The document discusses the concept of fostering responsibility within teams and the process of empowering them to take ownership of their outcomes. It outlines the stages of the responsibility process, emphasizing that true responsibility cannot be pushed down but must be chosen by individuals. The author, Ian Brockbank, shares insights from his extensive experience in software development and agile practices, urging that fostering a culture of responsibility begins with individual leaders demonstrating accountability and encouraging team commitment.

1. How do you “push responsibility
down” and “empower the team”?
The Responsibility Process
Ian Brockbank
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
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2. Getting to know you
How many of you:
Are team leaders/scrum masters/managers?
Are product owners/product managers?
Are developers/designers/architects?
Have several roles?
Struggle to deliver to ridiculous schedules?
Wish you could get your colleagues to care?
Are here because someone told you to come?
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
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3. Where would you rather work?
“The sales guys have promised we’ll
deliver a 2048-bit quantum speech
recognition module driven by moon
dust in three months time. They’re
always doing this! And the server has
gone down again.”
“I was talking with Jim yesterday. The
customer wants 99% accuracy in their new
speech recognition module, and they start
integrating in three months. We’re at 93%
at the moment with Android Speech and
our Frobnatz filter, so we could…”
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
3

4. What I will cover today
• Introduction – “Measure up, push responsibility down”
• The Responsibility Process – a framework for
understanding
• Fostering Responsibility – how do you “push
responsibility down”?
• First steps to empowering your team
• Learning more
• Warning: uses language which
may trigger bulls**t filters
• Please suspend cynicism for an hour
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
4

5. Who am I?
• 24 years software development
• Developer, project manager, team leader
• Creator and leader of multi-site team
• 12 years practicing Agile
•
•
•
•
Agile epiphany: simultaneous projects in 2001
Original Member of Agile Scotland
Trained by Ken Schwaber, Mary & Tom Poppendieck
Agile Blog at www.badgertaming.net
• Reviewer for “The Human Side of Agile” – Gil Broza
• Studying The Responsibility Process since 2012
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
5

6. Glasgow, 2004
“Measure up, push responsibility down”
— Mary Poppendieck
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
6

7. Measure up
• Measure the collective performance
• Metrics which show the overall team performance
• Individuals have to work together to get good numbers
• Promotes teamwork and collaboration
• Well examined elsewhere
I’ll not cover it any more today
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
7

8. Push Responsibility Down
• What does that mean?
• What is responsibility?
• Research by Bill McCarley and Christopher Avery
• www.christopheravery.com/responsibility-process
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
8

9. Responsibility
• Gurus say taking 100% responsibility is the key to
success
• Stuff is hard and things go wrong
• We have a hard-wired series of reactions to upsets
• Evaluate
• Search database of past answers
• Look for quick fix to take the pain away
• Natural and instinctive coping strategies
• Only by working through these reactions can we
get to 100% responsibility
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
9

10. The Responsibility Process
• A series of natural reactions to upsets
• Islands of comfort we land on – coping strategies
• An excuse not try to deal with the problem
• We’re hard-wired to go through these in sequence
• Awareness and understanding help us get off an island
• …onto the next…
• How plush is your island?
• The ultimate destination is
Responsibility
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
10

11. History and Origins
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jesus, Buddha, and other spiritual origins
You are in charge of your reality
Socrates/Aristotle
Other Existentialist philosophers
Alfred Adler (1870-1938, Individual You can be whole
Psychology, student of Freud)
Napolean Hill, Mathew Maltz, and a host of others
Werner Earhart (e.s.t., 1960’s-70’s) Above the line/below the line
Marshall Thurber (Money & U, 1980’s to present)
Bill McCarley (1984 to present)
Christopher Avery (field studies 1991 to present)
The Responsibility Process™
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
11

12. Lay Blame
• Look for someone to blame
• “It’s their fault”
• = “It’s not my fault”
• Natural, but not resourceful
• Somebody else has to change
for things to get better
• I can’t do anything about it
The Responsibility Process™
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
12

13. Justify
• Look for something to blame
• “It’s just the way things are”
• = “It’s not my fault”
• Natural, but not resourceful
• Circumstances must change
for things to get better
• I can’t do anything about it
The Responsibility Process™
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
13

14. Shame
• Blame self
• “It’s my fault – I’m rubbish”
• It’s just the way I am
• Natural, but not resourceful
• I have to change for things to
get better
• I can’t do anything about it
The Responsibility Process™
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
14

15. Obligation
• Do it under duress
• “I have to do it”
• = “I have no choice”
• Natural, but not resourceful
• I’m trapped by circumstances –
things won’t get better
• I’ll do the quickest fix possible
• Fixes the symptoms, not the
cause
The Responsibility Process™
OBLIGATION
SHAME
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
15

16. Quit
• Pretend it’s not a problem
• “I can’t take any more
– I give up!”
• Natural, but not resourceful
• The problem hasn’t gone
away – I’m still hurting
• I can’t do anything about it
The Responsibility Process™
OBLIGATION
SHAME QUIT
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
16

