The Misaligned Middle – Getting on Board with Change Dominica DeGrandis Director, Training & Coaching @LeanKit @dominicad ddegrandis.com
The Misaligned Middle – Getting on Board with Change
Dominica DeGrandis
Director, Training & Coaching @LeanKit
@dominicad
ddegrandis.com
The Misalignment Problem Defined
Why the Problem Exists
Misalignment Stories to Learn From
@dominicad
Getting on Board with Change
@dominicad https://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers
”Management is the least efficient
activity in your organization.”
• add overhead – 1:10 ratio • are expensive • Increase risk of bad decisions • disenfranchise employees • slow down progress
@dominicad https://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers
”I’m driven by my mission and my
commitments, not by a manager.”
Morning Star
• double-digit growth last 20 years. • no managers • no bosses • no titles • Employees manage themselves
@dominicad https://www.zapposinsights.com/about/holacracy
Holocracy
What: A practice for structuring, governing, and running an organization where top down command and control is replaced with distributed power.
@dominicad http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2012/07/10/the-end-of-middle-managers-and-why-theyll-never-be-missed/#56376fad3143
“You know how leaders will typically say “I empower my people”—and then they don’t?”
• No tolerance for mistakes, • Growth squelched • Need leaders, not managers • Shape your own future
@dominicad
h+p://www.theatlan4c.com/business/archive/2015/08/middle-‐managers-‐stress-‐depression/402193/
Middle managers
suffer more depression and anxiety than execs
and individual contributors
@dominicad https://hbr.org/2014/11/why-middle-managers-are-so-unhappy
Demographics of the most unhappiest managers:
• College degree • 5-10 years tenure • Mid-level managers • Good performance
ratings
@dominicad https://hbr.org/2014/11/why-middle-managers-are-so-unhappy
9. Don’t feel special. 8. See organization as inefficient and ineffective. 7. Overworked. 6. Issues not addressed. 5. Undervalued/unappreciated. 4. Feel treated unfairly compared with others.
Litany of Unhappiness reasons – in ascending order
@dominicad https://hbr.org/2014/11/why-middle-managers-are-so-unhappy
3. Their work lacks meaning and purpose. 2. They see no career or promotion opportunities. 1. Poor leadership.
Litany of Unhappiness – top 3 reasons
@dominicad
Reflections on Misalignment
• Managers leave behind accomplished skillset for an unknown future
• Frequent leadership turnovers reduce stable learning & mentoring
• Frequent change in management methods & frameworks require frequent adaption mindset
2000 - 2008
@dominicad
Change in Leadership enabled:
• Tolerance for Experimentation • Kanban • Continuous Integration • Faster deployment cadence • Fewer hotfixes • Happy employee
@dominicad
Another Leadership Change enabled:
• Executive political infighting • Erosion of previous
improvements • Environment waffled from fun
to not fun • System within the org failed • Sad employee
@dominicad
System Defined
The “system” is the network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish a goal.
.
@dominicad
When Systems Fail
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
@dominicad
Symptoms of Misalignment
• Conflicting priorities • Different expectations • Conflicting rumors • Unhappy people • Change aversion comments:
“But, we’ve always done it this way.” “I don’t understand why we need to change the way we do _____.” “That won’t work here.”
Alignment: a position of agreement/alliance
Agreement on WHY
@dominicad
Agreement on “Why”
Misaligned Middle Problem:
@dominicad
Disagreement on the “why” (or the inability to see or understand the “why”.)
“Because the boss said so”, is not a sufficient “why”
The Misalignment Problem Defined
Why the Problem Exists
Misalignment Stories to Learn From
@dominicad
Getting on Board with Change
@dominicad
On the Road to Alignment Drift
§ IT Managers leave behind deep technical skills to learn more about collective/emotional intelligence.
.
§ Managers get caught in the middle with pressure from above and below.
§ Tolerance for change challenged à Level of investment declines.
Two perspectives
dominate
@dominicad
Alignment Drift
@dominicad
Alignment is a Leadership Problem
“DevOps is incredibly important to our
mission, so make it happen.”
“But - make sure this other initiative gets prioritized higher.”
@dominicad
Alignment is a Management Problem
“Great – another new thing that will be
superseded soon by next months trendy
buzzword.”
Damon Edwards co-founder of DTO Solutions [email protected]
Alignment is a Management Problem
“Middle Management
can't see the forest AND they can't see
the trees.”
Observation #1 on the Misaligned Middle
@dominicad
Executives battle over strategy and priorities amongst themselves,
driving misalignment down through the ranks.
Observation #2 on the Misaligned Middle
@dominicad
Managers behave just like everyone else – depending on
how they are measured.
4 Traditional Management Measures
http://www.effectivemanagers.com/dwight-mihalicz/4-dimensions-for-measuring-manager-effectiveness/
1. Effective at setting context, boundaries, & planning?
2. Is work completed on time, on budget w/ high quality?
3. Are the right tasks assigned to the right people? Is morale high? Work balanced?
4. Is work identified correctly to provide value?
@dominicad
360 Feedback Method
http://360feedbackexpert.co.uk/ @dominicad
Google’s Management Survey
https://getlighthouse.com/blog/google-management/?utm_content=buffer8a634&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
1. Gives actionable feedback? 2. Micromanages? 3. Shows consideration for me as a person? 4. Keeps team focused on priorities 5. Shares relevant information from Sr. leadership? 6. Has meaningful discussions with me? 7. Communicates clear team goals? 8. Has technical expertise? 9. I would recommend my manager to other Googlers
How IT Managers can help teams win
• Connect business objectives to teams work
• Reduce waste - Lean and continuous delivery practices create the conditions for delivering value faster, sustainably.
