Mark Cruth - Anarchy Over Agility: The Rehabilitation of Leadership
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The document discusses the concepts of anarchy, self-management, and developer autonomy. It provides examples of tools and practices that organizations can use to promote self-organization, such as collaboration contracts, skill matrices instead of job titles, and invitation-driven meetings. The document argues that anarchy does not mean chaos, but rather order without imposed authority, and that intentional structures and context are important for enabling autonomy while providing longevity.
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Mark Cruth - Anarchy Over Agility: The Rehabilitation of Leadership
- 1. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. AnarcHy OveRAGiliTy
- 2. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Partner Co-Active 1:1 Coaching Agile Organizational Coaching Management 3.0 Facilitator SAFe Program Consultant
- 3. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. 4 MinExercise: What’s Anarchy? The word Anarchy has a different meaning to everyone is this room. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? We have to align on a shared understanding if we’re going to move forward! Action: Partner with someone and take turns sharing your definition of the word Anarchy (what does it mean to you?) Timing: 2 minutes per person
- 4. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Three Phases Self-Management AnarchistToolboxDeveloper Anarchy
- 5. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. An Ar chy noun 1. a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority . . 2. absence or denial of any authority or established order 3. a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government
- 6. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Agile Best Practices Stand Ups User Stories Retrospectives Estimation Iterations Pairing UnitTests AcceptanceTests Refactoring Patterns CI/CD Developer/Programmer Anarchy
- 7. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Agile Best Practices Stand Ups User Stories Retrospectives Estimation Iterations Pairing UnitTests AcceptanceTests Refactoring Patterns CI/CD Developer/Programmer Anarchy
- 8. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Mindset Shift Manager Development Team PO Client
- 9. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Mindset Shift Manager Development Team PO Client
- 10. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved.
- 11. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved.
- 12. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved.
- 13. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved.
- 14. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. The Cynefin Framework Emergent Practice Novel Practice Best Practice Good practice Complex Chaotic Simple Complicated
- 15. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. The Cynefin Framework Emergent Practice Novel Practice Best Practice Good practice Complex Chaotic Simple Complicated
- 16. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Self-Management Press Here!
- 17. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. What’s Self-Management? “A system based on peer relationships, without the need for either hierarchy or consensus.” Frederic Laloux Author, Reinventing Organizations
- 18. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. How WeSelf-Manage
- 19. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. HolacracySociocracy Team Structure Decision Making Governance Small, Connected Circles Generative/Consent Driven Constitution w/Explicit Roles Small, Connected Circles Generative/Consent Driven Constitution w/Explicit Roles Champion Originated Gerard Endenburg 1850’s and 1980’s Brian Robertson 2007 Adopters Endenburg Elektrotechniek Outlandish Creative Urethanes Zappos Medium HolacracyOne
- 20. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. HolacracySociocracyPurposePeople To enable its people to become the best problem solvers in order to serve the community Harness the collective human consciousness, focusing on a unique organizational purpose beyond just people People come first, and people must bring their full selves to work Organizational purpose comes first, obtained through collective consciousness
- 21. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Take twice per week or as prescribed by your Constitution Active Ingredients: Holacracy Sociocracy
- 22. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved.
- 23. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. BOSSA novaValues… Self-organization Cross-functionality Trust theWisdom of People Retrospect and Adapt Decision Making Based on Consent Double Linking Organize Open Meetings BOSSA nova
- 24. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Self-Management Success!
- 25. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Self-Management Success!
- 26. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Three Phases Self-Management AnarchistToolboxDeveloper Anarchy
- 27. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved.
