Facilitates experimentation

Experimentation is a key to mastering complexity. When modules are autonomous, teams can try new things without worrying about disrupting the activities of other units.

Establishes a standard approach

Creating a library of process fragments or sub-processes that can be linked together helps avoid inconsistencies, errors, and ambiguities, thus ensuring that the project plan follows process standards.

Enables faster decision-making and
a competitive edge

Modular design reduces interdependency by enabling autonomous modules focusing on clear outcomes. The ability to move faster than competitors provides a clear market advantage.

Increases flexibility

Sufficient modularization increases flexibility by delaying decision-making until the last responsible moment, keeping options open for as long as possible.

Facilitates innovation

Processes become adaptable to changes in the market environment, giving team members the ability to apply their knowledge and not simply follow the rules.

Applying modularity in the communications services industry

Uniti Fiber, a telecommunications real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on the construction and acquisition of mission critical communications infrastructure, manages more than 123,000 route miles of fiber. 

Significant interdependencies are at the heart of every new network and customer order. When delivering multiple services across multiple locations, steps must be executed in a specified order in the quickest amount of time to keep the project running smoothly and align with customers’ needs.

To manage increasing complexity, Uniti created a Multi-Order Tool (MOT), consisting of eight commonly used objects (or modules) linked together to track the life of an entire project. MOT objects are combined in a building block manner to create a collection of well-defined and repeatable processes that can be assembled to meet the needs of a specific project. Additionally, each object can be independently adjusted to respond to the changing market or changes within the Uniti organization itself. 

Rising to new challenges one piece at a time

While the practices of forecasting and making market predictions are unlikely to go away anytime soon, these disciplines are not effective tools for building operational stability. Communications services companies that prepare for a specific future will be blindsided by events that unfold differently or expend massive amounts of resources preparing for many different futures.

“Be Prepared,” the Boy Scouts’ motto still rings true today; however, effective preparation requires dancing and thriving on the edge of chaos. The ability to achieve the agility needed to respond to changing conditions, while avoiding a state of chaos, requires designing and optimizing the right pieces so that new processes can be built and rebuilt at a moment’s notice for a new day.