Anchoring Quality in a Sea of Change

Change. Everyone has to deal with it at some point. Many people don’t like it. What do you do when your VP comes in on a Tuesday morning and says “we’re going to do Agile, starting today” or “welcome to your new org structure”? What if your director gets let go, out of the blue? Or your entire team (leaving you on a quality island)? What if you are brought in to inflict help (change) on others? How do you maintain, or improve your products quality when the world around you seems to be spiraling out of control?

In this workshop, we will talk about change. We will talk about some of the changes we have encountered, how those changes have affected us, and what we did to make sure our products didn’t fall over in the middle of everything else going on around us. Through facilitated interactions, and exercises, we hope to show you some ways for handling change well (and some ways to NOT handle it well). Let’s work on handling change together, from Identifying the real issue in a situation to ways you can be a champion of quality through a changing organizational landscape.

Key Learnings:
Strategies for identifying what changes are happening in your organization and how it actually impacts you
Strategies for advocating concerns
Ways to be an agent of change

Prerequisites:
Bring your stories of change, and your willingness to learn from others
Laptop/Notebook for notes

Target Audience:
Anyone new to testing, new to organizational change, or anyone who wants to learn how others deal with change

Transcript

1. Anchoring Quality in a Sea of Change Erik Davis & Bailey Hanna Targeting Quality 2019
2. Who Are We? @BaileyHanna She/Her www.thingstestingtaughtme.com @erikld He/Him as a contractor * *
3. Our day ! Overview ! Icebreaker ! What is change? ! Break ! Impacts of Change ! Lunch ! How can we anchor quality during change? ! Break ! Bring it all together ! Q&A
5. Key Takeaways ! Tactics for identifying the true changes occuring ! Tactics for identifying their impacts (self, team, and org) ! Strategies for accepting change and influencing it
6. Icebreaker
7. In your tables, find the following ! Who’s been in tech the longest? ! Who’s had the least roles throughout their career? ! Who’s degree/diploma/lack thereof is the farthest from their current role? ! Who lives the farthest from our current location? Closest? ! One interesting fact about each person
8. What does change look like in an organization?
9. Main areas of change ! Culture ! Mission/Direction ! Processes ! Leadership
10. Specific changes in an organization ! Personnel changes (+/-) ! Acquisitions/Mergers ! Changed processes ! Reorganizations ! New projects/products ! Company growth
11. What changes have you experienced? In your table groups, discuss some of the changes that you’ve seen in organizations you’ve been a part of.
12. Any Themes?
13. BREAK TIME! Coffee, tea etc. is available in the main area 20 minute break
14. Why Does Change Matter?
15. What do these changes do to your team? Within your table group discuss some of the impacts you have seen come from org changes. How did they impact you? Your team? The organization?
16. Anything surprising? Common?
17. Common impacts that changes can have ! Loss of team morale ! Stress ! Decreased productivity ! Hostile workplace environment ! Fear of job loss ! Increased employee churn
18. What does this mean for people?
19. Why we resist change ! Fear of role elimination ! Lack of understanding ! Loss of control ! Real/Perceived lack of competence ! Lack of personal benefit ! Office Politics ! Lack of trust ! Poor timing/execution
20. They elicit a negative emotional reaction What do all of those have in common?
21. How does change make you feel? Within your table groups, and using some of the types of change you’ve seen before, identify how those situations made you feel
22. How can we better prepare for change? ! Identify out loud our issues with it ! Evaluate the emotions we feel ! Identify how we’re directing those emotions ! Take a step back to look at the bigger picture ! Discuss it with colleagues ! Discuss it directly with your manager
23. BREAK TIME! Lunch! Meet back here at 12:30
24. Refresher ! What is change ! How does it impact organizations ! Why do we fight so hard against it
25. How can we anchor quality during change?
26. How can we anchor quality? ! Remain open to new ideas ! Ask questions ! Start with empathy ! Get and give context ! Suggest job shadowing ! Be an advocate above all else
27. That’s great… but how?
28. Remain Open to New Ideas ! Don’t assume you have all the answers ! Listen fully to proposed solutions ! Understand your own bias ! Sit with the idea for some time before refuting it
29. Ask Questions ! Get context ! Get background information whenever possible ! Get clarity on unclear areas of requests ! Ask them if they have any questions for yourself/the team
30. Start with empathy ! Get to know the person/ team ! Understand the background and context of the situation ! Get a fresh perspective ! Don’t assume you have the answers
31. Context ! Make sure they understand your perspective ! Give them information on the background of a project/team and the decisions made ! Ask them for context about their proposal
32. Job Shadowing ! Get to know one another and the work you do better ! Hands on approach to the above tactics ! Immersive learning experience for both parties
33. ! Advocate for quality more than push your own agenda ! Keep focus on the product/project and the goal ! Eliminates some of the personal bias Advocacy
34. Influencing Change ! Focus on the people more than the process ! Slow the process down ! Listen to the team ! Get buy in ! Clearly state expectations ! Allow for challenges and changes
35. What are ways you can anchor quality? Within your table group discuss some ways you can think of to implement the tactics we discussed, or come up with new ones! Also discuss any tactics you’ve used in the past and whether they were effective.
36. Each group share some of their ideas
37. BREAK TIME! 30 minute break
38. Bringing it all together...
39. What can you do? ! Take time to understand the scenario ! Use tactics to minimize the negative impacts of change ! Stay aware of your own position and emotions ! Be willing to acknowledge when a situation just won’t work for you
40. Lets try it out!
41. Exercise Time!
42. Things to keep in mind... Observers: ! Take notes on the interaction so you can share it with the participants after ! Try not to let the extra context you have slip via facial expressions, sighs etc Participants: ! Use the tactics we all learned about earlier today ! If you think of a new tactic, use it and right it down to share!
43. Share your observations!
44. Any Questions?
45. What did you learn? Using the sticky notes on your tables, please write out what you felt provided you the most value, and what you felt provided the least!
46. Resources Books: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Lencioni Web https://catherinescareercorner.com/ 2011/07/26/12-reasons-why-employees-resist- change-in-the-workplace/ https:// www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com/ managing-workplace-issues/helping- employees-manage-change