- 28. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Anarchist Toolbox Team Agreement/Constitution Collaboration Contract Self-Selection ReplaceTitles with Skill Matrix Check-In Process Anarchy Days! Invitation Driven Meetings
- 29. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Team Agreement/Constitution • A tool that helps teams to establish expectations between and of each other • Eliminates “noise” by making the implicit explicit • Prevents the breakdown in communication • Promotes self-management within the team Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 30. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Collaboration Contract • Way to spell out who makes what type of decisions • Similar to Management 3.0 Delegation Poker • Makes the “who” in decision making explicit and whether others need to be consulted in a decision • Avoids the need for management to make decisions as decision ownership is clear to all parties Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 31. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Self-Selection • Instead of assigning people to teams, you let people decide which team they would like be on • Occurs at a regular cadence (ex. 6 months) to allow team members to move around • Supported with a formal self-selection event • Team members have the autonomy to chose their work and team Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 32. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Replace Titles with Skill Matrix • Instead of guessing what a team needs (job titles), identify the skills the team needs to be successful • Team can determine the skills they need • Identify skill levels (Apprentice, Journeyman, Master) as growth options for team members • Eliminate the silos caused by job titles/descriptions • Provides clarity on what skills and levels of skill are needed Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 33. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. Check-In Process • Simple tool that helps people become more present • Start meeting with a “Check-In” that allows people to leave baggage outside the meeting • Pick a question like “what weather pattern are you” and let everyone answer before beginning • Allows someone to acknowledge their mental state • Helps everyone in the meeting to appear a little more human Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 34. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. AnarchyDays! • Inspired by Fred George and Developer Anarchy, ebay started holding their own Anarchy Day • A developer can work on what they want, but must show the results the next day • Similar but different from Hack-A-Thons • Developers can put their “Product Manager” hat on • Demonstrates developers can make good business decisions Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 35. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. InvitationDriven Meetings • When sending out a meeting invite, the inviter must create a compelling invitation that encourages attendance • Meetings should follow the same rules as games: Clear goal, clear rules, way to track progress, and ability to opt-out • Ensures each meeting is valuable to those who participate • Removes the authority to require attendance in meetings Value What Is It? Click toLearn More!
- 36. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. 6 MinExercise: Driving Invitation We’ve all received one of those meeting invites with either nothing in the body or a single line stating “you are required to attend.”This type of meeting destroys self-management. Let’s change that! Action: • Pick a meeting you have on the calendar and turn it into an Invitation using the INVITETemplate • After crafting your Invitation, review your meeting with a partner and gather feedback Timing: 4 minutes to create, 2 minutes to share
- 37. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. A Cautionary Tale… No Intent
- 38. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. So…WhyAnarchy? Anarchy is Order Without Imposed Authority Today’s Problems are Complex, Not Complicated Deliberate Decision Making Creates Autonomy Consent Enables Rapid Feedback Intentional Structures Provide Longevity Context is Everything!
- 39. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. II I I Thank You mark@tealmavericks.com @TealMavericks
- 40. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. BooksReferenced
- 41. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. BooksReferenced
- 42. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. ArticlesReferenced https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/sessions/programmer-anarchy-and-the-necessity-of-managerless-processes/ https://martinjeeblog.com/2012/11/20/what-is-programmer-anarchy-and-does-it-have-a-future/ http://gotocon.com/dl/goto-amsterdam-2011/slides/FredGeorge_ProgrammerAnarchy.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk-CF7klLdA https://the-arm.com/two-years-of-programmer-anarchy-7f8a85ec4717 http://www.julianbrowne.com/assets/attachments/agile-killing-architect/downloads/leaner-programmer-anarchy.2.pdf https://www.infoq.com/news/2012/02/programmer-anarchy https://code.fb.com/culture/engineering-culture-code-ownership/ https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/03/12/what-makes-a-good-developer-culture https://regulargeek.com/2011/03/07/developer-driven-culture/ https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/blogs/tech/developer-anarchy-day/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUpyqwsrGs http://gotocon.com/london-2011/presentation/Lean+Programmer+Anarchy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIxHmsWCd7g http://gotocon.com/dl/goto-chicago-2014/slides/FredGeorge_ImplementingProgrammerAnarchy.pdf https://valuethelearningcycle.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/are-you-ready-for-programmer-anarchy/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zop0wTPrbk8
