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Tackling Social-technical complexity in the heart of your team @ NDC Oslo 2020

Tackling Social-technical complexity in the heart of your team @ NDC Oslo 2020

As a software engineering team, we want to solve complex business problems in the most efficient way possible. However, to do that we need to create technical complexity. However, not all technical complexity comes from conscious decisions, they come from the subconscious decisions made through interaction between people and technology. The problem is that when we are tackling technical complexity, we often forget about social complexity. What we need to do is address the socio-technical complexity first!

But how do we tackle socio-technical complexity in teams exactly? The first step is to get to know your context. We need to make sure we understand what we are going to work on and how it will affect all the other aspects of our social-technical systems. Spoiler alert: social-technical complexity will be a huge hurdle. Since as soon as code complexity increases, so does social-technical complexity.

In this session, Kenny and Evelyn will introduce you to the concept of social-technical systems. We will explain what complexity we are facing in these systems like:
The workspace we work in.
The way we interact with each other.
The cognitive biases that are at play during these interactions.
How team topologies affect our interactions and system design.

You will leave this session knowing how to tackle social-technical complexity in your team. You will know how to tackle it with frameworks like Cynefin. Know how to start using visual collaboration tools like eventstorming, impact mapping and maturity mapping and how to improve your team flow with the theory of constraint.

Kenny Baas-Schwegler

June 12, 2020
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Transcript

  1. Tackling Socio-Technical Complexity
    in the heart of your team
    Kenny Baas-Schwegler & Evelyn van Kelle
    Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  2. Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  3. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

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  4. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash

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  5. 5
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  6. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  7. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash
    Sunken Cost Fallacy:
    Why change now?
    We’ve already wasted so much money.

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  8. 8
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Autonomy has become compulsive, we
    need to remember we are still
    tribal creatures that require tribale safety.
    -Danielle Braun

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  9. Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash
    Investments in technology are also
    investments in people,
    and these investments will make our
    technology process more sustainable
    Nicole Forsgren
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  10. Socio-technical systems
    Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash
    Complex organizational approach
    that recognizes the interaction
    between people and technology in workplaces
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  11. Shifting the burden to the intervenor
    Photo by Wil Stewart on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  12. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  13. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  14. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  15. Cargo Cult
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  16. Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
    You should certainly take universally
    useful principles (...) you need to also be
    mindful of how your culture will react /
    respond.
    Simon Wardley

    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  17. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Open office space to improve communication
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  18. Socio-technical Complexity
    Result in losing:
    The big picture, the sense,
    a shared understanding, vision & mobilization
    Photo by NASA on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    https://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~golden/sociotechnical.html

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  19. Photo by NASA on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Socio-technical complexity is the result of
    ➔ Technical aspects
    ➔ Cognitive aspects
    ➔ Social aspects
    ➔ The interrelations of the three

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  20. Photo by NASA on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Q&A!
    Part 1

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  21. Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash
    Technical aspect
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  22. resource: Agile42
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  23. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  24. 24
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  25. Photo by NASA on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Q&A!
    Part 2

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  26. Cognitive bias
    Cognitive aspect
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  27. 27
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  28. Photo by Jean-Frederic Fortier on Unsplash
    The Magical Number Seven, Plus or
    Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity
    for Processing Information
    George A. Miller

    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  29. 29
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  30. 30
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  31. 31
    How many beans?
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  32. 32
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  33. 33
    How many beans?
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  34. 34
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  35. 35
    How many beans?
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  36. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  37. 37
    Visual collaboration tools
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  38. Creating a shared sense of reality
    Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  39. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  40. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    foto: Hideta Nagai) credit: Corporate tribe book by Danielle Braun, Jitske Kramer
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Social aspect

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  41. Fundamental
    Attribution Error
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  42. Photo by NASA on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Q&A!
    Part 3

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  43. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Photo by Kevin Erdvig on Unsplash credit: Corporate Tribe by Danielle Braun, Jitske Kramer
    Meetings as campfires
    Social aspect

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  44. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Accurate vs Completeness

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  45. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Accurate vs Completeness

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  46. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Accurate vs Completeness

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  47. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Accurate vs Completeness

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  48. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Polarity management

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  49. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    credit: human dimensions

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  50. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    credit: human dimensions

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  51. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    credit: Danielle Braun

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  52. @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Who does this?

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  53. When you start judging,
    you stop listening and learning.
    Photo by Jeff Qian on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  54. Tackling socio-technical complexity
    ➔ Use the Cynefin framework as a sense-making device to aid
    decision-making.
    ➔ Be aware of cognitive bias and visualise complexity to maintain a
    shared understanding.
    ➔ Have meetings as campfires to increase understanding and lower
    assumptions.
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas

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  55. @kenny_baas #CatTax
    @kenny_baas
    Baasie.com
    xebia.com/blog/author/kbaas/
    https://speakerdeck.com/baasie
    @EvelynvanKelle
    [email protected]
    https://www.evelynvankelle.com

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  56. Photo by NASA on Unsplash
    @EvelynvanKelle @kenny_baas
    Q&A!

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