Piratical Management (Pirarticles)

Reading time ~ 2 minutes

I’ve spent very little time on writing articles directly related to my nom-de-plume.

There are 3 main reasons behind this.

  1. Most* of my “Bad Captain” thinking is fuelled by negative workplace, management and team experiences and I’ve not had any for a long time.
  2. I have a backlog of 70+ more valuable articles and ideas already without adding pirate concepts into the mix.
  3. There are plenty of articles already discussing pirates and management on the web, why re-invent the wheel!

*The rest is probably fuelled by cider, rum and late-night ramblings with close friends – think “Father Jack with earrings”

So as I make final preparations for a dawn raid at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City and a week at Agile 2011 I’ve been digging out some reading material…

Here’s a quick pick-through of piratical management articles (“pirarticles”) I’ve found on the web so far plus a couple of potential reads to add to my “booklog” (thanks @MarkDalgarno for that very sticky term last week).

Articles

Some short articles for when my cognitive load means I don’t have space for anything more plus one or 2 that are more formal.

Books

I’ve not read either of these, I’d be interested in some reviews from people that have done but for now they’re going onto the booklog.

Music

  • Pressgang – Not directly about Pirates per-se but they do belt out a few amazing seafaring related folk-rock stories.

A little history (not much)

Deadly Serious:

A reminder that whilst my moniker is a light-hearted dig at my appearance and occasional nocturnal ramblings, there’s a whole other side to “real” pirates…

The Point of Maximum Learning

Reading time ~ 2 minutes

This post draws on some exceptional leadership training I attended in Cincinnati some years ago, a personal near-legendary experience from Summer 2009 and the fact that many of us actually flip back and forth from being visibly outgoing, strong and confident to being introverted, quiet and shy.

Recognising this model was something quite special for me – it highlighted why I gain so much from conferences, talking to customers, like-minded strangers and other controlled but potentially stressful situations…

http://www.socialpedagogy.co.uk/concepts_lzm.htm

In order to learn we have to explore, leave our comfort zone and enter the learning zone. Beyond the learning zone lies the panic zone where we are blocked (by fear) from learning – lessons here are only recallable in similar negative situations.

  • Individuals must find their own way into their learning zone, it’s unique to them.
  • Forcing someone out of their comfort zone out of their control may tip them immediately into panic.
  • The point of maximum learning lies at the cusp of the learning and panic zones.

I believe this is why we learn so much from failure and stressful situations and why we often only realize it when we face them a second time.

It’s also why I learn most from group workshops and preparing presentations. Getting out of my comfort zone and talking to people in public gets my adrenaline going and brain working.

A cautionary note. I’ve found that having recognized what’s happening and broken the seal on the comfort zone it becomes somewhat addictive. The boundaries between comfort, learning and panic zones shift and you need to keep finding something else to drive you onward.

Chris Matts is somewhat of a master at demonstrating learning on the fringes between learning and panic – talk to him about exploring deserted conference facilities at 2am armed only with a shopping bag, red wine and no water.

What things do you do that make you really uncomfortable but maximise your learning?

 

Improving Your Retrospectives

Reading time ~ 3 minutes

Inspired by Carl Bruiners – he described many unsuccessful retrospectives as “Happy Clappy” or “Toothless”.

– I love the term “happy clappy”

Last weekend  I hosted/facilitated a short session at the UK Agile Coaches Gathering on “How To Improve Retrospectives”. A valuable hour or so of shared challenges and lessons. Here’s the highlights I was able to capture.

Let the Team Vent

  • If you have a very frustrated team with a succession of issues, give them time for catharsis. 2 or 3 “venting” sessions to let off steam rather than retrospectives needing concrete action may actually be necessary. After the sore points have been drained, circle the team back around to actually solving some issues
  • Facilitate the venting to keep it constructive, not personal and ensure they are actually draining issues, not fuelling flames

Think Lean

  • Prevent batching and waiting by raising issues sooner with the potential to address improvements rapidly before a retrospective even happens
  • Capture your data points and lessons as soon as they come up – on the board for the team to see every day. Discuss them as part of the stand-up
  • Track activities, lessons and problems on a timeline during the project or
    sprint, not at the end. There will be less head-scratching and forgotten issues in the retrospective. It’ll be faster to get moving, you’ll have fixed more and people will feel the time spent has been more productive
  • Consider setting a threshold / count of the number of issues or lessons raised as a trigger for a retrospective rather than just sticking to a sprint rhythm

Figure out what to do with “stuck” actions

  • If there are recurring problems beyond the team’s control, take them off the table. There’s no point in self-flagellation. Raise them in a forum other than retrospectives
  • Define a clear, workable escalation path for when a team needs support to resolve a retrospective action
  • Work with “management” to clear at least 1 stuck retrospective action in order to build team trust in both the management and process – prove it’s working, worthwhile and supported

Keep it interesting & fresh

  • Once a team is used to the general structure of retrospectives and using these relatively effectively, use variety to keep things fresh and interesting – see the “Agile Retrospectives” book and associated mailing list for ideas
  • Retrospect on your retrospectives, – e.g. using start/stop/continue

Beware of US/UK social differences

  • Thanking and congratulating each other is not a common cultural behavior in the UK. Get teams comfortable with other activities and working as a team before approaching some of the “softer” areas
  • Recognise your team members may not be happy talking about how they “feel” about projects, each other, values or any other “hippy” concepts

One of attendees at the coaches gathering described a painful retrospective experience where a single member of a team effectively shot down a retrospective by refusing to participate in sharing feelings. I’ve had similar derailing experiences where a single team member didn’t want to take ownership of any actions or decisions and pulled a team with them. In both cases we just called a halt to that part of a retrospective and moved on. There’s always next time.