- 43. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. ArticlesReferenced https://itnext.io/what-is-developer-anarchy-and-how-is-it-different-from-agile-software-development- 6e212d6b8dfb?gi=542b371aac60 https://github.com/busterc/programmer-anarchy https://opensoul.org/2012/06/05/whats-it-like-to-work-at-github/ https://github.com/holman/ama/issues/800 https://www.frontrowagile.com/blog/posts/27-valves-culture-self-organization-and-scrum https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/04/27/a-glimpse-at-a-workplace-of-the-future-valve/#55ecc6447557 https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf https://www.flowless.eu/programmer-anarchy/ https://tqdev.com/2016-developer-anarchy-or-extreme-agile https://www.red-folder.com/blog/developer-anarchy http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=managementfacpub http://www.reinventingorganizationswiki.com/Self-Management http://www.self-managementinstitute.org/about/what-is-self-management http://www.self-managementinstitute.org/assets/images/uploads/WhatIsSelfMgmt.pdf https://www.zapposinsights.com/about/holacracy https://hbr.org/2016/07/beyond-the-holacracy-hype
- 44. Copyright © 2019 Teal Mavericks, LLC. All rights reserved. ArticlesReferenced https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2541/d91c749161b78e724c4c29e38a394f03fb6a.pdf http://www.sociocracyforall.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Organizational-structure_ELC_corrected.pdf https://sociocracy30.org/guide/ http://www.cruxcatalyst.com/2013/09/26/spiral-dynamics-a-way-of-understanding-human-nature/ http://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/McDonald-Ian-Introduction-to-Spiral-Dynamics-1007.pdf http://www.wcdsc.net/pdf/intro2SD.pdf https://medium.com/@JenRau/there-is-no-hierarchy-in-sociocracy-right-7999be11cdf0 http://fr.thesociocracygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The_Creative_Forces_Self_Organization_v9.pdf http://fortune.com/2016/03/04/management-changes-at-medium/ https://blog.newrelic.com/technology/data-culture-survey-results-faster-deployment/ http://janhoglund.eu/holacracy-vs-sociocracy/ https://blog.medium.com/management-and-organization-at-medium-2228cc9d93e9
Editor's Notes
- Tervetuloa (I hope that was welcome in Finnish). Talk about a controversial title Raise a few eyebrows and drum up some interest. So let me introduce myself real quick…
- From Detroit, Michigan in the US Agile - last decade Hats I wear - Scrum Master, Developer, Product Owner, Coach, Partner in a company called Teal Mavericks, a group focused on reimaging the way we work today. Now enough about me, let’s get into this. And to start, let’s do a little exercise!
- The word “Anarchy” has a lot of different meanings and feelings behind it. We all have our own perspectives on it, so let’s share them. Find a partner and take turns defining and describing what the word “Anarchy” means to you ------------ 1. Anarchy is associated with ciaos and lawlessness? 2. Anarchy is a negative term? 3. Finally, we should avoid Anarchy? Anarchy is something we typically want to avoid. Well my goal today is to demonstrate anarchy can help your organization become better. I’m going to do this in three phases…
- First – talk about Anarchy in the software realm, specifically focused on the Developer/Programmer Anarchy movement Next – zoom out and talk about anarchy and the overall self-management movement, including the different techniques organizations are using to promote to support self-management Finally - I want to ensure you leave this session with some tools you can use to create a little anarchy in your environment…some easy to implement things that help to create an environment where teams own their own destiny. Now in order to dive in deeper we need to go back to that word Anarchy and make sure we’re aligned on what it means.
- Anarchy is significantly misunderstood. Based on the answers to my questions, the word has a negative stereotype associated with it. This isn’t the only definition of Anarchy. These are good but they still don’t work completely. I want you to leave today with a new definition. Means order without imposed authority….individuals create their own order vs. having order imposed on them. It’s about freedom of choice and the power to make decisions. It’s about distributed control. How on earth does this relate to software development?
- Back in the early 2000 a man by the name of Fred George decided to insight a little anarchy Small startup in UK called Forward. They leveraged Agile “Best Practices” such as…(show list) They were doing all the right things but the company wasn’t moving fast enough. Fred then did something a little “mad”…he got rid of it all.
