'Leadership, Complexity, LeSS' by Ran Nyman

This session focuses on common root causes that create unintended and unseen complexity in organizations. This complexity is disguised in the form of good management practices, and good intentions and local optimizations. We use one case to describe the rise of complexity and the death of a company Nokia Mobile Phones. Then we show that this pattern can be generalized to any growing company that does not pay attention how to grow. Next, we take a look at Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) framework and how it avoids building complexity in an organization by being minimalistic and starting the change by real change instead of change theater. Then we look at forces in LeSS that create ownership of change in the organization. We use real life case examples to describe how this is achieved and what key leadership actions are needed to happen, so the change is sustainable. Learning objectives: Insight how LeSS and new leadership thinking is used to simplify the organization.

Transcript

1. Leadership Complexity Adaptability with LeSS Ran Nyman Riga Agile Day July. 7, 2017
2. Ran Nyman Founding partner at Worked with LeSS since 2005 MSc in Computer Science 1999 Since 1995 in professional SW development Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 2
3. Leadership
4. Taylorism
5. Frederic Winslow Taylor Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 5
6. Extreme Taylorism Fordism1900 Context Huge market and demand Winning product Lack of skilled workforce Solution Manual Automation Detailed standardization Proper wages Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 6
7. Modern Taylorism Split responsibilities Others promise, others deliver Others plan, others execute Others decide, others follow Others know, others decide Others implement, others test Task / role specialization Project/program managers Resource manager Quality manager Sustainability Manager HR manager Line manager Specifier Architect UI designer Quality manager Fault manager Feature owner Feature Owner Team Release Manager Systems Engineer Portfolio manager Customer Experience Manager Process development manager Integration manager Release train engineer Enterprise architect Chief specialist Security manager Gosei Oy - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) 7
8. Manage 
 problems Everyday experience “Pressure with Fear” “Must Should” “No time for real change” “Power and wisdom are always elsewhere.” Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 8 Fragmented
 organization Narrow
 learning Batch
 Queue
9. Actionable Fearless Leadership
10. © 2016 Pivotal Software, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 Without Intervention, Work Rolls Down Hill From XP2016 keynote by
 Elisabeth Hendrickson
 @testobsessed
11. Fearless Leaders Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 11 Intervene How much time, cash and owners’ trust do we have?
12. Fear Individual Exclusion from the tribe Personal conflict Collective Death of the tribe Loss of cohesion External conflict Avoid conflict Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 12
13. From
 Conflict Avoidance
 To ????????????
14. From
 Conflict Avoidance
 To Greed to Learn
15. From Conflict Avoidance To Radical Curiosity
16. Fearless Leaders Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 16 Trust in Learning Connect conflicting realities - letting curiosity 
 overcome fear Intervene How much time, cash and owners’ trust do we have?
17. Fearless Leaders Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 17 Trust in Learning Connect conflicting realities - letting curiosity 
 overcome fear Understand the system Coordination Chaos Tayloristic leadership Feature Teams Factory floor reality… Intervene How much time, cash and owners’ trust do we have?
18. Organise for customer oriented learning Find your Product Cross-functional teams interact with Customers Full product focus Build System with Feedback Reality Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 18 Study system and your self Reflection Systems Thinking Immediate feedback from technology Continuous integration Test Automation Feature Teams
 working with
 Full Product Continuous
 Integration Continuous
 Experimentation
19. LeSS Case 1
20. Browsing Gateway in 2004 Working with incremental sequential development 3 months increments with 3 project managers coordinating Weekly manual build (no CI) Individual component responsibilities Testing and development separated in different wings of building No meaningful automated e2e testing Manual testing using scripts -> Releases constantly late with quality problems Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 20
21. Actionable Fearless Leadership BL management decided to move to Scrum (LeSS as term was not know then) Supported the adoption: But did not micromanage Created proper structure System that supports team work System that enable technical feedback Continuous experimentation Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 21
22. Focus from Internal Structure to Customer Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 22 Customer
23. LeSS Structure Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 23 Product Backlog Product Owner Team a Team b Team c ScrumMaster ScrumMaster One Sprint Backlog per Team
24. From Physical Silos to Collaboration Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 24
25. From Manual Build to CI No other way of keeping SW in shape Branching did not work Do not use ClearCase Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 25
26. From Manual Testing to A-TDD Getting rid of scripted manual tests -> Automate them But do not offshore automation! But do not create your own framework! Performance testing? We ran it continuously Stability testing? We ran it continuously Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 26
27. From Project Managers to One Product Owner One single real PO that prioritises Teams clarify directly with stakeholders Project Managers: Kept them away from teams -> Not much work Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 27
28. Results Great working spirit 100% test automation Product version 2.1 launched before scheduled date PSPI Strong Definition of Done Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 28 Feature Teams
 working with
 Full Product Continuous
 Integration Continuous
 Experimentation LeSS Is NOT a New Thing
29. Fearless Leaders Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 29 Trust in Learning Connect conflicting realities - letting curiosity 
 overcome fear Understand the system Coordination Chaos Tayloristic leadership Feature Teams Factory floor reality… Intervene How much time, cash and owners’ trust do we have? Build feedback mechanism from Work, Customer and System
30. Psychological Safety Employees who feel psychologically safe: Stay with the company Embrace new ideas from their colleagues Generate more revenue Rated as ‘effective’ twice as often by their managers. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 30
31. Fearless Leaders Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 31 Trust in Learning Create safety by demonstrating 
