The Core Protocols Zen

www.PairCoaching.net
Reboot your team to Team²
Yves Hanoulle

Me.About()
Yves Hanoulle
Project Coach
Training, Coaching & Consultancy Services
on agile & Team practices
in EMEA.
Certified Core Trainer
Partner of Els Ryssen
Father of Joppe 2002, Bent 2004, Geike 2007

You.About()
Who are you?
What makes you different?
What do you know about the Core?
Other info you like to share?
What would be the successful outcome of this talk for you?

Disclaimer
You don’t have to believe in the sea to get wet
You do have to get
IN
to get wet

great practices instead of BEST Practices

2 Leadership models
Work
1 manager
5 to 5000

2 Leadership models
Home
2 parents
1 to 5 children
Raising children as a single parent is hard

Who’s right?
I propose you try Pair Coaching inside your company

The agile manifesto
Individuals and interactionsWorking softwareCustomer collaborationResponding to change
over processes and tools
comprehensive documentation
over contract negotiation
over following a plan
http://agilemanifesto.org/

Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Building great software is easy

Team Life Cycle
Norming
Storming
Forming
Performing

Situational Leadership

Shared Vision
Please stand if you have ever been on a team with a shared vision
Please sit down when what I say is NOT true from your experience on that team

Being on a team that has a shared vision is at
least ___ times as good
as being on a team that doesn't

Emotions at work
Please say Oh my god ! if you ever had a team member hiding how he felt.
1
2
3

Great practice
Being on a team that states feelings,
is better than
being on a team where feelings get in the way

Check in

Exercise
I’m checking in
I’m Glad …
I’m Sad…
I’m Mad…
I’m Afraid…
I’m in
Audience:
Welcome
No other feelings allowed
You can pass
Nobody can discuss the things said during check in

Decision Making
Please say YES! if you have been on a team that made decisions without pain

Great Practice
Being on a team that makes unanimous decisions
quickly, without redundant blather, is better than
being on a team that does not

Decider

Resolution
Problem
We have difficulties reaching unanimous support for a proposal
Solution
Only talk about what it will take to get the outlier “in”.

Resolution
Steps
1. Proposer asks outlier “What will it take to get you in?”
2. Outlier states in a single, short, declarative sentence the precise modification required to be in.
3. Proposer offers to adopt the outlier’s changes or withdraws the proposal.
Only outliers can talk

Exercise
1. Proposer says “I propose [concise, actionable behavior].”
2. Proposer says “1-2-3.”
3.Voters, using either
Yes (thumbs up),
No (thumbs down),
Support-it (flat hand),
vote simultaneously with other voters.

Motivation

Alignment
Personal goals motivate people;
team goals motivate teams.
Team goals are derived from Visions.
Visions are derived from personal goals.

Alignment

Personal Alignment
Want. Answer the question: "What specifically do I want?”
Block. Ask yourself, “What is blocking me from having what I want?”
Virtue. Figure out what would remove this block by asking yourself “What virtue – if I had it – would shatter this block of mine?”
Shift. Pretend the virtue you identified is actually what you want.
Again. Repeat steps 2 to 4 until this process consistently yields a virtue that is powerful enough to shatter your blocks and get you what you originally thought you wanted.
Done. Now write down a personal alignment statement in the form “I want [virtue].” For example, “I want courage”.
Signal/Response/Assignment. Create a signal to let others know when you are practicing your alignment and a response they can give you to demonstrate support. For example, “When I say/do, ‘X’ will you say/do, ‘Y?’” Optionally, turn it into an assignment by saying you will do X a certain number of times per day, where X equals an activity that requires you to practice living your alignment.
Evidence. Write, in specific and measurable terms, the long-term evidence of practicing this alignment.
Help. Ask each member of your group for help. They help by giving the response you would like when you give your signal that you are practicing your alignment.

Evidence
Time:
Short time: today
Mid term: this year
Long term: 5 years from now
Work/Life balance
Personal Evidence
Work Evidence
How can we check?

I want INTEGRITY
Professional
By the end of 2009 I have 5 personal coaching sessions every week
I do my self-organisation session @ Agile 2010
Personal
I will check in with each family member at least once a day
I use the perfection game for all feedback in my relation
In 2010 the rebuilding of our house is started

How to create a shared vision
Checking In
Deciding
Aligning: disclosing motive and setting goals
Envisioning: creating shared vision

Conflict Resolution
Please put your hand up if you have experienced conflict within a team

Great Practice
Being on a team that is able to use the energy
from conflict, and resolves every conflict directly
and efficiently, is better ...