- Eliminated all practice that didn’t help them towards their goal of being more responsive and collaborative with their client Instead they focused on… Trust w/Collocation Results, Not Blame Small, Short-Lived Apps Continuous Deployment Eliminating practices is easy Two major changes with how people worked together really stirred the pot…
- First – the way the team worked with the client needed to change. No Client Rep/PO - development team worked directly with the client Insisted that the client teach them their domain so the team could create better things for their client Team became responsible for creating business value for the client! Second – the use of managing and support roles needed to change. < 50 person org still needs the skills, not dedicated person Decisions took too long and many times weren’t the right ones. SO the entire team became developers and everyone shared the hats This truly empower everyone to make decisions and moved the group from “can I” vs. “I’m going to.” attitude Now if you think Fred and team are just throwing out everything to gain a little efficiency you’d be wrong…
- Instead, what was created at Forward was a… Technology team that was an independent group of people with no need of management support That had little to no overhead of must-follow practices Where every team member wore several different hats and was accountable for the team And worked directly with the client, anticipating the clients needs because they learned the domain and were accountable for business value. This high-performing team was the genesis of the…
- Developer Anarchy movement, also referred to as Programmer Anarchy. The thing I love is that that Developer Anarchy is still… Manifesto Compliant…I’d even venture to say that it’s more compliant than many other ways Agile is implemented in the world. Now this is great, but did it work? You betcha!
- In 4 years – yearly revenue went from $3mm euro to over $55mm euro…company of less than 50 people. Developers were pushing code to production every 3.5 minutes. Interesting stat…the earliest figures on code deploys was in the 2014 State of DevOps report which stated that only 4% of companies practiced deploying code to production daily. At Forward, they were doing this daily in 2009…that was 5 YEARS before that figure came out. Anarchy was successful, but could it spread? Fred went out into the world and helped to spread Anarchy at companies like…
- MailOnline, one of the worlds most popular news sites Outpace, an online customer interaction platform Developer Anarchy has been successful in those organizations that practice it. But Why? To me the following words of wisdom really resonated with me on why Develop Anarchy is impactful…
- Developer Anarchy thrives on collective ownership of roles/responsibilities within a team/organization… Without it there will be the opportunity repression, which destroys creativity and holds people/organizations back. Ultimately, the success in Developer Anarchy rests in the realization that software and the people who create the software are complex, not complicated. Remember what Niels was talking about yesterday on this topic? I want to quickly walk us back through it leveraging an important framework designed for this…the Cynefin Framework.
- Helps with problem solving. In every situation where we have to make a decision or solve a problem, we end up moving into one of these domains. Let me walk you through them real quick. Start out in the middle…the domain of disorder…we need to observe to determine which domain we need to approach from: Obvious - We call our response a best practice. An example would be if you’re supporting an help desk Complicated - We typically respond to these problems with good practices. Doctors typically work from a complicated space Complex (starts getting crazy) - we need to sense and respond as we go and be ok with adjusting as we go. Like the Stock Market. Chaotic - requires us to act before we can choose a logical course of action. Emergency situations are like this and the goal here is to act in a way that brings order quickly. Watch out if you try to solve it with a simple answer, but it’s not, you can call off the preverbal cliff into ciaos.
- Software development falls into the complex domain because there is no one way to write software…it’s a art form! Developer Anarchy has recognized that many of the frameworks and practices people use to build software in an Agile way come from either the obvious/complicated domains. If software is from the complex domain, it means there are no experts that know the right answer…the only thing we can really do is sense and adapt. Now let’s talk about the manager role…it was originally constructed as an “expert role” and focused problems in the obvious and complicated domains. But when dealing with complexity, the expert manager role won’t help us, only our ability to sense and respond quickly So why not distribute those responsibilities and power to the team? That my friends is the question that Developer Anarchy has the answer for.
