Have you ever wondered why the same problems seem to keep trickling down to the testing phase? The specification was misinterpreted, the test case wasn’t right, the software didn’t meet requirements...
Lindsay’s work on organizational alignment puts this down to ‘The Fog’: a confusion caused by misunderstandings, biases, assumptions, different interpretations, behaviours, and information gaps, among other things. While a certain amount of Fog is inevitable, it can build up between people to cause serious misalignment, leading to cost and frustration. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Lindsay’s conference opener takes us through a story of how she began to recognize The Fog, understand what’s behind it, and see what can be done to clear it. This is a keynote about complexity, empowerment, learning and organizational maturity for today’s dynamic workplaces.
Reluctantly, the tech industry has owned up to its deep social, political, and moral impacts. Now the hard work begins. A slew of ethical aids have emerged – toolkits, card decks, playbooks – but the true challenges run deeper, caused by complex human trade-offs, misaligned values, and faulty incentives. Can concerned technologists genuinely shift the moral cultures of high-performing tech firms? Will ethics become a shared industry commitment, or forever remain a mere discussion point?
Cennydd Bowles, author of Future Ethics, explores why nascent ethics initiatives stumble in tech companies, the structural difficulties that lead to unethical decisions, and the questions that most obstruct moral progress: Isn’t the law enough? Does ethics mean slower innovation and less profit? The answers will help illuminate a radical new path that helps ethical advocates to consider hidden stakeholders and harms and that draws on collective power to change entrenched systems.