Modernization III

An environment required to support innovation is fundamentally different from one need to implement and sustain the innovation. In like innovation which benefits for participation and collaboration which can to some extent be self-organized and regulated, the implementation of the innovation must systematic – capable of being consistently repeated in a variety of situations and locations - over time. The notion of assembly line replication, though mechanistic in nature, appears to be a key ingredient to future success.

To accomplish this success, “systems” must be codified or thoroughly described before consistent implemented can occur. Without this codification, system replication is made difficult or impossible. Codification [1] could, for example, be expressed in several ways or at various levels of abstraction. That’s what codification is, a form of abstraction or virtualization or simulation. Written language is an abstraction of the spoken word and the alphabet is its codification. Written laws, business process definitions, computer programming scripts are abstract codifications intended to define, govern and regulate system behaviour. Codification is a critical component of the ongoing reformation or modernization process – including the way information is managed.

Some codifications, when put into place, are resilient – meant to last – intended to be impervious to change – strong and powerful. In a world of continuous change, however, where by the time the need for the change has been agreed to and an innovative response defined, tested and implemented, problems arise when the response is no longer appropriate to the external environment. In other words, what happens when the time it takes to conceive of and implement an innovation is so long that the circumstances that originally prompted that change no longer exist. In other words what happens when the time left to sustain change is reduced to zero? This is the zero point of entry - the point of continuous change. We are at this point where, for example, by the time the new product can be developed, it is no longer relevant.

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[1] here codification refers to the identification and restating of a business rule or process in an organized and logical in order that it can be more easily interpreted.