- Alright, by this point I hope you’ve grasped the fundamentals of Developer Anarchy and. why the complexity of software supports the need for distributed power within a software team Now Developer Anarchy is not a new thing in the world developed by some guy named Fred… Many of us here refer to this pretty regularly as the concept of self-managing and self-organizing teams.
- In his book “Reinventing Organizations,” Frederic Laloux defines Self-Management as “A system based on peer relationships, without the need for either hierarchy or consensus.” It means knowing exactly what you’re responsible for, and having the freedom to meet those expectations however you think is best. Sounds a little like Anarchy to me This might seem like a radical concept, but non-hierarchical ways are in our DNA… Think about it…we function every day without a boss…
- Things like… For organizations, Self-Management might seem a little different…running a million dollar company is not the same as picking a flavor of cereal….it’s complex! Based on what we’ve learned about Developer Anarchy, in order to solve complex problems, we must sense and adapt, meaning something needs to emerge…maybe it’s ”A system based on peer relationships, without the need for either hierarchy or consensus” as Frederic put it. There are a handful of models that exist today that have been designed to help bring about order without the need for hierarchy or consensus. The two most popular ones are…
- Similar yet different. Some of the defining characteristics: A constitution - rules to play, roles and accountabilities of those roles, Generative decision making process, with focus on consent Small teams (also known as circles) that are interconnected Sociocracy dates back the longest to mid-1800’s becoming popular in the 1980’s when a man by the name of Gerard Endenburg used Sociocracy to run his electronics company, Endenburg Elektrotechniek. Holacracy is newer, 2007. Founder, Brian Robertson, a technologist, developed the model because the way we work needed an OS upgrade. Has become popular with companies like, Zappos and Medium. But that’s were the similarities end….
- Two main differences: purpose of the organization and how people play into it. Sociocracy: The purpose of the organization being the enablement of its people to support the needs of the community the organization serves. Holacracy: Takes a slightly more meta, to be an organization that exists beyond the people, with its own purpose to enact. What does this mean for people? Sociocracy: People have the power to move the organization in a collective direction that allows the organization to fulfill its purpose . Believes that a person needs to bring their full selves to work…emotions and all. Holacracy: Organizations purpose is what matters and giving people power best supports the organizations in obtaining it’s purpose. Creating powerful people is in service to the companies purpose. Popular ways to support self-management…There’s just one problem though…
- Complexity! Developer Anarchy and the Cynefin framework recognized that when dealing with complex problems, you can’t solve them from an obvious or complicated perspective…there is no cause and effect in how organizations work. Holacracy and Sociocracy both prescribe a way to organize. Understanding complexity means we can see that these sort of problems can’t be solved with one-size-fits-all tools and process…especially when dealing with living, breathing, bags of emotions…also know as humans. Medium left Holacracy after 4 years back in 2016 because the framework they had changed enough that Holacracy didn’t make sense. Looking at Zappos, I predict the same thing happening. Especially because, and I kid you not, on their website they state the reason they adopted Holacracy was…
- There can not and will not be an out-of-the-box solution that creates self-management within a company. The problem is just too complex. Now I’m not bashing on Holacracy and Sociocracy…I actually like the ideas they spark. We just can’t consider them to be the defacto rule book for how we operate. So are there any good ways to promote self-management and real success stories out there? You betcha!
- One of my favorite models is BOSSA nova, which incorporates practices from... BOSSA nova promotes the practices that come out of each of the spaces in leverages, but focuses on the common threads…really the principles…that cross all of them. These include: The focus is not on specific things to do, but rather what we choose to value as an organization. In regards to organizations who have had success with self-management, a couple to call out…
- Valve Software in the US - there is value in hierarchy when you want predictability/repeatability, but when creating video games telling employees to sit at a desk and do what they’re told obliterates 99 percent of their value. No managers and so the ~400 employees. MorningStar located in the US, 400-2400 employees, there are no managers. Encouraged to innovate independently, define job responsibilities themselves, and even make purchasing decisions. Employees hold each other accountable through Colleague Letter of Understanding (CLOU).
