Deepening our people to weather the org

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Deepening our people to weather the org     Lindsay Holmwood   @auxesis

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What makes high performing teams endure?

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How do you create a resilient culture?

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What is culture?

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Schein’s three levels of culture

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Artifacts Values Assumptions

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National Organisational Team Occupational

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Artifacts

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physical manifestations of culture

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ceremonies

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org charts

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desk layout

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documentation

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software

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most visible parts of an org’s culture

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easiest part of a culture to adopt

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Values

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conscious goals, strategies, and philosophies

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rules that guide how we interact with people

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rules that guide how we do our work

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“we will dominate the market”

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“management is available, and listen to our concerns”

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“we value quality over delivery speed”

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“nobody will be fired for making an honest mistake”

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values: lived vs aspirational

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Communication We have an obligation to communicate.

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Respect We treat others as we would like to be treated.

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Integrity We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely.

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Excellence We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do.

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Ethical We conduct business affairs in accordance with all applicable laws and in a moral and honest manner.

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Work as imagined vs Work as done

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Be clear about what values are what

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Assumptions

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beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, feelings

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exist at an unconscious level

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hard to discern

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“anyone can take on leadership responsibility”

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“bad outcomes come from bad people”

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“it’s OK to withhold information”

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“individual performance is valued over team performance”

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“we can’t trust that team”

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“people over profits”

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“profits over people”

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If we can change our people, we can change our culture

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– Graham Henry “Better people make better All Blacks”

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What makes a good team member?

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Trust

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Vulnerability

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Assume the best of others

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Aware of their cognitive biases

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Aware of the Fundamental Attribution Error

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We judge others by their actions. We judge ourselves by our intentions.

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Aware of Hindsight Bias

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“knew it all along” effect

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Talk about events with knowledge of the outcome

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memory distortion to form a judgement distortion

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“you were responsible for this failure”

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neglectful, inattentive, derelict of duty

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bad outcomes only come from bad actions

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• MH17 tragedy reveals need for flight path overhaul • Flight MH17 took abandoned flight path • MH17 flightpath questioned as Malaysia mourns second airline tragedy • Flight MH17 ‘could have avoided Ukrainian airspace for $66 per passenger’ • Why was MH17’s flight path over a conflict zone?

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• news.com.au • skynews.com.au • abc.net.au • dailymail.co.uk • pbs.org

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Hindsight is your culture killer

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Explain in terms of foresight

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trust hard to build, easy to lose

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5:1 ratio

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regular 1:1s

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create a space for people to vent

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create a space for people to complain

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regular, minimum half hour

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take a genuine interest

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eliminate performance reviews

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Thrive in conflict

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Ideas vs Personality

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Can discern between the two

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Strong opinions, loosely held

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Willing to play devils advocate

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Commit and act

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Shared goal setting

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Don’t solutioneer and push down

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provide context about strategy

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provide context about desired outcome

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Ideas must come from bottom up

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Leadership is there to facilitate

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You don’t need consensus

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But you need commitment

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People must be willing to put personal opinions aside

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Don’t have to actively sabotage

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Disagreement is OK

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“I don’t agree with the decision, but I’m going to do everything I can to see it succeed”

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What makes a good team?

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– Graham Henry “Better people make better All Blacks”

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Influence on hiring process

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Look for attributes that indicate a willingness to adapt when working in a team

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Chunk your hiring to be map/reduce

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What Who Map Qualify team fit Team members Map Qualify tech talent Team members Reduce Rubber stamp Team lead

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Have a consistent script (and be prepared to improvise)

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Every question tests a hypothesis

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“the candidate can distinguish between criticism of them and their work”

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“the candidate can engage in conﬂict about ideas”

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Everyone has veto power

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Leadership vetoing at the last moment?

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That’s a systemic problem with team alignment, not the hiring process.

