Navigating uncertainty with people-first digital transformation, logic-first data modeling, and governance-first AI
In-Practice latest: Build It Yourself? Part 1: A Proportionate Architecture
Navigating uncertainty
Head and Heart CIC (H&H) is my one-person social enterprise with a statutorily regulated mission to help individuals, charities, community groups, Community Interest Companies and small private enterprises across the UK by offering free and low‑cost digital transformation support.
Transformation projects always bring uncertainty. Plans are tools for delivering the things your organisation wants, but transformation changes the way your organisation works, and with that the things your organisation wants. Transformation plans are more about provisioning for whatever you decided to do in the future than about deciding what steps to take.
People-first digital transformation
I specialise in helping organisations make the most of the digital tools available to them. I see information systems as activities that teams of people participate in to complete communication, decision making and record keeping tasks. Digital transformation disrupts those teams, and the core of any digital transformation project to help the teams adjust and reform.
Logic-first data modeling
An organisation’s data is its memory, and the more accurately and clearly your data models the real world the more useful as a resource it will be. however the way your organisation works changes. More deeply, striving for accuracy and clarity in your data establishes a shared goal that coordinates the work of your teams right across your organisation.
Governance-first AI
The latest wave of transformative technical change is being created by the introduction of generative AI into the workplace. AI systems are valuable because you don’t need to tell them exactly what to do. They manage this by using probabilistic guesses based on all the material available to them, and the more closely your data models reality, the more true-to-life the AI generated guesses will be.
But you can’t control a guessing machine by telling it what to do; it can only guess at the intent of what you tell it. So, to adopt AI safely, you need strong governance systems that define the environment in which those guesses can operate.
Open-source resources and IT Coaching
I try, as far as possible, to include all the guidance and signposts you need to navigate uncertainty in the open-source material that I publish as Resources and In Practice posts. You are encouraged to reuse and share this work in whatever way helps you most, and I would love to hear what challenges you face so I can build a truly useful library.
Sometimes individual attention is called for as well. For those occasions I also offer charities, community groups, Community Interest Companies and small private enterprises both 1:1 and small group IT Coaching: proportionate, confidence‑building support to help you make the most of the tools and learning resources available to you.
If you’ve got any questions, comments, or Feedback, then I’d love to hear from you.
Kind regards
Patrick Killeen
Head and Heart CIC
patrick@headandheart.info
Head and Heart CIC 