- Buurtzorg in the Netherlands. 7000 employees. Needed to provide better patient care/employee experience. Small teams that serve a specific area. There is a small support office and coaches that support each team, but neither one has authority. Ernst & Young – patients require ~40% less care. Medium. Left Holacracy, but the story has a happy ending! Upon the removal of Holacracy, Medium released their own list of principles that supported their desire for autonomy and distributed decision making. Continuing to feel their way into self-management based on their own context now. None of these companies used a given framework to become a “self-managing company”…they recognized that to distribute control…to give people the freedom and autonomy needed to create a great organization…they needed to sense and adapt.
- Alright, let’s sense and adapt ourselves. So far we’ve talked about Developer Anarchy, Complexity, and Self-Management… This is all great, but how do you use this when you go back to work tomorrow? Many of us will be heading back to an office kind of like this...
- Where self-management isn’t possible yet because we have bosses who like their power and organizational structures. Beyond getting our CEO and Board of Directors to make a company wide statement that we’re moving to self-management, what can you do? Well, in anarchy, you just need to a single spark to start a fire. During our last few minutes together I want to share some tools and techniques you can begin using tomorrow to insight a little anarchy…
- …these seven tools and techniques help to support the ideas behind self-management and will allow you to start experimenting with the concept. I’ve directly or indirectly experimented with these and can attest that in my context they help me promote the ideas of self-management. I’m going to run though these pretty quick due to timing, but I’ve included links on the slides that include more information on the practices that you explore once you get your hands on the slides after the session. Follow me on Twitter or send me an email and I’ll make sure you get a copy of the slides. Let’s go!
- Team Agreements or Team Constitutions are a great tool to create a shared understanding of expectations within a team. A lot of teams work together with unsaid assumptions about how they work…any many times these assumptions are different with each team member. This can result in unnecessary conflict and breakdowns in communication. Having a Team Agreement or Constitution gets these out of the open and allows a team to explicitly state why they are a team, what they expect out of each other, and how they want to work.
- Similar to a Team Agreement/Constitution, Collaboration Contracts are a way to spell out who makes what types of decisions. Many teams look to a manager or leader in the team to make many of their decisions, when in reality they might not be the right person to do it (it’s just how we’ve been wired). A collaboration contract allows teams to acknowledge all the decisions they have to make and determine who should be making those decisions. It’s kind of like an interactive RACI chart. In Management 3.0, the tool of Delegation Poker also provides this same value. It’s all about making explicit who makes the decision and if they should consult others or not before the decision is made. When it’s explicit, it’s hard for a manager to come in an make a decision if they and the team collectively agree the decision belongs to someone else.
- More radical ideal, but it’s not new! Self-selection is an exercise where instead of assigning people to teams, you determine what teams are needed and then allow team members to self-select their team. Lots of preparation that the organizers need to do to make this successful, but you’ve allowed people to determine what they are passionate about. You might wonder “what about support teams…no one wants to do support.” Well the cool thing is that in the organizations I know who do this the support team always fills up. People in the organization recognize that for the system to survive that role needs to be filled and so they ensure it does. Organizations that practice self-selection typically do the event on a regular cadence to allow people to move around to learn new things. This isn’t just for small companies either…parts of Microsoft practice self-selection!
- The problem with job titles and descriptions is that they are always a guess of what we think we need to get work done and usually result in people putting blinders on to the great needs of the team. Instead of job titles and descriptions, replace them with a team skills matrix. Another concept adapted out of Management 3.0, a team gets together to identify what kind of skills they need on their team (ex. JavaScript, party planning) and what competence level we need of that skills (apprentice, journeyman, master). The teams assesses what skills they posses and their current competence and determines next steps. Maybe a few people want to level themselves up, maybe there is a whole the team needs to hire someone to fill. What this does is allows the team to focus on their collective ability along with their own desires for growth to create the best team for their problems they are solving.