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Benefit: The team talks to the candidate (without leadership present)

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Benefit: The candidate talks to the team (without leadership present)

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Benefit: Many, different perspectives

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Benefit: Unblocks management bottlenecks

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Risk: Uncovers dysfunction and misalignment in your team

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Hire good people, and get out of their way

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Diversity and inclusion

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Race Gender Sexual orientation Age Socio-economic status

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Location Disability Experience Work hours

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You hire for diversity by seeking out diverse candidates

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Sponsor events & attend meetups

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Make it clear in your job descriptions you are seeking candidates from diverse backgrounds

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Diversity is for naught if you don’t include, adapt, and embrace differences as part of your culture

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That means: Changing things that are “the way we do things here”

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That means: Listening to new, dissenting voices

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That means: There will be uncomfortable conversations

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That means: Creating safe mechanisms for people to raise criticism

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Safe: Voluntary Non-punitive

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That means: Acting on that criticism

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Leadership in the absence of leadership

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Having a title isn’t a requirement for leadership

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If the lead steps away, the team functions effectively for an extended period of time

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surprises are indicators of team misalignment

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Give the team their own umbrellas

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the team fosters conflict around ideas themselves

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the team has the authority and autonomy to remove blockers themselves

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ask forgiveness, not permission

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empowerment vs authority

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empowerment is giving permission from above

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empowerment is lending power

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authority is giving power

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authority is granting autonomy, and asking forgiveness

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local rationality

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team leaders can now: observe & influence trends & behaviour across the org

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team leaders can now: provide better context to the team

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team leaders can now: provide minor course corrections

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Part of something bigger than the team

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Build people up for the next job

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Guilds in the Spotify model

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Technology Leadership Delivery Service design Product

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Run them like meetups

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Regular, fortnightly

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1-2 talks & Lean coffee

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Get senior management to come and observe

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Be present. Be visible. Contribute.

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How do we make culture resilient?

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We talk a lot about culture

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What we’re typically talking about is tech culture

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Tech culture isn’t created in a vacuum

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Tech culture is shaped by the broader organisational culture.

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Tech culture is reflective of the broader organisational culture.

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– Edward Deming “A bad system beats a good person, every time.”

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We can change technical culture

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But can it resist the influence of the broader org culture?

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Our systems are artifacts

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Our processes are artifacts

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Artifacts Values Assumptions

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They’re a snapshot of our org’s culture

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They’re a snapshot of our org’s values and assumptions

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Artifacts influence behaviour

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Working with artifacts changes our perception of our org’s values

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Encode the org behaviour you want to see into your artifacts

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Change your org’s values by changing your artifacts

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Artifact: Make deployment fast and safe

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Value: “We ensure quality by going fast”

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Artifact: Build cross functional teams

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Value: “We work together to achieve a shared goal”

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Artifact: Give autonomy. Eliminate signoff. Grant access. Log everything.

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Value: “Ask forgiveness, not permission”

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Artifact: Run post incident reviews Run pre incident reviews

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Value: “Failure is an opportunity for learning”

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Grow our people

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Paint a new future (with the values you want)

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Build systems that reflect the values we want

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Deepen people, weather the org

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I’m Lindsay

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Thank you! ❤ the talk? Let @auxesis know.

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Bibliography Edgar Schein → Organisational Culture & Leadership → Humble Inquiry L. David Marquet → Turn The Ship Around Patrick Lencioni → Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars → 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Adam Grant → Originals Christina Maslach → Banishing Burnout

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Image sources (under various licenses) https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ay-AnJThiLk/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.flickr.com/photos/auxesis/23141305085 https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2356663850 https://www.flickr.com/photos/dan4th/5449103171 https://www.flickr.com/photos/64958688@N00/3945181992 http://logonoid.com/images/enron-logo.png https://i.imgur.com/JrExX7K.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/aZ3LDBs1ExsE8/giphy.gif https://www.flickr.com/photos/imagesbywestfall/5542755557 http://doug-stern.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/deming.jpg http://i.imgur.com/E9ZJc0H.gif