17. Responsibility
• I choose to own this
• It is under my control
• I can and will solve it,
once and for all
• I will look for the root cause –
no sticking plasters
• I will work with whoever I
need to
• Free, powerful and at choice
The Responsibility Process™
RESPONSIBILITY
OBLIGATION
SHAME QUIT
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
17

18. Indicators
The Responsibility Process™
RESPONSIBILITY
OBLIGATION
QUIT
Decide you want it more than you’re afraid of it – SHAME
Bill Cosby
JUSTIFY
This is what
you should do
BLAME
DENIAL
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
18

19. Responsibility (cont)
• Responsibility can be scary
• Responsibility is a life-long practice
• Knowing the process helps awareness
• Still go through the stages
• But with awareness can go faster
• Responsibility makes sure the job gets done
• Accountability cares whose job it is
• You can take 100% responsibility without having
accountability
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
19

20. “Push responsibility down”
• You can’t!
• You can only push Obligation down
• Mary now uses “empower the team”
or “energise workers”
• People have to choose to own it
• => Responsibility is a pull process
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
20

21. Fostering responsibility
Three aspects to foster:
• Conditioning (and re-conditioning)
• Thinking from responsibility
• Desire
• Everyone on the team owns the outcome
• Context
• Most people fit in with the behaviours they observe
• => Make sure they observe Responsibility
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
21

22. [Re-]Conditioning
• Constant awareness
• We’re all addicted to coping
• Be aware of the process
• Don’t jump to the first answer/response
• Keep reflecting and reviewing
• = “Five whys”
• = Decide as late as possible
• = Retrospectives
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
22

23. Desire
• “Nobody ever accomplishes anything without
definiteness of purpose!” – Andrew Carnegie
• The more we care about the outcome, the easier it
is to get to responsibility
• Shared clarity of purpose
• Align team goals with individual goals
• = Project chartering
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
23

24. Shared agreement of purpose
• Co-author a focal point you are all working towards
• What must we do together that is:
• Larger than us
• Requires all of us
• None of us can claim individual victory until it is done
• “If we were already finished and successful, what
would the outcome be?”
• Surface individual motivation
• Keep going until you are all nodding and smiling in
agreement
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
24

25. Different boats
• John and Stan – separate boats
• John notices a hole in Stan’s boat
• What does he do?
• Tell Stan he has a problem
• Post on Facebook “Stan’s got a hole
in his boat”
• Ignore it – not his problem
• Ignore it – if Stan sinks he might win
• Bump against Stan’s boat to make
the hole larger
Images © Christopher Avery
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
25

26. Everyone in the same boat together
• Jane and Sally in the same boat
• Jane notices a hole next to Sally
• What does she do?
• Ignore it
• Post on Facebook “Sally’s got a hole
in her boat”
• Say “Sally – we’ve got a problem”
Image © Christopher Avery
• Ensure everyone succeeds or fails together
– positive interdependence
• = Measure up!
• Shared metrics, shared rewards
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
26

27. Culture
•
•
•
•
WYSIWYD – What You See Is What You Do
People fit in (even programmers!)
If people hear Blame, they will fear Blame
If people hear Responsibility they will need to take
responsibility to fit in
• Responsibility is scary – need to trust your safety
• Need to feel the consequences
• Celebrate wins – frequently!
• Don’t take people’s pain for them
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
27

28. Choice
• You can only act from a position of responsibility if
it’s your choice
• Don’t “should” on other people and don’t let them
“should” on you
• Everyone has to be allowed to choose
• Everyone has to be involved
• = Team commitment to goals
• = Team estimation and planning
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
28

29. Most importantly…
• One thing above all others fosters responsibility
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
29

30. It starts with you!
• Demonstrate Responsibility always
It works best when self-applied
• Keep your agreements
– and expect others to keep theirs
• Allow people to make their own decisions…
and own their own consequences – good and bad
• Take 100% responsibility for demanding you’re on
a great team
• Face reality…and accept your power to change it
Decide you want it more than you’re afraid of it!
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
30

31. Leadership Gift Programme
• Builds on The Responsibility Process
• Develop Awareness to Recognise when things are
wrong
• Uncover the hidden counter-intentions causing the
upset
• Work out what you really want and develop the
Intention to get it
• Take control of your life
• It has made a huge difference to me!
• Free preview sessions on 22nd and 24th October
• www.christopheravery.com/very-important-person
– use IBBLGP for a discount
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
31

32. Further information
www.christopheravery.com/responsibility-process
www.christopheravery.com/the-leadership-gift
The Responsibility Process™
RESPONSIBILITY
OBLIGATION
SHAME QUIT
JUSTIFY
BLAME
DENIAL
www.badgertaming.net
ian@badgertaming.net
@badgertaming
© 1991-2008 Partnerwerks Inc. Responsibility
Process™ is a trademark of
Christopher Avery and Bill McCarley.
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
32

33. Questions? Thoughts?
Decide you want it more than you’re afraid of it!
October 2013
www.badgertaming.net
© 2013 Ian Brockbank
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