Slides as presented at XP2018 Conference, Porto, Portugal in the Agile in Education and Training/Building competence in industry track https://www.agilealliance.org/xp2018/program/

1. # X P 2 0 1 8 | @ m a t t p h i l i p
THRIVING THE FIRST YEAR
(Not Merely Surviving)

2. @mattphilip #XP2018
WHAT WE DO

3. @mattphilip #XP2018
I’M A BOOMERANG

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THOUGHTWORKS: OUR CURRENT CONTEXT
▫︎Revenues growing 24% year-over-year
▫︎Just reached the milestone of 5,000 ThoughtWorkers
▫︎Celebrating our 25th birthday this July
▫︎Building operations to support our growth while
ensuring that operational expenses grow more slowly
than revenues

5. @mattphilip #XP2018
THOUGHTWORKS: OUR CURRENT CONTEXT

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SCALING UP
ThoughtWorks Employees Over Time

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MOVING FROM SURVIVING…

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… TO THRIVING

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ON GLASSDOOR
▫︎It's easy for some people to get lost in the flat structure
▫︎I would like to see individuals who have more say in the
company reaching out to those who are newer.
▫︎Career paths for senior folks are unclear
▫︎We're a growing company but our internal systems and
processes haven't caught on with our size and our
ambition. We need to fix that so that our people (our
most valued asset!) don't fall through the cracks.
▫︎There is no empathy from management, as they're
sociopaths.

10. @mattphilip #XP2018
Freedoms
▫︎ Regions can customize up to
~20%
▫︎ Regions can decide who
executes
THRIVE: PROGRAM BRIEFING
Context
We believe that providing to regions a customizable standard
onboarding program with competency-building components will allow
regions to reduce their capability gaps while ensuring that our
operational expenses grow at a pace that is slower than revenues.
Constraints
▫︎ Is cost-neutral to global (region-
funded)
▫︎ Integrate with ThoughtWorker
Experience map
▫︎ Use standard Key-Performance
Indicators (KPIs)

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THOUGHTWORKS UNIVERSITY

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COINCIDENCE?
New-Grad Hires Lateral Hires
Program
ThoughtWorks
University
?
Retention
(After 1 year
and 3 years)
High Low

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We need Kool-Aid for laterals.
— fellow ThoughtWorker

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ONE VIEW OF ONBOADING
Orientation
3 days

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ORIENTATION BRAIN DRAIN

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A MORE HOLISTIC VIEW OF ONBOARDING
Pre-start Orientation Rest of first year+
On-demand
learning
Role-based
Workshops
On-demand
learning
On-demand
learning
Shadowing/
Project Simulation
Mentoring
On-demand
learning
365 days
Tactical/admin

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PSYCHOLOGICAL FLOW
Flow Channel
Challenge
Competency
Engagement
Boredom
Anxiety

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WORKING OUTSIDE THE CHANNEL
Anxiety
Exit
Challenge
Competency
Boredom
Flow Channel
Engagement
▫︎ Unsafe (to fail, admit failure)
▫︎ Unclear (expectations, norms)
▫︎ Unsupported (neglected)
▫︎ Unknown (feeling)

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DESIGN TO PULL PEOPLE BACK IN
Exit
Challenge
Competency
Flow Channel
Engagement
Boredom
Anxiety
▫︎ Create safe-to-fail environment
▫︎ Set expectations, coach
▫︎ Provide learning pathways,
social learning connections
▫︎ Culture add over culture fit

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THRIVE: KEY-PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Engagement
Employee’s level of
enthusiasm and
connection with
ThoughtWorks
Retention
Employee staying at
ThoughtWorks
Readiness
Time to readiness for
employee to be staffed
Impact
Employee’s impact in
client engagement
InternalExternal
LaggingLeading

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ALIGNING WITH CAPABILITY MODEL

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T-SHAPED PEOPLE

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PAINT-DRIP-SHAPED PEOPLE

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THRIVE: DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND CORE COMPONENTS
▫︎Personal Kanban with milestones at 30, 90, 365 days
▫︎Agilist Learning Pathway for every ThoughtWorker
▫︎Role/archetype-oriented competency building
▫︎Project-simulation teams
▫︎Tactical and Relational onboarding activities
▫︎Practice-based learning (shadowing, +1 technique)
▫︎Social learning and communities
▫︎Spaced learning (onboarding over a year period)
▫︎Flipped classroom approach to orientation
▫︎“Assignmentology”

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70:20:10
10%
20%
70%
▫︎Project simulation
▫︎Shadowing
▫︎Pairing
▫︎Assignmentology
▫︎Coaching/Mentoring
▫︎Workshops
▫︎Learning pathways Formal
Informal
Experiential

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PERSONAL KANBAN

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LEARNING PATHWAYS

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SHARING WHAT WE KNOW

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SHARING WHAT WE KNOW

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CULTURE ADD OVER CULTURE FIT

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HOW TO SCALE?

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HOW TO SCALE?
Invest in building your people.
?

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Questions?
OBRIGADO!