Assemblage Theory and Wardley Maps

Wardley Maps are based on Simon Wardley’s observation that everything humans do (technology, concepts, etc) change state in ways that are broadly predictable. We can’t tell when or how it will happen, but we know what things move through a spectrum of states from Genesys > Custom > Product (or Rental) > Commodity. The change from one state to anther is a phase shift and strategy is essentially the business of acting deliberately to lead or forestall the shift from left to right along map of these states.

Assemblage Theory talks about phase shifts that happen when the internal conditions of an assemblage change in a way that shift the relationship of perameterised the concepts (DeLanda) “territorialisation” and “codification”. For example, water in certain conditions will phase shift from a liquid to a solid. How might the phase changes of a Wardley Map and the phase changes of Assemblage Theory be related?

In the Genesys phase, we might say that the assemblage has low territorialisation and low codification.

In the Custom phase, we might say that the assemblage is medium territorialisation and medium codification.

In the Pruduct/Rental phase, we might say that the assemblage is highly territorialised and more than moderately codified.

In the Commodity phase, we might say that the assemblage has a very low degreee of territorialisation and is highly codified.

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BenkoBot is a commodification of business process automation built on a highly commodified version of kanban.