Respect for People is one of the pillars of Lean. If you read the Lean-Agile and DevOps literature or attend conferences, you will hear plenty about culture. However, these ideas usually aren’t presented as systematically and tangibly as the process tools. Most of the Lean principles that we study are focused on the other pillar, continuous improvement. Cultural ideas may be mixed in there but in a way that’s hard to untangle. Or, at the risk of ruffling some feathers, they may seem overly touchy-feely or theoretical brain science-y. This is a real shame. A business can’t just be a nice place to work, full of nice people; it must deliver a steady stream of results for customers and financial stakeholders. But the best long-term results come from providing a sustainable, healthy work environment. So investing in a strong culture is a wise decision for executives and managers. Here ITSM17 top-rated speaker Jon Terry explores some key ideas around team structure and the responsibilities of both team members and managers in a respectful Lean-Agile company. The presentation provides candidates with a set of seven principles to spell out respect for people to match those for continuous improvement. And it shares some of the source material from which these ideas are derived.

1. Respect for People
Lean’s Neglected Pillar
Jon Terry

2. Introductions
Before joining Planview as Chief Evangelist, Lean-Agile Strategy,
Jon Terry was co-CEO and co-founder of LeanKit. Before
LeanKit, Jon held a number of senior IT positions with hospital-
giant HCA and its logistics subsidiary, HealthTrust Purchasing
Group. He was among those responsible for launching HCA’s
adoption of Lean-Agile methods. Jon earned his Global
Executive MBA from Georgetown University and ESADE
Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and his Masters Certificate
in Project Management from George Washington University. He
is a Project Management Professional, a Certified Scrum Master,
a Kanban Coaching Professional, is certified in the Lean
Construction Institute’s Last Planner Method, and trained in the
SAFe Lean Systems Engineering method.

3. Emerging Leaders
Chris Riesgo Claire George
David NealAlex GlabmanCarl Nightingale
Jim Cowart
Kai Passo Katie St. Francis
Liz Llewellyn-Maxwell Naomi Crowson Mohammed Khalid
Michael Cavopol

4. Yes. Sure. Of Course. But How?

5. Not Much Help Here

6. Nor Here

7. The Toyota Way has two
main pillars: continuous
improvement and respect
for people. - Katsuaki
Watanabe

8. Motivation
Belief in the intrinsic
motivation of clear purpose
vs extrinsic motivation
driven by rewards &
punishment
Customers
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Autonomy with
Safety
Make Team
Success The
Goal
Humble,
Hungry, Smart
Build People,
Then Products
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

9. ContinuousImprovement
RespectForPeople
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
RespectForPeople
Visualize
Workflow
Eliminate
Waste
Experiment
to Create
Knowledge
Build
Quality In
Defer
Commitment
Deliver JIT
Optimize the
Whole
Customers
Measure to Manage
Focus on rapid flow of
value & fast feedback
loops vs up-front planning
& high utilization of all
resources

10. Success Factors
Building blocks of a Lean-Agile culture

11. Allocate work to teams,
not people to projects

12. Respect for whom?
1. Go See - Profound knowledge about potential
process or product improvements starts with observation
2. Ask Why - Ask open-ended questions based on
observing actions, not on assumptions. Use 5 Why's to
find root cause and real needs vs surface asks
3. Show Respect- Assume the team on the
ground knows more about their specific context than you
or their manager. But avoid embarrassing them, too

13. Team?
Bad
Typical ad hoc, time-sliced
allocation of individuals to work
forces a person to be part of many
‘teams’, preventing development of
team culture and not allowing
process stability for kaizen
Context
Switching

14. Team?
Best
Dedicated, long-lived cross-
functional product teams of 5-9
people (up to 15 for big hairy
problems) who have the skills
needed to handle 80% of work
without dependencies
Context
Switching

15. Team?
Acceptable
Service centers where rare
specialists work together as a team
to manage a shared queue of
demand coming from other teams.
Component teams if you must
Context
Switching

