The Misaligned Middle - Getting on board with Change
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Managers, responsible for leading change in organizations are struggling to adapt. Many are failing. Individual workers need and deserve better support to be productive. This talk addresses how to use a Lean DevOps philosophy to influence change to salvage ITOps reputations.
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The Misaligned Middle - Getting on board with Change
- 1. The Misaligned Middle – Getting on Board with Change Dominica DeGrandis Director, Training & Coaching @LeanKit @dominicad ddegrandis.com
- 2. The Misalignment Problem Defined Why the Problem Exists Misalignment Stories to Learn From @dominicad Getting on Board with Change
- 3. @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
- 4. @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
- 5. @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.
- 6. @dominicad http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2012/07/10/the-end-of-middle-mana 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
- 7. @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
- 8. @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
- 9. @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
- 10. @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
- 11. @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 mindset2000 - 2008
- 12. @dominicad Change in Leadership enabled: • Tolerance for Experimentation • Kanban • Continuous Integration • Faster deployment cadence • Fewer hotfixes • Happy employee
- 13. @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
- 14. @dominicad System Defined The “system” is the network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish a goal. .
- 15. @dominicad When Systems Fail “A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
- 16. @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.”
- 17. Alignment: a position of agreement/alliance Agreement on WHY @dominicad Agreement on “Why”
- 18. 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”
- 19. The Misalignment Problem Defined Why the Problem Exists Misalignment Stories to Learn From @dominicad Getting on Board with Change
- 20. @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.
- 22. @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.”
- 23. @dominicad Alignment is a Management Problem “Great – another new thing that will be superseded soon by next months trendy buzzword.”
- 24. Damon Edwards co-founder of DTO Solutions damon@dtosolutions.com Alignment is a Management Problem “Middle Management can't see the forest AND they can't see the trees.”
- 25. Observation #1 on the Misaligned Middle @dominicad Executives battle over strategy and priorities amongst themselves, driving misalignment down through the ranks.
- 26. Observation #2 on the Misaligned Middle @dominicad Managers behave just like everyone else – depending on how they are measured.
- 27. 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
- 29. 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
- 30. 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
- 31. 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
- 32. 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.”
- 33. @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
- 34. @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?
- 35. @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.
- 36. The Misalignment Problem Defined Why the Problem Exists Misalignment Stories to Learn From @dominicad Getting on Board with Change
- 37. 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
- 38. h+p://stevenmsmith.com/ar-‐sa4r-‐change-‐model/ Radical Change Curve – Big J Curve Big change meets with resistance Change Agent Fired
- 40. 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
- 41. 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
- 43. 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
- 44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USYrDaPE Metrics Shifted Perception Mean Time To Repair changed from 47 min à 4 min
- 45. 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
- 47. The Misalignment Problem Defined Why the Problem Exists Misalignment Stories to Learn From @dominicad Getting on Board with Change
- 49. @dominicad When you are overwhelmed by change: “Fortunately, it is not necessary to have all the answers for good management.” ― W. Edwards Deming
- 50. DoneTop 3 Doing Card Legend ValidateOptions Product task Internal Improvement Maintenance Unplanned work Visualize Workflow to Drive Conversations @dominicad Make problems self evident
- 51. @dominicad When you want to support change, change culture: • Influence how people are measured • Experiment using safe to fail approach • Conduct Blameless post mortems
- 52. @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
- 53. @dominicad
- 55. @dominicad
- 56. @dominicad Skills to grow to Improve Alignment • Communicate context • Increase clarity • Connect tribes • Adapt to change • Give feedback • Mentor others • Provide training
- 57. @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.
- 58. DonePrioritize (3) Do Act Maybe Someday Plan Check To Do Plan Do Check Act Kanban Design Doing (9) @dominicad
- 59. @dominicad
- 60. @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.
- 61. @dominicad The point in brief
- 62. The Misaligned Middle – Getting on Board with Change Dominica DeGrandis @dominicad ddegrandis.com Open Q&A