SWARMing into action

I've been Scaling Without a Religious Methodology, or SWARMing, for a while now. I've talked about the principles behind this and the table stakes for starting, but then what? How do you get started, and how do you set yourself up for success?

I am excited to share how I've been structuring a programme to evolve a 6,000-person start-up (!) from good to great. As Stephen Covey says: Begin with the End in Mind.

Transcript

1. @tastapod
   SWARMing into action
   Daniel Terhorst-North
   

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2. @tastapod
   Two years ago
   

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3. @tastapod
   Two years ago
   

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4. @tastapod
   Two years ago
   

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5. @tastapod
   18 months ago: an unexpected email
   Mukesh
   Ambani
   

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6. @tastapod
   A little about Jio
   • Built India-wide 4G network from scratch
   • Launched Sep 2016, just over 3 years ago
   • 360 million subscribers, and counting!
   • 2 million billing transactions/sec
   • 10+ billion CDR transactions/day
   • 6,000 people in Jio Engineering
   

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7. @tastapod
   A little about Mukesh Ambani
   • Built and owns Reliance Industries
   • Refinery to retail
   • India’s most valuable company
   • Wealthiest man in Asia (13th in world)
   • Net worth $50bn
   • India’s economy “worth $10tn by 2030”
   

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8. @tastapod
   A little about Mukesh Ambani
   • Voracious learner, straight-talking,
   appreciates “speaking truth to power”
   • Considers his wealth “a social obligation to
   raise up Indians and India”
   • Principled, driven, genuine
   • Applying tech innovation to connectivity,
   finance, education, “hyperlocal” retail
   • Transitioning Jio into connectivity platform
   

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9. @tastapod
   So I took a look around
   Interviewed a cross-section of people
   Presented my findings as an Initial Assessment™
   - People
   - Process
   - Technology
   - (and Product)
   

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10. @tastapod
    Jio from outside…
    

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11. @tastapod
    Jio from inside…
    “Effective but not efficient”
    

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12. @tastapod
    Two questions
    1. How efficient are we?
    We don’t know! No one is
    measuring efficiency in any
    meaningful way.
    2. How to become more efficient?
    Apply Theory of Constraints:
    1. Define the goal: “efficient”
    2. Identify what (we think) is slowing
    us down
    3. Mobilise around 2.
    4. Coordinate, trust and verify
    5. Ad lib to fade!
    

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13. @tastapod
    Programme Success
    Jio People
    Creating Value
    Engineering Excellence
    Meeting Customer Needs
    Designing Future Jio
    Stream 

    Leads (pair)
    Shadow
    Exec 

    sponsor
    Reinventing Leadership
    Programme structure (warning: do not copy*)
    * do copy!
    

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14. @tastapod
    Operating model
    Hire the best people I can find
    - co-create guiding principles
    - then get out of their way
    Establish frequent, regular communications
    - upwards, sideways, downwards
    Publish programme OKRs
    - to set “true north”
    - to hold ourselves accountable
    - to generate excitement and urgency
    

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15. @tastapod
    Designing

    Future Jio
    Reinventing
    Leadership
    Engineering
    Excellence
    Meeting Customer
    Needs
    Creating Value
    Jio People
    Jio
    priorities
    lens
    Jio
    today
    Future
    Jio
    Programme Success
    Streams Initiatives
    OKRs OKRs OKRs OKRs
    Operating model
    

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16. @tastapod
    Things I am (re-)learning*
    * including things I didn’t notice so other people had to tell me
    1. “You are building an organisation within an organisation”
    - with everything that implies
    2. Hiring is tough! “The first job is mobilising the team”
    3. It is ok to “fail upwards”
    4. Consistency in communications is a design choice
    5. Speaking truth to power really can work
    

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17. @tastapod
    Where next?
    Onwards and upwards!
    It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
    - and a great Petri dish for trying things at scale
    - I’m still pinching myself, 18 months in
    The team is growing, momentum is growing
    - I can wait: “Never settle for second best”
    SWARMing is the only way I can imagine this working
    

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18. @tastapod
    Thank you for listening
    Daniel Terhorst-North
    https://dannorth.net
    

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