- Very simple, yet powerful way to help people both become more present in meetings, as well as helps people to see each other as human. Basically you start a meeting with a check-in question. Maybe it’s something like “if you were a weather pattern right now, what would you be?” Someone starts and you go around the room with everyone checking in using this question. During the process no one should respond or react to a persons answer…just be present in the moment. Once done, you move onto the first topic in your agenda. The process allows someone to acknowledge where that are at mentally at the time of the meeting so they can put that aside in order to be 100% present. And from experience, hearing a Sr VP that they are sunshine with a big rainbow just helps me look at them as more of a person than an authority figure.
- Anarchy Days is a concept that came out of eBay and is a way they are trying to inject Developer Anarchy into what they do. Realizing that Develop Anarchy wouldn’t fly right out of the gate, Anarchy Days started. These are days where developers get to work on anything they want…the only rule is that they have to show the results the next day. These are similar to the famous “ShipIt Days” at Atlassian or Hack-a-Thons, but the difference is that there is no big celebration at the end. The reason…Anarchy Days should be just like any other day, but this time the decisions making and authority get transfer to the developers. The goal of Anarchy Days is to help show that developers can make good business decisions. Developers get to wear the hat of Product Manager. Here’s my recommendation when it comes to starting Anarchy Days. Start with having one once a quarter…that’s usually stomach-able by senior leadership. Then move to monthly…then once an iteration…then twice an iteration…see where I’m going here.
- The final technique is one we can all do right now with minimum to no effort. Thought-provoker, Daniel Mezick, recently published a book called Inviting Leadership, with the premise that in order to bring about change in organization you must invite people to the change vs. impose on them. One of the techniques out of his books are Invitation Driven Meetings. This is pretty simple…instead of sending out an invite to a meeting and just expecting people to show up, you should actually INVITE people to your meeting. This changes the mindset from “having to go to a meeting” to giving people the opportunity to attend. What does this mean for you, the meeting organizer. Well, it means that you can’t strong arm people to attend your meetings anymore. You have to sell people that your meeting is worth attending. Invitation based meetings should have… That’s it! An example of this is on the screen and on the handout you should have in front of you.
- Now you didn’t think I’d let you leave here without trying one of these techniques on for size. It’s time for a quick exercise! At your tables you should have a blank meeting invite with some pre-defined fields. We just talked about Invitation Driven Meetings as a way to support self-management so let’s try it out. Here’s what I want you to do. Pick a meeting you are planning to run sometime in the next week. Doesn’t have to be work related either. Using the template, take 4 minutes to write or re-write your invite to be a true invitation using the template. After three minutes, share your invitation with the person you talked with earlier in session and give everyone feedback. You’ll have a minute each. Ready, set, go!
- Alright, my time is pretty much up. The Oscars music is starting to play. Before I leave I want to tell you one quick cautionary story on self-management, and it’s from a pretty well known company…GitHub. When GitHub started they were a manager-less company, which made a lot of sense. They worked on collaborative, open-source software and experienced a ton of success. As a team of ~80 people things worked out well. Fast forward a few years later…GitHub grew to ~600 people and organization and communication started to break down. Not having anything else to lean on, GitHub began introducing managers in the company. Slowly at first, but if you look at GitHub now their structure wouldn’t look much difference than another technology company. What’s the message behind this story…it’s all about intention. GitHub never started with the intention of being manager-less, so over time cracks started to show in the way things worked. Without intention, traditional structures took hold.
- As you look to spark a little anarchy in the world, keep the following in mind… Remember what Anarchy really means The problems we deal with are complex…there are no easy fixes so we must sense and adapt Being deliberate on how decisions are made and who makes them creates clarity and fosters autonomy. The word Anarchy is derived from the Greek word An-archy, which means without rulers. Thus Anarchy is the state of having no rulers, not necessarily no rules. An environment built on Consent, not consensus, is the secret to rapid feedback and a willingness to experiment. You must be intentional and make sure the practices you adopt work for your culture. This means that context is EVERYTHING. These new ideas are like an organ transplant… if not the right fit or not carefully monitored, the corporate immune system may reject them even if they help the organization survive. So as you leave today…
- …remember, Agile might create powerful teams, but Anarchy creates powerful people. Thank you!