, in fact, are already often not applicable.

And the less desire real leaders have to attend these conferences. Because the area of interest of such leaders is solving the problems of confused and chaotic systems. But there is no ready-made information here. Here you have to invent your own methods in order to find out information ahead of the curve.

Conferences would be a great opportunity for this, but there is one thing…

The wider the circle of interaction, the less often it is possible to conduct an active exchange of information. Having one-on-one interactions with a thought leader as a mentor is very valuable. But it is available to one, two, or three people per mentor. If the same person shares his experience in a club, a dozen or two colleagues will hear him. But if he talks about it at a conference, hundreds and thousands will hear it.

It would be a good idea to make leadership conferences more frequent so that we always have the opportunity to share the most relevant insights and have a good understanding of the rapidly changing context.

Looks utopian, right? And it’s not a matter of cost and organization. efforts.
The point is primarily in the willingness of experts to share knowledge.

Why do experts become speakers? And why do others come to listen to them? For the most part, the goals of both sides organically converge, creating the very necessary interest in conferences:

Speakers come to share their expertise
Listeners – learn something new
Speakers are looking for like-minded people
Listeners also develop a network of acquaintances
Speakers need to resolve work issues
Students – looking for an employer
Speakers like to promote themselves and assert themselves
Listeners are happy to touch the stars
Well, everyone wants to hang out

But the most important thing is that a real leader and expert comes to the conference improve your competencies. He needs feedback, critical understanding of his approaches, edge cases, exchange of information… But this is where – emptiness.

Speakers and listeners should not look at each other from top to bottom and from bottom to top – this makes mutually beneficial exchange impossible in the context of confusing and chaotic systems!

Speakers and listeners are people speaking on equal terms. Then it will work!

And then we will really be able to greatly increase everyone’s contribution to the development of IT in Russia, reducing the very risks published in the concept of technological development of Russia until 2030.

I conclude this article with gratitude to everyone who read to the end. I would like to believe that thanks to you, we will have more expert speakers, more effective interaction formats for real leaders. And together we will move the system we live in one more quadrant to the right.

For this we need: