Human Centered Information Systems

Making Technology Work for Humans

No matter how sophisticated our information systems become, they still cannot capture the context, nuance, and unseen possibilities that are part of human decision making. Four patterns explain why.

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Four Core Patterns

Why Smart Organizations Make Expensive Mistakes

Pattern 01

The False God of Control

Why Organizations Sacrifice Everything to the Illusion of Measurement

Organizations worship dashboards and KPIs, pouring enormous resources into the promise that complex systems can be controlled through better measurement. Every measurement changes what's being measured — often destroying the very qualities that made something valuable.

Key Insight

The more precisely you try to measure and control organizational complexity, the more you create the problems you're trying to solve.

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Pattern 02

Innovation Paradox

Why You Can Teach Optimization, But Not Breakthrough Thinking

Corporations spend billions annually on innovation processes, yet breakthrough innovations continue to emerge from garage startups and accidental discoveries. Attempts to systematize innovation often push mediocre ideas through the funnel, destroying breakthrough possibilities while optimizing incremental improvements.

Key Insight

Innovation operates on its own schedule. Systematic processes eliminate better possibilities while optimizing predictable ones.

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Pattern 03

Information Utility Paradox

When Perfect Accuracy Delivers Less Value Than Strategic Approximation

Organizations assume more accurate information always leads to better decisions, but the opposite is often true. High-precision data can destroy the contextual insights it's meant to provide, while rough approximations may be sufficient — or even superior — for real decisions.

Key Insight

Information is infinite. The pursuit of perfect information often eliminates the very insights that perfect information was supposed to deliver.

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Pattern 04

Why Murphy's Law Exists

The Curse of Detailed Planning

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" isn't pessimistic folklore — it's what happens in a world of infinite possibility. The more detailed your plan, the more opportunities for deviation. Detailed planning statistically favors failure outcomes.

Key Insight

Complex plans contain vastly more failure possibilities than success possibilities. Simple plans outperform detailed ones in practice.

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The Connecting Thread

Classical Logic Applied to Non-Classical Systems

Each of the four patterns reveals the same fundamental mismatch: organizations applying classical information theory — measurement, control, optimization — to systems that do not operate by those rules.

The magnitude, complexity, and nuance of information defies the capabilities of our current management systems. Information doesn't exist in neatly structured columns and rows. This fundamental mismatch explains why attempts to "data science" everything lead to disappointing results.

  • Smart strategies fail predictably
  • Sophisticated systems underperform simple ones
  • More measurement often produces less insight
  • Detailed planning frequently creates the failures it is designed to prevent
The Strategic Implication

Organizations that understand these four patterns gain a structural advantage over competitors who exhaust themselves fighting against the real dynamics of information.

The Intellectual Lineage

These insights draw on quantum mechanics (Deutsch), systems thinking (Goldratt), and decades of observing expensive organizational failures — to explain patterns that conventional management theory cannot address.

Practical Applications

Where These Patterns Apply

Strategic Planning

Understanding when detailed planning helps versus when it creates the conditions for Murphy to operate.

Innovation Management

Recognizing when systematic processes kill breakthrough possibilities before they can fully form.

Business Intelligence

Knowing when measurement provides value versus when it destroys the very quality it was designed to measure.

Digital Transformation

Avoiding classical solutions applied to quantum-information problems — the core reason transformations consistently disappoint.

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