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Fiona Johnson - Growing Positive Culture: Applying Product and Customer Principles to Develop Collaborative Teams and Motivated Individuals (Turing Fest 2022)

Fiona Johnson - Growing Positive Culture: Applying Product and Customer Principles to Develop Collaborative Teams and Motivated Individuals (Turing Fest 2022)

o you've built a company that's great at customer discovery – making the right product for your customers, and honed from diligent product discovery. But have you applied these skills to your most important resource – your team? From coders to the executives, culture matters. It affects behaviours (positive and negative) and permeates into company performance. Managing culture is tricky. It's formed by perceptions, observations, and deductions of how value is created within a work environment. Without a proactive, engaged approach, culture can become toxic, reducing innovation and fostering intra-team competitiveness and exclusion, concealing issues and building silos in the company. Left unchecked, these behaviours compound, leading to a downward spiral in company performance. This talk will provide tools that leaders and teams can use to build cultural intelligence and foster positive cultures. It will demonstrate how techniques used to understand your customer can be applied internally, to increase company productivity more effectively than by providing bean bags, ping pong tables and free soda.

Head to www.turingfest.com to learn more about Europe's best cross-functional tech conference.

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August 15, 2022
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  1. keilcentre.co.uk
    Growing Positive Culture
    Applying product and customer principles to proactively develop collaborative teams
    and motivated individuals
    Fiona Johnson – Human Factors Specialist

    MSc – Human Factors; BEng(Hons) – Electrical & Electronic; BSc – Physiology

    [email protected]

    View Slide

  2. Human Factors Engineering & Business Psychology


    Human Factors Consultant


    Oil & gas, power, construction, maritime, chemical,

    pharmaceutical, rail, medical


    Software Start-up Founder


    Business Manager


    Engineering Project Manager


    Electrical Engineering, Process Safety


    Australia, USA, Angola, Germany
    2

    View Slide

  3. The Human Factors origin story
    Humanity’s existential crisis
    • Understand why we sometimes fail


    • Identify root causes


    • Provide tools to combat weaknesses

    View Slide

  4. Culture
    • Innovation & creativity


    • Commitment to the vision


    • Motivation & employee retention


    • Job performance
    Your human platform

    View Slide

  5. Culture
    • Perception of valued behaviours


    • Particularly by leadership


    • “Wrong” behaviours quickly erode culture
    Your human platform

    View Slide

  6. NASA
    • Humankind’s greatest achievements


    • Elite scientists, engineers & operators


    • Aligned mission
    High performing organisation

    View Slide

  7. NASA
    High performing organisation
    “Leaders create culture”
    Columbia Accident Investigation Board

    View Slide

  8. NASA
    Its share of disasters
    how did they happen?
    • Time & budget constraints


    • Structure & hierarchy


    • Fluctuating priorities
    Insufficient resources to
    address developing issues


    Psychological barriers


    ‘Silo’ working, issues
    overlooked & inadequate
    integration

    View Slide

  9. NASA
    Its share of disasters
    But we can’t be perfect


    So why don’t failures

    happen more often?

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  10. 10

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  11. People weave into every fibre of your performance
    • Humans are critical to organisational success


    • System needs more than individual excellence


    • Non-technical skills are the FUEL that


    o Fosters innovation


    o Combat intra-team competitiveness


    o Breakdown silos


    o Build performance
    11

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  12. Looking again at NASA:


    • Communication barriers prevented:


    o Raising of issues & presenting alternatives


    o Warning signs being investigated
    • Critical in reducing risk


    • Should be considered alongside “technical” skills for
    staff & leaders


    o Understanding others’ needs


    o And the ‘bigger picture’


    Non-technical skills (NTS)
    12
    Complimenting technical skills
    Situational
    Awareness
    Analytical
    Thinking &
    Decision
    Making
    Teamwork


    Leadership
    Resilience
    Creativity &
    Adaptability
    Communication

    View Slide

  13. The WHY
    The brain

    View Slide

  14. Eisenberger, Liebermann, and Williams, Science, 2003 [social pain images]; Liebermann et al., “The Neural

    Correlates of Placebo Effects: A Disruption Account, “ Neuroimage, May 2004 [physical pain images]

    View Slide

  15. Physical Pain
    Eisenberger, Liebermann, and Williams, Science, 2003 [social pain images]; Liebermann et al., “The Neural Correlates of Placebo Effects: A Disruption Account,”

    Neuroimage, May 2004 [physical pain images]; Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.

