Operations people frequently communicate and learn through stories and mythology. Much like fairy tales: some of this mythology is healthy, some cautionary and some moralistic. Your Operations mythology is a strong element in how your organisational culture is shaped and more importantly can influence how your Operations team makes decisions. I (with some help from Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm) am going to examine why these stories and mythology matter. We’ll look at how these shape your culture and set the mood for your Operations team. You’ll see why and how mythology, whether you’re in a giant enterprise or a tiny startup, often subconsciously influences the decisions and choices you make and the risks you’re prepared to take. Finally, I’ll present some ways you can tell good stories, build healthy mythology, make use of that mythology for profit, and how you can eradicate the mythology and stories that give your Operation’s team nightmares.

1. James Turnbull
@kartar
Once Upon A
Time
Why Operations mythology
matters

2. who
operations chap
Puppet chap
erstwhile Ruby chap
funny accent
(photo by Jennie Rainsford)

3. other matters
author
hack-n-slash developer
pontification
http://www.jamesturnbull.net
https://github.com/jamtur01
http://www.kartar.net

4. books
Pro Puppet
Pro Linux System Administration
Pro Nagios 2.0
Hardening Linux

5. the logstash book
www.logstashbook.com

6. Mythology

7. Myths

8. The Headless Horseman

9. The Bermuda Triangle

10. Bloody Mary

11. What is a myth?

12. Hidden truth
Higher meaning

13. Hippy shit

14. Ideology in
narrative form.
Bruce Lincoln

15. "The real interest of a myth is to draw a
circumference around a human
community and look inward toward that
community, not to inquire into the
operations of nature."
Northrup Frye

16. It's how communities build
bonds

17. Enforce social norms and
behaviour

18. Enforce hierarchy and status

19. Why are myths
so powerful?

20. Hard to dispute

21. Allegorical not reductionist

22. Usually about something
bigger than us

24. Epic stories and
journeys
Gods, monsters, heroes and
villains.

25. The Hero's
Journey

27. The most famous
journey of all

29. An Operations
Hero's Journey

31. A special kind of
myth

32. Folklore

33. Artifact
Cargo coding
Why do we collect and/or
keep this shite?
What does this script, host,
service, application, setting
do?

34. Discourse
Stories
Warnings
Watchwords

35. Ritual
Cargo cult behavior
Formalized process
Secret neckbeard incantations

36. Why should I
care?
"People stick in companies as long as they
can tell a good story about it."
Romy Misra

37. Good myth
Bad myth

38. Why are bad
myths bad?

39. Change
We can't make it

40. Hierarchy
We're stuck with it

41. Isolationist
We've got no mates

42. What should I
do?

43. Breaking down
bad myths

44. Question all of
the things
All knowledge is derived from
and maintained by social
interaction.
Myth is reinforced with fear
and language.

45. Data trumps
myth
Use science. It's cool.

46. Retro-mortems
Break complex phenomena
and then analyze the relations
between them.

47. Systemic
Therapy
Approach problems
practically
Do not assign blame or victim-
hood
Identify stagnant patterns of
behaviour
Help systems and people
change themselves

48. Building good
myths

49. Reality is socially
and linguistically
constructed

50. So lead by
example

51. Use the right
language

52. Tell good stories

53. Reward and
celebrate good
myth making

54. Reward the
deconstruction
of bad myths

55. Questions?

56. references
Ichabod pursued by the Headless Horseman by F.O.C Darley, 1849
(public domain)
Social norms enforcement by Miss Manners
Inigo Montoya by kevinbolk
Bermuda Triangle image by Kuriddiw
McFlag by Keoni101
Ducks by Scrumshus
The Fish was this big via jussta and Cheezburger
Not All Men Are Created Equal © BBC