 Secure Base Connect conflicting realities - letting curiosity 
 overcome fear Understand the system Coordination Chaos Tayloristic leadership Feature Teams Factory floor reality… Intervene How much time, cash and owners’ trust do we have? Build feedback mechanism from Work, Customer and System
32. Fragmented
 organization Fearless
 Leadership Flow of work and feedback Wide 
 learning Integrated
 organization Batch
 Queue Manage 
 problems AFL and LeSS Narrow
 learning Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 32 1. Change
 thinking 2. Organize for 
 customer-centric learning 3. Start working 4. Learn forever http://LeSS.works/principles
33. Fearless Leaders Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 33 Trust in Learning Create safety by demonstrating 
 Secure Base Drive change skilfully Connect conflicting realities - letting curiosity 
 overcome fear Understand the system Coordination Chaos Tayloristic leadership Feature Teams Factory floor reality… Intervene How much time, cash and owners’ trust do we have? Build feedback mechanism from Work, Customer and System
34. Complexity
35. Collapse of
 Complex Societies
36. Joseph A. Tainter Collapse of Complex societies: Mayas Chacoan West Roman Empire Western Chou Mesopotamia Egypt … Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 36
37. Tainter’s story in brief Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 37 Abundant resources and innovation enable the growth of the Society. Innovation increases local efficiency and complexity. Complexity grows Elite creates wasteful rituals 
 to maintain their status Rent instead of value creation The complex society can no more adapt and collapses. The population drops dramatically.
38. The root cause of the collapse is 
 the internal complexity not
 the depletion of resources.
39. In Corportate world: Complexity Kills Profits and companies! Forbes Global 500 are losing, on average, 10.2 percent of their annual profits or $1.2 billion per year each due to value- destructive complexity. This adds up $237billion each year.
40. Collapse of Productivity in NOKIA Mobile Phones
41. NOKIA mobile phone business 2004-2012 in (million euros) Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 41 Graph by Christian Sandström, http://disruptiveinnovation.se
42. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 42 Nokia Mobile Phones Nokia Networks
43. Aggressively grab the opportunities Great success in the beginning “Just make it work” - engineers Trust and autonomy Success during the growth phase NOKIA opportunity 1990 Business opportunities Crumbling Telecom monopolies Detailed GSM standard Talented workforce in Finland Ambitious leader Jorma Ollila Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 43
44. Stage 1 Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 44 Abundant resources and innovation enable the growth of the Society.
45. “Just make it work” - engineers Ever increasing complexity NOKIA Challenges Beginning of 2000 Organizational background 100 years of heavy industry Lack of experience in leading
 SW product development Technology over design Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 45
46. Stage 2 Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 46 Abundant resources and innovation enable the growth of the Society. Innovation increases local efficiency and complexity.
47. Growth of Complexity 20% growth for 5 years in a row Codify competence into process Narrow task specialisation Others decide others do SW development challenge underestimated Attention in Radio, Hardware, Business, Coordination, Manufacturing, Supply chain Want to educate the recruits, but “Just make it work” 
 -> Self-organising for short-term Learn the emergent local habits Best became elite Elite educated, others survive Plenty of coordinators Some only hang around 
 - OK until layoffs Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 47
48. Stage 3 Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 48 Abundant resources and innovation enable the growth of the Society. Innovation increases local efficiency and complexity. Complexity grows Elite creates wasteful rituals 
 to maintain their status Rent instead of value creation
49. “Just make it work” - engineers Pressured by “Just make it happen” - management Fear disconnected the organization Superficial decision making Failed to respond to competition NOKIA Mobile Phones Situation 2007-2011 New competitors, new game Technology constrains design Coordination chaos Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 49
50. Stage 4 Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 50 Abundant resources and innovation enable the growth of the Society. Innovation increases local efficiency and complexity. Complexity grows Elite creates wasteful rituals 
 to maintain their status Rent instead of value creation The complex society can no more adapt and collapses. The population drops dramatically.
51. NOKIA/MS Mobile Phones 2016 Microsoft announcing on May 23 the "streamlining" of the business. It would lay off "up to 1,850 jobs worldwide", with up to 1,350 of those in Finland The company also wrote off USD$900 million from the Nokia acquisition. In Dec, it was announced that the sales of all Lumia phones were discontinued. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 51
52. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 52
53. Descale Complexity To Gain Adaptability Using LeSS
54. Insurance Company at End of 2016 in Germany Traditional organisation with functional departments 3 months releases with 2 week Sprints Component teams Rich Client, Web, Database,… Testing done in stabilisation Sprints Manual testing using scripts -> Releases constantly late and not with promised features. Several weeks defect fixing after each releases Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 54
55. LeSS Structure Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 55 Product Backlog Product Owner Team a Team b Team c ScrumMaster ScrumMaster One Sprint Backlog per Team
56. LeSS Huge 56
57. Focus from Internal Structure to Customer Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 57 Customer
58. Next Challenge Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 58 Releases constantly late and not with promised features. Several weeks defect fixing after each releases
59. Results Early 2017 Visibility to progress and realistic release plan Customer representatives in reviews Teams learning to deliver e2e features Working directly with stakeholders Test automation ramp up started First release with new teams delivered what was planned with much better quality Journey to monthly releases and Continuous Deployment started Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 59 Feature Teams
 working with
 Customers
60. Complexity Leadership LeSS
61. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 61 Complexity Grows
62. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. 62 Customer Organizational redesign
63. Gosei Oy all rights reserved. Adaptability with LeSS 63
64. Q&A More LeSS September 6, Tallinn September 26, Riga http://gosei.fi http://less.works