    View Slide

  16. Social Pain
    Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.
    Eisenberger, Liebermann, and Williams, Science, 2003 [social pain images]; Liebermann et al., “The Neural Correlates of Placebo Effects: A Disruption Account,”

    Neuroimage, May 2004 [physical pain images]; Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.

    View Slide

  17. Social Pain
    Physical Pain
    Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.

    View Slide

  18. Social Pain
    Physical Pain &
    from an evolutionary perspective
    same threat
    Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.

    View Slide

  19. Social Pain
    Physical Pain &
    Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.
    Fight, Flight or Freeze


    Stress hormones


    Focus in on the threat
    Blocks creativity


    Reduced problem solving


    Reduced communication

    View Slide

  20. v1.0 0321
    Psychological Safety
    20
    Social threat implications
    Have you met
    your
    milestone?
    The truthful answer is
    not great, and may
    get me, my team, or
    my supervisor in
    trouble
    I could tell them the
    “right” answer, but
    that would be a lie
    – and we could also
    get in trouble
    IMPLICATIONS:


    • Problems are hidden


    • Cannot provide support for people


    • Short-cuts and work-arounds


    • Increases risk

    View Slide

  21. Humans need to be part of the tribe
    21
    TRUST
    Culture provides frame of reference for value


    “The willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of someone else
    based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular
    action important to you”
    Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20, 709-734.

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  22. 22
    aligned vision


    personal motivation


    performance culture

    View Slide

  23. The ANSWER

    View Slide

  24. Support Social Gain
    Status: listen & respect alternative views
    Certainty: be consistent & have each other’s backs
    Autonomy: give control & allow own approach
    Relatedness: value people & their challenges
    Fairness: treat people fairly & put yourself in their shoes
    Rock, D. (2009). Managing with the brain in mind. strategy+ business.

    View Slide

  25. 25
    Feedback
    What skills do you already have?
    Customer Discovery & Product Discovery
    Evergreen process
    Validation

    Develop, Test, Deliver
    Exploration


    Research, Ideate, Evaluate
    Define

    View Slide

  26. 26
    Feedback
    Apply the same processes internally
    Human Performance Discovery
    Evergreen process
    Develop the culture

    Test, Deliver, Live it
    Explore the tribe


    Engage, Listen, Understand
    Define
    The customer is your workforce & teammates

    View Slide

  27. Techniques applied in Industry
    Work Process Analysis & Redesign


    o Critical Task Identification


    o Task Analysis


    o Human Error Analysis
    27
    Human Factors
    Five Whys –


    Incident or Human Failure Analysis
    Just & Fair Performance Management
    Performance Support –

    Leadership Coaching
    Customer Interviews / Focus Groups –

    Development of Behaviour Standards,
    Safety Culture Gap Analyses
    Demand/Stress Tests –

    Fatigue & Workload Assessments
    Journey / Experience Mapping –

    Training & Competence Development
    Management of Organisational Change
    Interface & Product Design


    Prioritisation, Prototyping & Usability –

    View Slide

  28. Apply
    • Behaviours showing “right” values


    o Set the standard & live it


    o Communicate openly


    o Involve & support the workforce
    28
    • Build supportive work systems


    o Diverse & inclusive


    o Create “safe-space” dialogue


    o Be willing to adapt


    View Slide

  29. Human Factors
    Physiology Psychology
    Design
    Systems
    Maximise Performance

    View Slide

  30. with thanks:
    Kerry Finlayson

    Head of Engineering at Quorum Cyber


    Eileen McLaren

    VP of Product at Blackford Analysis

    View Slide