The hidden ingredient in hyper productive teams (scrummasters guild, 10.15)

The Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-

Productive TeamsRon Lichty, Ron Lichty Consulting

www.ronlichty.com Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams 1

Ron Lichty, Managing Software People & Teams

SOFTWEST

Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams 2

Coauthor, Study of Product Team Performance

http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html

3Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams

Addison Wesley: http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams 4

Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*

* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html


Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*

• Measure twice, cut once.• Life is simpler when you plow around the

stump.• Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late

software project makes it later.– Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

* 300 in the book / more: http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html


Agenda

• Teams– and hyper-productive teams

• Agile Practices– and agile values

• Being Agile• Fostering Greatness• Practice Greatness


Teams

By Pictofigo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commonsense, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Free to share and remix/adapt. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pictofigo-Scrum.png


• Think about…The best team you’ve been on?

The most high performance team?

Brainstorm: What were the…• characteristics• relationships• qualities• ways of being

. . . that made it stand out?

At Your Tables…


Agile


Agile Practices Deliver Value

Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams 11By Michaelblinkpipe (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAn_Abcam_stand_up_meeting_using_BlinkPipe_video_conferencing..png


• Planning Daily• Planning Weekly (or biweekly or…)• Planning Publicly• Ordering Work Based on Customer Value• Together defining “Done”• Delivering Frequently• Sharing how we’re doing• Reflecting on how to do better



• Standups– Standups matter:– Effective, Daily Standups

--2015 Study of Product Team Performance




Voting Machines Deliver Value, too

15Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive TeamsBy Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA (Voting machine, 1971) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Voting Machines Deliver Value, too

• But voting machines don’t make us a democracy


Similarly…

Agile Practices Don’t Make Us AgileAgile Practices Don’t Deliver Great Teams


Agile Values Inspire Great Teams


Agile Values Inspire Great Teams

• Build projects around motivated individuals

• Trust… to get the job done • Face-to-face conversation • Self-organizing teams• The team reflects, …tunes, …adjusts -- http://agilemanifesto.org/


http://agilemanifesto.org/

Self-Organizing Teams

• If our self-organizing team were an acting troupe, …

What kind of acting do we do?




What kind of acting do we do?• If our self-organizing team were a

music group, …What kind of music do we

perform?Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams 21



What kind of acting do we do?• If our self-organizing team were a music

combo, …What kind of music do we perform?

• Who is the leader?Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams 22

Best Teams

• A relationship? between– Shared Leadership (Agile Values)– Best Team characteristics


Shared Leadership Best Teams?

• Build projects around motivated individuals

• Trust… to get the job done • Face-to-face conversation • Self-organizing teams• The team reflects, …tunes, …adjusts -- http://agilemanifesto.org/


http://agilemanifesto.org/

Projects Not Suitable for Agile?



• Micromanagement



• Micromanagement disrupts Agile• Micromanagement prevents Best Teams• Micromanagement prevents Learning• Micromanaged teams become order-takers



• Micromanagement disrupts Agile• Micromanagement prevents Best Teams• Micromanagement prevents Learning• Micromanaged teams become order-takers

• Agile calls for everyone on the team to step up• Micromanagement causes everyone to step back


• Managers of teams• Project managers• Program managers• Scrum masters• Product managers?• Product owners?

Shared Leadership… and Managers


• What do all those managers have in common?



• What do all those managers have in common?– we run things– we give direction– we tell people what to do– we like being the center of attention



“If you’re the ScrumMaster and everyone is looking at you, you’re doing it wrong.” --Marilson Campos



Managers and Agile• “A common misconception is that because

of this reliance on self-organizing teams, there is little or no role for leaders of agile teams. Nothing could be further from the truth.” --Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile


--Agile Learning Labs, Laura Powers


Agile: “Servant Leaders”


Managers and Agile• Fostering an Agile Culture• Modeling, Defending, Evangelizing Agile

Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence



Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence• Removing Impediments



Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence• Removing Impediments• Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring• Scaling Scrum• Hiring and Firing



Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence• Removing Impediments


Creating an Agile Culture• Theory Y: “enabling”, “empowering”, “developmental", “continuous

improvement” -> Servant Leadership

McGregor's X-Y Theory40Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams

Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams , http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net

Managers and Agile• Creating an Agile Culture

Lean-Agile management is the art of leading people, not managing them... Leading people involves creating the correct environment, focusing them on the right things, and trusting them to do their work...

In Lean-Agile, the manager has two primary responsibilities: • setting the outcomes or goals expected of the team; • assisting the doers in creating a better process and workspace to get their jobs done... --Alan Shalloway, Net Objectives


Leaders and Agile• Rules of Thumb

Management sets the boundaries of what needs to be done and says to the team, I trust you to figure out how to get it done.


EmpowermentTrust but verify.


Empowerment

44

Trust but verify.

-RONALD REAGAN

Ron Lichty: Hidden Ingredient in Hyper-Productive Teams

Empowerment

45

Trust but verify.

-RONALD REAGAN quoting VALDIMIR LENIN


Empowerment

46

Trust but verify.


– imperative not to micromanage– the essence of delegation– setting expected outcomes for teams


Empowerment

47

Trust but verify.


I inspect what I expect.

- ALAN LEFKOF, Netopia CEO, quoting LOU GERSTNER


Creating an Agile Culture• Establishing Culture

48

http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net


Managers and Agile• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence

When teams self-organize there's still plenty for managers to do... a managers job is to engineer the organization so that teams can do their best work. --Esther Derby, co-founder, Scrum Alliance


Managers and Agile• Removing Distractions and Impediments

Be a damper to the noise. --Joe Kleinschmidt, CTOJohn Evans, Winchester, Hants, United Kingdom, www.thetippingpoint.co.uk


Managers and Agile• Model, Defend, Evangelize Agile Values

“Managers are still needed. Not so much for their planning and controlling ability, but for the important job of interfacing on the team’s behalf with the rest of the organization.” --Diana Larsen, co-author, Agile Retrospectives


Communicating

• Create a culture of communication– at every level– with everyone

• up, down, within and across

• “We have two ears and one mouth. Use them in this ratio.”— Kimberly Wiefling


Communication

53

You cannot overcommunicate.

-RON LICHTY


Communication: Virtual Teams• There is never enough communication• Commitment to communicate• No substitute for face-to-face meetings

54

The more distance between teammates, the more you have to formalize communication and make it explicit.

-TED YOUNG, Development Manager & Agile Coach, Guidewire


How Do We Foster Shared Leadership?• Foster an Agile Culture• Model, Defend, Evangelize Agile Values• Trust Our People• Shield Teams from Politics & Distraction• Remove Impediments• Empower Self-Organization & Excellence• Create a Culture of Communication


How Do We Do Shared Leadership?• Let’s personalize it: At your tables…

– 2 minutes: • envision what shared leadership looks like

– 5 minutes: create a poster• at least half: a single graphic, created by your whole table

– everyone at your table contributes to the graphic– see if you can hand off “leadership” fluidly– everyone leads!

• no more than half: words around your graphic– prepare how you’ll share it with us


How Do We Do Shared Leadership?

• How did that go?• Share your posters, one table at a time


Ron Lichty Consulting • Mentoring, coaching, training, consulting:

– http://ronlichty.com, [email protected]• The book:

Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules

of thumb

• The study: The Study of Product Team Performance – http://ronlichty.com/study.html

• Training:The Agile ManagerManaging Software People and TeamsZero to Agile in Three Days

