Slaying the Kraken

Transcript

1. Slaying the Kraken Maarten Dalmijn Why do easy things become nearly impossible as organizations grow and how to fix it?
2. Statement: “It’s Easy to Build Great Products at My Current Job” Easy peasy lemon squeezy: No difficult stakeholders Everyone is on the same page No useless planning rituals and roadmap ceremonies Teams have ownership over results No sudden work pushed to the teams
3. Statement: “I’ve Worked at a Company Where It Was Difficult to Build Great Products”
4. Building Great Products is Often Infuriatingly Difficult Why is this the case? Did I work at the wrong companies? Is something wrong with me?
5. Talking to Someone at One of the Most Admired Tech Companies in the World “Over here easy things are impossible and impossible things are easy.”
6. 3rd State of Agile Culture Report, 2023
7. The Solution: Fire and Replace All Leaders?
8. Example: Sonos
9. Disaster Struck
10. Decided to rebuild their product New app must be finished before Ace headphones Managers yelled at developers when they said the app wasn’t ready Teams were organized around silos Ship it no matter the quality CACAO Model Organizational System Alignment Collaboration Autonomy Context Plus: go public, restructure team to silos, launch more products, and get rid of QAs
11. Expertise Isn’t the Bottleneck Lack of expertise is not what makes delivering great products difficult
12. The Problem is the System The Kraken The Kraken is what makes delivering value difficult by making simple things nearly impossible
13. The Kraken: Counter-Productive Organizational System For Teams The Kraken Mindset Culture Organizational Structure Process Rules Bureaucracy Departments Leadership Policies
14. Brittle Teams Feeding the Kraken Team A Team B Team C Busy fighting and feeding the kraken Customer Users Business Not busy thinking about customers, users and the business The Kraken
15. The Paradox of Control Most leaders want to iterate quickly but are unable to grant the trust necessary to iterate quickly
16. Distrust: Asked To Be On Call
17. The Kraken Feeds On Distrust YUMMY DISTRUST OM NOM NOM NOM
18. LACKING CONTEXT “Do teams have all information to make decisions?” INADEQUATE AUTONOMY “Can teams decide how to best do the work?” INSUFFICIENT ALIGNMENT “Are teams making decisions along a shared trajectory?” INEFFECTIVE COLLABORATION “Are teams making better decisions together?” SLOW Decision Speed Moving information to authority Operating at the Speed of Distrust LOW Quality of Decisions Decreasing collective competence ORG. SYSTEM
19. INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCE LOW HIGH LOW HIGH COLLECTIVE COMPETENCE The Mighty Ducks The Avengers Pinky and the Brain Minions Collective Competence vs. Individual Competence
20. CONTEXT “Do teams have all information to make decisions?” AUTONOMY “Can teams decide how to best do the work?” ALIGNMENT “Are teams making decisions along a shared trajectory?” COLLABORATION “Are teams making better decisions together?” ORG. SYSTEM Operating at the Speed of Trust High Speed of Decisions Moving authority to information High Quality of Decisions Increasing collective competence
21. Brittle Teams Elastic Teams Orchestration Ownership How do you end up here?
22. Leaders don’t trust their teams We create rules, processes and hierarchy to prevent having to trust our teams Brittle Teams struggle to make decisions and deliver The Cycle of Distrust When you don’t trust your people you will develop an organization where you can’t trust your people. Distrust fuels distrust
23. Most Great Products Are Built By Small Teams with Trust and Psychological Safety Around 25 people Around 30 people Around 300 people
24. Chocolate is Deadly for the Kraken CACAO CACAO Model for moving at the Speed of Trust
25. Teams Do Work To Create Value Team Work Results We Want If the work is linear and predictable, dealing with internal obstacles is easy
26. Not Linear, But Messy Team Work Results We Want We need Elastic Teams that are flexible and adaptable
27. Ownership Elastic Team Work Results Decisions Deliver Feedback You can only have ownership with Elastic Teams: Teams can’t have ownership without the ability to make decisions
28. CONTEXT AUTONOMY ALIGNMENT COLLABORAT- ION ORG. SYSTEM Elastic Team Work Results Decisions Deliver Feedback Ownership: Operate at the Speed of Trust If you want ownership together with better and faster decisions, operating at the speed of trust is mandatory
29. CONTEXT AUTONOMY ALIGNMENT COLLABORAT- ION ORG. SYSTEM Brittle Team Work Results Decisions Deliver Feedback Orchestration: Operate at the Glacial Pace of Distrust The tentacles of the Kraken disrupt decision-making, delivering results and ownership.
30. LACKING CONTEXT “Do teams have all information to make decisions?” INADEQUATE AUTONOMY “Can teams decide how to best do the work?” INSUFFICIENT ALIGNMENT “Are teams making decisions along a shared trajectory?” INEFFECTIVE COLLABORATION “Are teams making better decisions together?” ORG. SYSTEM
31. CONTEXT AUTONOMY ALIGNMENT COLLABORAT- ION ORG. SYSTEM Constantly asking for instructions Teams with features to deliver Unable to reframe problems Many meetings Unable to make decisions Lots of coordination Many unresolved bottlenecks Working in silos Don’t get help when you need it Conflicts and escalation High WIP Technical Debt
32. CONTEXT “Do teams have all information to make decisions?” AUTONOMY “Can teams decide how to best do the work?” ALIGNMENT “Are teams making decisions along a shared trajectory?” COLLABORATION “Are teams making better decisions together?” ORG. SYSTEM
33. CONTEXT AUTONOMY ALIGNMENT COLLABORAT- ION ORG. SYSTEM Sufficient information to make decisions Given problems to solve Reframe problems when necessary Deep work Swift and decisive actions Few meetings Bottlenecks are swiftly resolved Teamwork not silowork Help each other as necessary Low tech debt unless intentional Conflicts quickly and quietly resolved High flow - works flows smoothly
34. Why Fighting the Kraken is Difficult #1. The longer you are part of a system, the more blind you become to problems of the system. #2. When your organizational system makes it hard to make decisions, making changes to the system itself also becomes harder. #3. Organizational systems have evolved based on conditions from the past and are not designed for the future.
35. Age of AI: Small Teams That Have Ownership Over Results No Longer Optional Don’t worry about your teams NOT adopting AI. Worry about your teams operating at the Speed of Trust.
36. We Need Leaders With More Guts We need leaders who have the guts to chop off the tentacles of the Kraken to create an environment for Elastic Teams. Counter-Productive Organizational System Counter-Productive Organizational System
37. Don’t Be Atlas Learn to let go of what you can’t influence. You can create high-performing teams in organizations with huge krakens... but you’ll bump into walls and your effort may not even be appreciated.
38. Brittle Teams Elastic Teams Orchestration & Apathy Ownership & Curiosity SAFe Trust Distrust
39. Trust Distrust CACAO REMOVING - SLAYING THE KRAKEN Immediate Pain Difficult Scary Uncertain Risky Resistance ADDING - FEEDING THE KRAKEN Immediate pleasure Easy Comforting Certain Familiar No resistance
40. CACAO to Fight the Kraken Easy, familiar and comfortable choices will gradually result in weak teams. Difficult, risky and uncomfortable choices are necessary for strong teams
41. CONTEXT “Do teams have all information to make decisions?” AUTONOMY “Can teams decide how to best do the work?” ALIGNMENT “Are teams making decisions along a shared trajectory?” COLLABORATION “Are teams making better decisions together?” ORG. SYSTEM Kraken Tentacle Mapping High Speed of Decisions Moving authority to information High Quality of Decisions Increasing collective competence