Talking Stick Vs Protocol
01 A: States Sentence
02 B: Repeat Sentence in his own words
03 B: Is that Correct?
04 A: that is correct!
05 B: Is there more?
04 A: that is NOT correct
05 GOTO 01
06 A: YES
07 GOTO 01
06 A: NO
07 C=A
08 A=B
09 B=C
10 GOTO 01

Asking for help
Will you….
Will you help me with…
Not “Can you”

Trust
Whistle if you have been on a team that had a
high level of trust among all team members

Great Practice
Being on a team that has a high level of
among the team members is better .

ReBoot team = Team²/McCarthy BootCamp
McCarthy Tech started in 1996
Jim and Michele McCarthy left successful leadership positions at Microsoft to form an innovative teamwork laboratory. www.mccarthyshow.com
Since 1996 they have rigorously studied and codified the “great practices” for teams to get into and maintain a state of shared vision. These great practices are called The Core Protocols.
+200 BootCamps
16 certified core trainers
Booted Installshield
Booted Maxis after SimCity before Sims
Booted +600 people at Haliburton

Allison Reeves
I attended BootCamp as a relative 'outsider'. As the course was initially conceptualized for people in IT, I was unsure of the benefit it would bring to a graduate student in Women's Health! I quickly learned that BootCamp is for everyone. It is about team building, connecting with others, dreaming 'big' dreams about the world - and in extension - realizing your place in it.
I learned about my own strengths and capabilities.

Warm Regards, Allison.

Pascal Van Cauwenberghe
I've wanted to attend a McCarthy BootCamp, ever since I read "Software for your Head", more than five years ago.
This was the most useful and life-changing training I've ever attended.
I'm glad Yves managed to organize Bootcamp
I'm IN”

Bernard Notarianni
The BootCamp was one of the most amazing experience I had, both in professional and private life.

Joe Sandy Vice President Haliburton Corp.
Working with the McCarthys' technology has been the smartest thing I have done in years.
The 600+ people who work for me have drastically increased productivity and have shown incredible results.
In 6 months, a problem team that hadn't successfully delivered for years started finishing on time (or early) and earned rave reviews from customers.
Another team who was building heavy machinery shipped in 8 months instead of the typical 18 month time period.
Our meetings are much more efficient, with the average size down from 15 people to 5 people, and accomplishing much more in less time.
The investment to date in the McCarthys' technology was easily paid back by results in only a few months.

The Core System V 3.0
11 commitments
11 protocols

The Core Commitments
Engage when present.
Know and disclose:
what I want,
what I think,
what I feel .

Always seek effective help.
Decline to offer and refuse to accept incoherent emotional transmissions.

When I have or hear a better idea than the currently prevailing idea, I will immediately either:
propose it for decisive acceptance or rejection, and/or
explicitly seek its improvement.

Personally support the best idea :
regardless of its source.
however much I hope an even better idea may later arise.
when I have no superior alternative idea.

Seek to perceive more than I seek to be perceived.
Use teams, especially when undertaking difficult tasks.

Speak always and only when I believe it will improve the general results/effort ratio.
Offer and accept only rational, results-oriented behavior and communication.

Disengage from less productive situations:
when I cannot keep these commitments.
when it is more important that I engage elsewhere.

Do now what must be done eventually and can effectively be done now.
Seek to move forward toward a particular goal, by biasing my behavior toward action.

Use the Core Protocols (or better) when applicable.
Offer and accept timely and proper use of the Protocol Check Protocol without prejudice.

Neither harm - nor tolerate the harming of - anyone for their fidelity to these commitments.
Never do anything dumb on purpose.

The Core Protocols
Pass / Unpass
Check In
Check out
Ask For Help
Protocol Check
Intention check
Decider
Resolution
Perfection Game
Personal Alignment
Investigate

Passer
Problem
We “go along” with group activities that we don’t believe in, with increasing cynism and a sense of powerlessness for our self and our team
Solution
Explictly decline to participate when we don’t want to do something

Check-in
Problem
Results are unsatisfying
Solution
Publicly commit to rational behavior and efficiently disclose our feelings at work

Check-in
I’m checking in
I’m Glad …
I’m Sad…
I’m Mad…
I’m Afraid…
I’m in
Audience:
Welcome
No other feelings allowed
You can pass
Nobody can discuss the things said during check in

Check-out
Problem
When we can’t be mentally present we stay in a meeting anyway, regardless of the cost to our false presence to our self and our team
Solution
When we are not contributing, we must leave the environment without distracting our teammates

Ask for help
Problem
We act as if help won’t help
Solution
Use each other as a resource
Ask strangers for help
Ask children for help
Ask for help when you don’t think you need help

Asking for help

Will you….
Will you help me with…

Not “Can you”

Protocol Check
Say “Protocol Check”
If you know the protocol, state it. If you don’t, ask for help

Work with Intention
Problem
We don’t know if our behaviour will be what we want
Solution
Decide on our intention before we act or speak
Use Intention Check to clarify the purpose of your own or another’s behavior. Use it when you can’t imagine a positive outcome resulting from the current behavior

Intention Check
Ask “What is your/my intention with X?” Where x equals some type of actual or pending behavior to the persons whose intention you want to know?
If it would be helpfull, ask ”What response or behavior did you want from whom as a result of X?”

