Lessons from the Rapidly Remote

The “new normal” of being rapidly remote has finally settled in. Or has it? You may have been unprepared to go remote and then you were suddenly turned into a “remote only” company. So has anything “normal” come out of this? Are we any closer to making remote work and agile principles together? This talk outlines key lessons from those who have gone rapidly remote and how they survived and even thrived.

Transcript

1. LESSONS FROM THE RAPIDLY REMOTE Mark Kilby @mkilby https://www.markkilby.com #AgileDayATL (virtual edition)
3. ???
4. © 2020 Mark Kilby WHAT ABOUT YOU?
5. WORKING AGREEMENT WORKING AGREEMENTS Please ask questions anytime (in Zoom) Pets and kids welcome… …but please stay muted
6. RAPIDLY REMOTE TIP: WORKING AGREEMENTS FOR WORK AND HOME Work has invaded your home Every day is now “bring your kid/pet to work day” We might call this a “mindshift”
7. © 2020 Mark Kilby • WHAT IS A MINDSET SHIFT (MIND SHIFT)? • 3 DISCIPLINES FOR LEADING DISTRIBUTED TEAMS • EXPERIMENTING TO EXPLORE MIND SHIFTS Our path today
8. © 2020 Mark Kilby • WHAT IS A MIND SHIFT? • 3 DISCIPLINES FOR LEADING DISTRIBUTED TEAMS • EXPERIMENTING TO EXPLORE MIND SHIFTS Our path today
9. My first UK trip
10. © 2020 Mark Kilby BEST PRACTICES ONLY WORK IN A CERTAIN CONTEXT Mindshift that day …
11. © 2020 Mark Kilby IN THE WRONG CONTEXT “Best Practices” can be harmful
12. © 2020 Mark Kilby ARE TIME ZONES REALLY A PROBLEM? (another mind shift coming)
13. © 2020 Mark Kilby WHAT IF WE CONSIDERED HOURS OF OVERLAP?
14. © 2020 Mark Kilby WHAT IF WE LET THE TEAM DECIDE HOURS OF OVERLAP?
16. © 2020 Mark Kilby – 2 mind shifts “Team hours over office hours” & “Give distributed teams choice”
17. © 2020 Mark Kilby • WHAT IS A MIND SHIFT? • 3 DISCIPLINES FOR LEADING DISTRIBUTED TEAMS • EXPERIMENTING TO EXPLORE MIND SHIFTS Our path today
18. © 2020 Mark Kilby 3 KEY MIND SHIFTS FOR DISTRIBUTED LEADERS Manage for change through experiments Amplify communication and collaboration Focus on principles over practices These become your “daily disciplines” or “operating system” for distributed leadership
19. © 2020 Mark Kilby 3 KEY MIND SHIFTS FOR DISTRIBUTED LEADERS Manage for change through experiments Amplify communication and collaboration Focus on principles over practices These become your “daily disciplines” or “operating system” for distributed leadership
20. © 2020 Mark Kilby IMAGINE A TEAM WORKING TOGETHER … Performance Time Status Quo Change introduced
21. © 2020 Mark Kilby IMAGINE A TEAM WORKING TOGETHER … Performance Time Status Quo Change introduced Change could be: - New process - New team member - New leader - New tools - New conflict - Urgent request - Urgent change in direction - Tool failure - Process failure - Team member out unexpectedly - Leader unavailable - Etc.
22. © 2020 Mark Kilby Our expectations when we initiate change on our teams Our expectations when change is imposed Performance Time Status Quo New Status Expectations Change Time Performance Status Quo Change
23. © 2020 Mark Kilby QUESTION: For you and your team, has change been… 1) Initiated by someone in your organization? 2) Imposed by outside forces? 3) Both? 4) Caused by something else?
24. © 2020 Mark Kilby RAPIDLY REMOTE TIP(s): Keep number of tools minimal & You don’t always need a separate tool
25. © 2020 Mark Kilby WHAT REALLY HAPPENS (UNDER THE RIGHT CONDITIONS)… Performance Time Status Quo New Status Quo Change introduced and challenges assumptions
26. © 2020 Mark Kilby SMOOTHING IT OUT, WE GET THE J-CURVE Time (1) Status Quo/Old (8) New Status Quo (2) Change introduced and challenges assumptions (7) Integrate New Learning Performance (3) Resistance (5) Initial Results / Period of Disruption (6) (first) Transforming Idea (4) Unlearning
27. RAPIDLY REMOTE TIP: EVERYONE MOVES DIFFERENTLY THROUGH THIS CURVE Time (1) Status Quo/Old (8) New Status Quo (2) Change introduced and challenges assumptions (7) Integrate New Learning Performance (3) Resistance (5) Initial Results / Period of Disruption (6) Transforming Idea (s) (4) Unlearning
28. © 2020 Mark Kilby – an attentive audience member But wait. You said something about “under the right conditions”?
29. Mind shift: Best way to navigate change is through Experimentation (How to experiment is the last part of the presentation)
