Publications

Videos and articles from Enuaj on governance, arbitration and the execution of complex transformations. Each item states its sources. Some videos use an AI-generated voice; each one says so.

Videos · Articles

Videos

The Pareto Principle

Quality pioneer Joseph M. Juran noticed that a relative few defects accounted for the bulk of the defectiveness: “the vital few and the trivial many”. He called it the Pareto principle, after the economist Vilfredo Pareto, then acknowledged that this attribution was mistaken. In a document workflow, a few error types may cause most of the rework. Three moves: choose the effect you want to reduce; rank the causes with real observations; fix the top one, then measure again. 80/20 is a pattern to look for, not a ratio to assume, and a rare risk is not a minor one.

Source: Joseph M. Juran, “The Non-Pareto Principle; Mea Culpa”, Juran Institute archives.

Hofstadter’s Law

In 1979, Douglas Hofstadter wrote in Gödel, Escher, Bach: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” He was writing about chess computers, which experts kept expecting to beat the world champion “within ten years”; IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in May 1997. In transformation programmes, a migration plan counts the files to move and forgets access rights, exceptions and business sign-off. Three counter-measures: compare the estimate with projects that actually finished; name who resolves each unknown; give a range, with the date you will revise it. A date without a review point is a promise, not an estimate.

Sources: Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, 1979, p. 152. IBM, Deep Blue. Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov (rematch, 3–11 May 1997).

Parkinson’s Law

In 1955, C. Northcote Parkinson wrote in The Economist: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In transformation programmes, a phase planned for six months takes six months, even when the decision behind it could be made in six weeks. Three counter-measures: size each time box to the decision it serves; name who decides at the end of it; when the date moves, revisit the scope, not just the plan.

Sources: C. Northcote Parkinson, “Parkinson’s Law”, The Economist, 19 November 1955. Royal Navy figures 1914–1928 as cited by Parkinson; discussed in “Challenging Parkinson’s Law”, Naval History Magazine (U.S. Naval Institute), December 1994.

All videos: youtube.com/@enuaj_consulting

Articles

Published on the Enuaj LinkedIn page.