Decider
Problem
Our Team’s decision process does not provide each member with an explicit say, or provide a means to hold members accountable for the result
Solution
Use a reliable, unanimity-driven process within the team.

Decider
1. Proposer says “I propose [concise, actionable behavior].”
2. Proposer says “1-2-3.”
3.Voters, using either
Yes (thumbs up),
No (thumbs down),
Support-it (flat hand),
vote simultaneously with other voters.

Resolution
Problem
We have difficulties reaching unanimous support for a proposal
Solution
Only talk about what it will take to get the outlier “in”.

Resolution
Steps
1. Proposer asks outlier “What will it take to get you in?”
2. Outlier states in a single, short, declarative sentence the precise modification required to be in.
3. Proposer offers to adopt the outlier’s changes or withdraws the proposal.
Only outliers can talk

Feedback
Problem
There is no standard way to gain value for our work or personal performance from another person
Or to add our value to the work product or the personal performance of another person
False Solution
We give or seek feedback
Actual Solution
Use the perfection game when asked

The Perfection Game
Will you perfect my …
I will give it a x out of 10
What I like about it is …
To give it a ten I would need…
If you have nothing to make it better, you have to give a 10

Aligning
Personal goals motivate people;
team goals motivate teams.
Team goals are derived from Visions.
Visions are derived from personal goals.
Tie Goals to Vision
Tie Vision to Goals

Alignment
Problem
We think there are not enough people or other resources to get the job done well.
Solution
Align the team around what each member wants
Instead of adding head count, make the heads we have count.

Personal Alignment
Problem
We don’t know what we want
Solution
Discover what we want, tell our teammates what that is.
Ask for their help
Expect them to do likewise

Investigate
Problem
We see others as better than ourselves
Communciation barriers prevent us from stating this clearly
Solution
Inquire into one another as a naïvely curious and nonjudgmental investigator

Shared Vison
A shared vision is not a statement or a goal, it is a “state of being” which is intentionally created by a mature team

Shared Vision
Problem
We work without first together deciding what we are going to create
Solution
First and always, make sure our team is aligned around our vision

Far Vision
Problem
We work hard, burn out, and wonder why we bother
Solution
Insist that all projects have a long term noble purpose

Versions of the Vision
Problem
We have an unwieldy list of features or demands from our customers
Solution
Create a sequence of “Solution versions” that must be accomplished in a step-by-step manner in order to satisfy the customer

Anti-patterns
No Hurt feelings
Wrong tolerance
Team==product
Resolution avoidance

No hurt feelings
Problem
We don’t want to hurt the feelings of our teammates, so we fail to add the value we have to our team’s work product
False Solution
If we can’t find a way to tell the truth without upsetting people, we don’t speak
Actual Solution
Focus on team results, not on team member’s feelings

Wrong tolerance
Problem
We tolerate behaviors that don’t work well
False Solution
We learn to live in the “real world” or complain to others who we think can fix the problem
Actual Solution
Acknowledge that if we tolerate it, we insist on it

Insight: Team == Product
All business service clients
must call methods of
this big static class.
Why is it so ?
You would have
to ask Steve.
Oh that is
impossible,
he is always
busy...
OK, let’s ask him.

Resolution avoidance
Problem
We don’t deal efficiently with conflict because we are afraid of it
False Solution
Lay low
Don’t cause problems
Avoid conflict

This does not avoid conflict, it postpones it

Actual Solution
Seek resolution

Typical Questions
What is the methodology used?
What are the underlying principles

Methodology
an experiential workshop
a results oriented business simulation
using behavioural tools to provide structured empowerment

Underlying principles
self and group alignment
tight accountability
shared vision
timely delivery

Resources:Books
Software for your head
The Speed of Trust
The 7 habits of highly effective people
The five dysfunctions of a team
Situational Leadership
Teamwork is an individual skill
Wave Rider
X-Teams
Leading Geeks

Resources: URL
The Core Protocols: http://alturl.com/b9fn
Bruce Tuckman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forming-storming-norming-performing
Situational Leadership Hersey-Blanchardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory
Dan Pink on TED about Intrinsic vs Extrinsic motivation
http://paircoaching.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/daniel-pink-on-intrinsic-extrinsic-motivation/

Copyright Pictures:
© Hamed Saber http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed
© Ed Yourdon http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/
© Jan Tielens http://www.flickr.com/photos/neleenjan/

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