30. © 2020 Mark Kilby 3 KEY MIND SHIFTS FOR DISTRIBUTED LEADERS Manage for change through experiments Amplify communication and collaboration Focus on principles over practices These become your “daily disciplines” or “operating system” for distributed leadership
31. © 2020 Mark Kilby THIS IS THE WAY TO WORK REMOTELY Some believe…
32. © 2020 Mark Kilby A TYPICAL DISTRIBUTED COLLABORATION PROBLEM You hire great people from all over the world Team sets some good hours of overlap Location 1 people work well together Location 2 & 3 feel isolated (left out of conversations, small tasks, not clear on big picture) Eventually, people in location 2 or 3 either join an all remote team .. Or just join another company
33. © 2020 Mark Kilby TEAM AFFILIATION OVER LOCATION AFFILIATION (another mindshift) Strengthen Weaken
34. © 2020 Mark Kilby Nebula whole team dispersed
35. © 2020 Mark Kilby HOW TO BUILD TEAM AFFILIATION Hours of Overlap Dedicated Team Backchannel Buddy System & Co-Pilot(s) Know the Whole Person Bring everyone together for big initiative / quarterly planning
36. © 2020 Mark Kilby 3 KEY MIND SHIFTS FOR DISTRIBUTED LEADERS Manage for change through experiments Amplify communication and collaboration Focus on principles over practices These become your “daily disciplines” or “operating system” for distributed leadership
40. © 2020 Mark Kilby • WHAT IS A MIND SHIFT? • 3 DISCIPLINES FOR LEADING DISTRIBUTED TEAMS • EXPERIMENTING TO EXPLORE MIND SHIFTS Our path today
41. © 2020 Mark Kilby HOW TO MANAGE CHANGE THROUGH EXPERIMENTS? Hint: Limit the Chaos Time Performance Sometimes known as the “point of chaos”; It will get worse before it gets better as the team wrestles with change Chaos
42. © 2020 Mark Kilby TOO MUCH CHANGE Can the team recover? (1) Status Quo/ Old Way (2) Many/Bigger changes introduced and challenges assumptions Performance Chaos extended. Team may not come out of chaos without huge effort and support Chaos Chaos Time
43. © 2020 Mark Kilby TOO MANY CHANGES Time (1) Status Quo/Old (2) Change introduced Performance (3) Resistance Chaos Results may look more like this if team is not given time to adapt to each change and learn from it.
44. RAPIDLY REMOTE TIP: SLOW DOWN WHEN POSSIBLE Let the team absorb the changes and stay on track
45. © 2020 Mark Kilby SET EXPERIMENTS To control the chaos
47. RAPIDLY REMOTE TIP: EXPERIMENT WITH, NOT ON (no one wants to be a lab rat)
48. © 2020 Mark Kilby • WHAT IS A MIND SHIFT? • 3 DISCIPLINES FOR LEADING DISTRIBUTED TEAMS: • MANAGING CHANGE THROUGH EXPERIMENTS • AMPLIFY COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION • FOCUS ON PRINCIPLES, NOT PRACTICES • EXPERIMENTING TO EXPLORE MIND SHIFTS Our path today
49. © 2020 Mark Kilby AND MY 3 FAVORITE ONLINE TOOLS …
50. © 2020 Mark Kilby 3 FAVORITE ONLINE TOOLS Patience Empathy Listening
51. © 2020 Mark Kilby THANKS! Q&A? NEED MORE? Blog, articles resources & distributed agile newsletter at https:// www.markkilby.com Twitter: @mkilby http://www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby ONLINE CLASSES at https:// distributedagilesuccess.teachable.com, includes FREE course for Rapidly Remote Get the book - https:// www.markkilby.com/sdatbook/
52. © 2020 Mark Kilby BACKUP CONTENT
53. © 2020 Mark Kilby WHAT IF WE CONSIDERED HOURS OF OVERLAP?
54. © 2020 Mark Kilby WHAT IF WE LET THE TEAM DECIDE HOURS OF OVERLAP?
55. © 2020 Mark Kilby PHOTO CREDITS star swirl - https://unsplash.com/photos/rMmibFe4czY Mountain Path - Photo by Justin Kauffman on Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/a8lTjWJJgLA road trip - Photo by Esther Tuttle on Unsplash wrong way - https://unsplash.com/photos/w5sHBvTYss0 Man in front of headlights - https://unsplash.com/photos/XIx85KpKmWU State of Remote Report 2020 http://buffer.com/state-of-remote-2020 3 face sculpture - Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/zIoFNTnA8Ok Jungle bungie jump station - Photo by Nazim Zafri on Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/OmQBmAU-ihI Oculus Rift - https://www.flickr.com/photos/121483302@N02/13491081124 CC-SA http://agilemanifesto.org Winding road into desert hills by Jannes Glas on Unsplash http://agendashift.com/a3-template 2 rats - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sister_ratties_3.jpg All other images (c) 2020 Mark Kilby & Johanna Rothman