Innovation in a Creative Company - DevOpsDays NYC 2015

When creative companies bring diverse teams and skill-sets together, they bank on the idea that seamless interdisciplinary collaboration will lead to truly innovative products and experiences - and it will, if empathy, inclusivity, and communication are priorities. The DevOps community has embraced things like statistical process control, system of profound knowledge, and theory of constraints, but these concepts need reframing to resonate with Strategy and Design disciplines. Technologists and engineers have the opportunity to teach and cultivate collaboration strategies beyond the bounds of their area of expertise.

In this ignite, I talk about some of the successes and failures I've experienced when trying to bring DevOps values to the wider organization and explain how empathy, inclusion, and communication are integral to the successes. I discuss a handful of ideas, including surprise reduction, curiosity, and sharing, and briefly touch upon how diversity in teams enables stronger ideas and better innovation. The journey of cultural change will be different from one organization to the next, but I hope to ignite more conversation on this topic by talking about the changes we've attempted.

Ultimately, by working to understand other disciplines and finding empathetic, inclusive ways to bridge the gaps between "us and them," technology can work more collaboratively with other disciplines, and we can create better, more innovative products as a result.

Transcript

1. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. D E V O P S D A Y S N Y C 2 0 1 5 INNOVATION IN A CREATIVE COMPANY
2. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. WE ARE A DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DESIGN AGENCY WITH A RELENTLESS FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER
3. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. 形 (Kata)
4. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. Deming IMPORTANT, BUT INSUFFICIENT… Shewhart Goldratt
5. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. COMMUNICATION EMPATHY INCLUSIVITY
6. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. SURPRISE REDUCTION
7. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. UNDERSTAND YOUR ASSUMPTIONS AND ANTICIPATE OTHERS’ NEEDS
8. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. “Surprise reduction leads to greater happiness, improved trust, increased productivity, and stronger collaboration.” ~ COMMON SENSE SURPRISE REDUCTION
9. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. CurIoSity
10. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC.
11. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. TAKE ACTION Reflect on your curiosity Ask questions Start conversations
12. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. RECIPROCATING ACTION ANSWER QUESTIONS TEACH CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
13. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. Early in my career…
14. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. SHARE EARLY, SHARE OFTEN
15. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. EMPATHY Surprise Reduction + Curiosity + Sharing (+ Other things not covered in this presentation)
16. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. GOOD EXPERIENCE DESIGN IS ROOTED IN EMPATHY
17. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC.
18. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. INCLUSIVITY INCLUSIVITY BEGETS DIVERSITY DIVERSITY YIELDS GREATER PERSPECTIVE GREATER PERSPECTIVE LEADS TO INNOVATION INCLUSIVITY LEADS TO INNOVATION
19. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. CULTURE IS HARD But you’re among friends, so let’s keep trying.
20. @LANYONM / CRITICAL MASS, INC. MIKE LANYON VP OF ENGINEERING @lany onm http://b log.lanyonm .org Photo Sources: Shewhart - http://www.resourcesystemsconsulting.com//wp-content/uploads/shewhart.jpg Deming - https://www.census.gov/history/img/deming.jpg Goldratt - https://orlandoolguin.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/eliyahu_goldratt.jpg Cat - http://i.huffpost.com/gen/928734/images/o-SURPRISED-CATS-facebook.jpg Dog - http://images.boomsbeat.com/data/images/full/24389/dog_2-png.png Sarah Walker, Near Earth Objects VIII - http://i1.wp.com/www.pierogi2000.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/WalkerNEO.VIIIweb.jpg Sarah Walker, Near Earth Objects I - http://i2.wp.com/www.pierogi2000.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/NEO.I.jpg Typing - http://blog.marketo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/jim-carrey-typing.jpg We Venn - http://ezradew.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/empathy-.jpg