How do you "push responsibility down" and "empower the team"

© 2013 Ian Brockbank
How do you “push responsibility
down” and “empower the team”?
Lean Agile Scotland 2013
Ian Brockbank
September 2013 www.badgertaming.net 1

Where would you rather work?
“The sales guys have promised we’ll
deliver a 2048-bit quantum speech
recognition module driven by moon
dust in three months time. They’re
always doing this! And the server has
gone down again.”
“I was talking with Jim yesterday. The
customer wants 99% accuracy in their new
speech recognition module, and they start
integrating in three months. We’re at 93%
at the moment with Android Speech and
our Frobnatz filter, so we could…”

High Performing Teams
• Members go above and beyond what they are
asked to do
• When teams perform effectively, they perform
highly
• The experience itself is the reward

Glasgow, 2004
“Measure up, push responsibility down”
— Mary Poppendieck

Measure up
• Measure the collective performance
• Metrics which show the overall team performance
• Individuals have to work together to get good numbers
• Promotes teamwork and collaboration
• Well examined elsewhere
I’ll not cover it any more today

Push Responsibility Down
• What does that mean?
• What is responsibility?
• Research by Bill McCarley and Christopher Avery
• www.christopheravery.com/responsibility-process

Responsibility
• Gurus say taking 100% responsibility is the key to
success
• Stuff is hard and things go wrong
• We have a hard-wired series of reactions to upsets
• Evaluate
• Search database of past answers
• Look for quick fix to take the pain away
• Natural and instinctive coping strategies
• Only by working through these reactions can we
get to 100% responsibility

History and Origins
• Jesus, Buddha, and other spiritual origins
• Socrates/Aristotle
• Other Existentialist philosophers
• Alfred Adler (1870-1938, Individual
Psychology, student of Freud)
• Napolean Hill, Mathew Maltz, and a host of others
• Werner Earhart (e.s.t., 1960’s-70’s)
• Marshall Thurber (Money & U, 1980’s to present)
• Bill McCarley (1984 to present)
• Christopher Avery (field studies 1991 to present)
You are in charge of your reality
You can be whole
Above the line/below the line
The Responsibility Process™

The Responsibility Process
• A series of natural reactions to upsets
• Islands of comfort to land on – coping strategies
• How plush is your island?
• We’re hard-wired to go through these
• Awareness and understanding help us move on
• The ultimate destination is
Responsibility

Lay Blame
• Look for someone to blame
• “It’s their fault”
• = “It’s not my fault”
• Natural, but not resourceful
• Somebody else has to change
for things to get better
• I can’t do anything about it
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.

Justify
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
• Look for something to blame
• “It’s just the way things are”
• = “It’s not my fault”
• Circumstances must change
for things to get better

Shame
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
• Blame self
• “It’s my fault – I’m rubbish”
• It’s just the way I am
• I have to change for things to
get better

Obligation
OBLIGATION
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
• Do it under duress
• “I have to do it”
• = “I have no choice”
• I’m trapped by circumstances –
things won’t get better
• I’ll do the quickest fix possible
• Fixes the symptoms, not the
cause

Quit
OBLIGATION
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
QUIT
• Pretend it’s not a problem
• “I can’t take any more
– I give up!”
• The problem hasn’t gone
away – I’m still hurting

Responsibility
RESPONSIBILITY
OBLIGATION
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
QUIT
• I choose to own this
• It is under my control
• I can and will solve it,
once and for all
• I will look for the root cause –
no sticking plasters
• I will work with whoever I
need to
• Free, powerful and at choice

Indicators
This is what
you should do
Decide you want it more than you’re afraid of it – Bill Cosby

• Responsibility can be scary
• Responsibility is a life-long practice
• Knowing the process helps awareness
• Still go through the stages
• But with awareness can go faster
• Responsibility makes sure the job gets done
• Accountability cares whose job it is
• You can take 100% responsibility without having
accountability
Responsibility (cont)

“Push responsibility down”
• You can’t!
• You can only push Obligation down
• Mary now uses “empower the team”
or “energise workers”
• People have to choose to own it
• => Responsibility is a pull process

Fostering responsibility
Three aspects to foster:
• Conditioning (and re-conditioning)
• Thinking from responsibility
• Desire
• Everyone on the team owns the outcome
• Context
• Most people fit in with the behaviours they observe
• => Make sure they observe Responsibility

[Re-]Conditioning
• Constant awareness
• We’re all addicted to coping
• Be aware of the process
• Don’t jump to the first answer
• Keep reflecting and reviewing
• = “Five whys”
• = Decide as late as possible
• = Retrospectives

• “Nobody ever accomplishes anything without
definiteness of purpose!” – Andrew Carnegie
• Shared clarity of purpose
• Align team goals with individual goals
• The more we care about the outcome, the easier it
is to get to responsibility
• = Project chartering
Desire

Shared agreement of purpose
• Co-author a focal point you are all working towards
• What must we do together that is:
• Larger than us
• Requires all of us
• None of us can claim individual victory until it is done
• “If we were already finished and successful, what
would the outcome be?”
• Surface individual motivation
• Keep going until you are all nodding and smiling in
agreement

Different boats
• John and Stan – separate boats
• John notices a hole in Stan’s boat
• What does he do?
• Tell Stan he has a problem
• Post on Facebook “Stan’s got a hole
in his boat”
• Ignore it – not his problem
• Ignore it – if Stan sinks he might win
• Bump against Stan’s boat to make
the hole larger
Images © Christopher Avery

Everyone in the same boat together
• Jane and Sally in the same boat
• Jane notices a hole next to Sally
• What does she do?
• Ignore it
• Post on Facebook “Sally’s got a hole
in her boat”
• Say “Sally – we’ve got a problem”
• Ensure everyone succeeds or fails together
– positive interdependence
• = Measure up!
• Shared metrics, shared rewards
Image © Christopher Avery

Culture
• WYSIWYD – What You See Is What You Do
• People fit in (even programmers!)
• If people hear Blame, they will fear Blame
• If people hear Responsibility they will need to take
responsibility to fit in
• Responsibility is scary – need to trust your safety
• Need to feel the consequences
• Celebrate wins – frequently!
• Don’t take people’s pain for them

Choice
• You can only act from a position of responsibility if
it’s your choice
• Don’t “should” on other people and don’t let them
“should” on you
• Everyone has to be allowed to choose
• Everyone has to be involved
• = Team commitment to goals
• = Planning poker

Most importantly…
• One thing above all others fosters responsibility

It starts with you!
• Demonstrate Responsibility always
(And not to label, blame and judge!)
• Keep your agreements
– and expect others to keep theirs
• Allow people to make their own decisions…
and own their own consequences – good and bad
• Face reality…and accept your power to change it
• Take 100% responsibility for demanding you’re on
a great team
Decide you want it more than you’re afraid of it!

Questions? Thoughts?
Decide you want it more than you’re afraid of it!

More information
www.christopheravery.com/responsibility-process
www.christopheravery.com/the-leadership-gift
RESPONSIBILITY
OBLIGATION
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
QUIT
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility
Process™ is a trademark of
www.badgertaming.net
ian@badgertaming.net
@badgertaming

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