• Invest in developing capabilities people
https://puppet.com/resources/white-paper/2016-state-devops-report/
@dominicad
Understand the Business ROI from Good Management Practices
• Less unplanned work • More employee
loyalty • Higher performing
organization • Experimental
approach to PD
https://puppet.com/resources/white-paper/2016-state-devops-report/
@dominicad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbPi68GQX10
Why Change is Inevitable
@dominicad
Physicist Professor Brian Cox - The Wonders of the Universe
“Everything is irreversibly changing.” It’s not just permanent change, it’s decay. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, everything goes from low to high entropy, from order to disorder.”
@dominicad
Exercise 1/3: How do you create value now?
Take 2 minutes Write down 5 things you do today that create value.
Grab a pen and
a pad
@dominicad
Exercise 2/3: What about in the future?
Take 3 minutes Given what you know about the future, how will you create value in the future?
@dominicad
Exercise 3/3: And then?
Take 5 minutes Go around the table and ask others what they came up with. Give everyone a chance to speak, unless they choose to pass.
The Misalignment Problem Defined
Why the Problem Exists
Misalignment Stories to Learn From
@dominicad
Getting on Board with Change
Break Down Barriers by lowering resistance
• Highly regulated (HIPAA, SOX, FDA, PCI)
• Focus on small change curve
• 2/16 hr Deployment to 15 min
• Investment in relationships
• From warring tribes to sitting around the table
Automating just a few things helped break down barriers and pave the way for increased alignment across departments.
Founded 1851
h+p://stevenmsmith.com/ar-‐sa4r-‐change-‐model/
Radical Change Curve – Big J Curve
Big change meets with resistance
Change Agent Fired
Evolutionary Change – Little J Curves
Small change meets
with less resistance /
Ask one simple question
How painful are deployments?
Where code deployments are the most painful you’ll find the poorest IT performance and culture.
- 2015 State of Devops Report
Sometimes it takes a Crisis
• Data quality issues on high profile fed Govt agency mission
• Dev and Ops not talking to each other
• Fragile release process provoked a workflow mapping event
• Improvements in one functional area created new problems downstream
Paula Thrasher, Application Delivery Lead, CSC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hen6lk3J_ss
Visualize the whole system
Breathe Customer Oxygen
• First hand customer experience for all
• Thursday lunches
• Flawed football metaphor
• Connect IT teams with business goals
• Business metrics > System metrics
Metric inspected à Predictive revenue over actual revenue instead of just focusing on up time
Jody Mulkey, CTO, Ticketmaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USYrDaPE
Metrics Shifted Perception
Mean Time To Repair changed from 47 min à 4 min
Expose the Workflow
Leadership teams get together once a month to look at the metrics and ask, “Why?”, when they see patterns that don’t make sense.
• Participate in workflow exercises • Testing assumptions • Streamlining dataflow between
teams
Courtney Kissler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_y1YFsRig
@dominicad
Essential DevOps Reading
The Misalignment Problem Defined
Why the Problem Exists
Misalignment Stories to Learn From
@dominicad
Getting on Board with Change
@dominicad
http://corinnegregory.com/blog/2011/06/04/change-requires-doing-something-different/
@dominicad
When you are overwhelmed by change:
“Fortunately, it is not necessary to have all the answers for good
management.” ― W. Edwards Deming
Done Top 3 Doing
Card Legend
Validate Options
Product task
Internal Improvement
Maintenance
Unplanned work
Visualize Workflow to Drive Conversations
@dominicad
Make problems self evident
@dominicad
When you want to support change, change culture:
• Influence how people are measured
• Experiment using safe to fail approach
• Conduct Blameless post mortems
@dominicad
What makes a great team?
Google two year study results: Who is on a team matters less than
how team members interact.
The willingness to talk about errors is by far the most important factor for a team
Amy Edmonson TED talk:
h+ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8
@dominicad
@dominicad
Typology of Organizational
Culture (Westrum)
https://puppet.com/resources/white-paper/2015-state-devops-report
@dominicad
@dominicad
Skills to grow to Improve Alignment
• Communicate context • Increase clarity • Connect tribes • Adapt to change • Give feedback • Mentor others • Provide training
@dominicad
When you are the change:
• Provide context, the what, when, who, how and why.
• Consider a Lean philosophy - Hypothesize and Experiment
• If unsure on how to proceed, Scientific method – Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) is a good way to begin.
Done Prioritize (3)
Do
Act
Maybe Someday
Plan
Check
To Do
Plan Do Check Act Kanban Design Doing (9)
@dominicad
@dominicad
@dominicad
Show the data
“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” - Jim Barksdale
Be the voice of reason.
@dominicad
The point in brief
The Misaligned Middle – Getting on Board with Change
Dominica DeGrandis
@dominicad ddegrandis.com
Open Q&A