16. Factors to Consider
● Ideal team is 5-9 cross functional and product focused - if speed is crucial
& architecture is decoupled
● OK to grow to 15 if you can’t otherwise cover all functions or dependencies
● Above that is sharply less productive and predictable
● Bigger teams can generate scope creep as people end up with slack time
in which to start non-prioritized work. "Hey, I've got some free time!"
● Component teams are inherently dependent upon one another, limiting
sequencing options and reducing predictability
● Cross functional does require a strong focus on skills development to
allow staffing of truly independent teams while encouraging consistency

17. Work Cells: Stability for delivery & kaizen
Career Management
Hiring
Training
Standards
Mentoring
Squad
Delivery
Has skills for 80% of work - X-
Functional or Service Center
Located together (physically or
virtually)
Work assigned to the squad not
squad members
Member can belong to only 1 squad
Guild

18. Guilds and Squads
Web 1 Web 2 Mobile
Arch, Tools
& Auto
Analytics
Platform
Ops
Business
Enablement
Product Management
Design / Architecture
Development
Testing
Deployment / Operations

19. Mentoring Management
Foundation for a healthy human system

20. The role of management is to
change the process rather
than badgering individuals to
do better - Edwards Deming

21. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
Humble. Hungry. Smart
A Lean-Agile company has no
place for brilliant jerks. You
are the gatekeeper

22. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
Towards Mastery
The people build the product,
the manager’s job is to build
the people

23. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
Purpose Ad Nauseum
If they don’t know The Goal
they can’t find the bottleneck

24. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
No norming without storming
To achieve implicit trust a
leader must mine for conflict

25. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
Autonomy not anarchy
Establish boundaries then
allow space for failure in
order to achieve innovation

26. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
Elevate yourself out of a job
Successful leaders move
beyond team supervision to
focus on company goals

27. Customers
Build People,
Then Products
Build a
Cohesive
Team
Create Clarity
& Over-
Communicate
Grant the Team
Autonomy with
Safety
Ensure
Cross-Team
Alignment
Hire Ideal
Team Players
Watch the
Baton not the
Runner
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery
Productivity not busyness
Our focus is the throughput of
the cross-functional team not
activity of its members

28. Respectful People
Respect is a two way street

29. Not finance. Not strategy. Not
technology. It is teamwork
that remains the ultimate
competitive advantage, both
because it is so powerful and
so rare. - Patrick Lencioni

30. Humble. Hungry. Smart
Not everyone is a social
butterfly, but you absolutely
can get better
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to Team
Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

31. Be respect worthy
In the tech world, if you’re not
staying ahead of the trends
you’re falling behind
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to Team
Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

32. Be purpose driven
If the mission is unclear, don’t
stop asking until you
understand
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to Team
Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

33. Invest in relationships
Strive for implicit trust. It’s
not easy. Keep working at it
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to Team
Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

34. Dissent Beforehand
Absolutely discuss and
dissent when planning with
your team. But once you
decide, it’s done
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to
Team Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

35. No False Harmony
If you bottle up disagreement
it will explode in a crisis. Get
it out when things are safe.
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to Team
Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

36. Only the end result matters
Individual productivity is
irrelevant if the team isn’t
winning
Customers
Build Trust
with
Teammates
Understand
the Purpose
Commit to Team
Decisions
Make Team
Success Your
Goal
Be a Ideal
Team Player
Continuously
Develop Your
Strengths
Engage in
Constructive
Conflict
Mentoring
Management
RespectForPeople
ContinuousImprovement
Relentless
Focus on Delivery

37. leankit.com/learn
• Articles
• E-books
• Webinars
• Templates
• Case Studies
Key Reading
The Ideal Team Player
- Patrick Lencioni
Turn the Ship Around
- David Marquet & Stephen Covey
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
- Stanley McChrystal et al
The Essential Drucker
- Peter Drucker
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
- Daniel Pink
Online

38. The fundamental task of
management remains the
same: to make people
capable of joint performance
through common goals,
common values, the right
structure, and the training and
development they need to
perform and to respond to
change - Peter Drucker