Deciding What To Do

  • Capture actions for the team and actions for “management” independently
  • Use dot voting or similar consensus-building activities for selecting actions
  • Encourage people to vote for what they’re motivated to address and capable of resolving, not just items they think are important
  • Limit the number of actions to commit to & address, you can always come back for more
  • If you complete all the committed items, consider pulling one more new action through

Agree When & How actions will be covered

  • Some items are “just go do”, others have more cost. Address just go do items as they come up
  • Consider use of stories for larger actions in backlog and prioritization
  • Try “sprint tasks” to keep “customer” activity/velocity independent of “non-customer” actions and improvements
  • Identify owners for taking management actions to the management (typically a coach, team lead or scrum master)

Thanks to Sophie Manton, Mike Pearce and other attendees for the insights & lessons they shared at the Coaches Gathering.

Dietary Manipulation (Part 3) – Coffee

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This line of articles just doesn’t seem to want to die!

Okay, so….

Today is day 3 of the filter coffee machine near where my team sits being broken despite repeated repair attempts.

There’s one on the floor below but that means carrying full cups of hot coffee all over the building – it seems most of us have been drinking alternatives most of the time for a few days.

We weren’t really aware of the effect this was having on us until we spotted it yesterday!

Sat in a team meeting. A usually energised team were so lethargic we actually called the session short, had lunch and took a walk to the pub to wake ourselves up!

If that’s the impact going cold-turkey on filter coffee had on a 30 minute team meeting, I’m dreading seeing what it did to team productivity this week.

However…

Anyone that’s given up smoking will know that by day 3, the worst seems to be over, as nicotine levels in the body drop further and withdrawal dies down.

Today had been my most productive day all week.

  • It might be that I’ve finally capitulated to instant caffeinated coffee rather than very good – but not very caffeinated – tea.
  • It might be that the half-life of coffee in my system has dropped below withdrawal symptom level.
  • It might just be that I’ve gotten over a momentum hurdle on some of my work.

Chatting to another of the team, their sentiment is the same so I don’t think it’s just me. Now we’ve recognised the risk, we’re making the effort to reach the other machine.

Regardless – it’s a little disturbing (but in hindsight quite obvious) how much the continuous supply of good filter coffee impacts the energy levels of a development team!

Advice to managers – good coffee is a necessity, not a perk.

Arrrr – Thar Be Treasure in Cambridge!

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I’ve been quiet on the writing front for a couple of weeks as I get up to speed with my new job. In the meantime, I wanted to share one of my leaving presents from my former crew and some software community highlights from this fantastic city.

In order to protect the innocent, I’ve had to do some minor editing to anonymize some of the content however my 2 favourite landmarks are still nice & clear as is some of the entertaining corporate commentary.

Credit to Stoots The Quartermaster and Squelch the Ship’s Artist/Brawler for this gem!

The Captain's Treasure Map

Treasure! – click for a full-size version

For anyone thinking of joining the local treasure quest, there’s a fantasic, forward-thinking software scene in Cambridge (UK). I’ve been up here for 7 years now and I’m still having a blast.

The team at Software East are busy putting on fantastic events and following the huge success last year, the second “Agile Cambridge” conference is happening in September with keynotes from David Anderson & Jurgen Appelo.

For those considering a career here; whilst not exhaustive, the Cambridge Network is a great place to start looking, and for an example of the kind of companies that make working in Cambridge special, take a look at these guys.

Meanwhile you can often find a large contingent of my former crew at The Portland Arms on a Friday Lunchtime. Every other Monday a few of us head down to The Old Spring for the now regular “Agile Cambridge Monday Meetup” and once a year the Cambridge Beer Festival becomes a regular lunchtime and evening haunt (and a recruiting/networking hub) for much of the city.

Of course there’s all the usual culture, architecture, students, music and everything else here but you can read about all that from the usual tourist guides.

 

Acting on Difficult Advice

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There’s a time & place for external consultants in organizational transformations. They can help you in unique ways but you have to pay attention and act.

Some years ago I had a game-changing conversation with an exceptional guy we’d hired in. Everyone loved his straight-talking, he had a way of talking common sense that resonated all the way from individuals on teams to our execs. We knew that one or two conversations would never be enough so I asked him to join us permanently – he was exactly what we were looking for.

His response (paraphrased)

“I’m flattered and I’d love to – but one of the great things about what I do is that I can tell you the painful things you don’t want to hear – knowing I’m right – without having to worry about losing my job and knowing my boss has my back.”

We managed to get him to speak to our local leader at the time about what we were trying to achieve.

“…you do know that the level of change you need here is going to have an impact on productivity for a while right? Are you ready for that?”

“…absolutely not, we have to complete our transformation with no impact on our current delivery commitments to the business”

It wasn’t that his advice was wrong. It was that the boss didn’t feel safe to take the hit. Needless to say the rollout stumbled. Fortunately we knew it was coming and corrected as best we could.

If you invest in a consultant, It’s your responsibility (and risk) to act on their feedback. Be prepared for painful input and… please …do something with their advice – that’s what you paid them for in the first place right?

If there’s a risk or impact, weight it up, bring your stakeholders in, explain the situation and reset expectations. You are empowered to act but here’s the trick you’re missing! It doesn’t all have to be just on your shoulders.

In fact, you don’t have to have the difficult conversation yourself at all, you’ve just paid for someone to do it on your behalf. If they’re really that good, they’ll be more than capable and willing to do so and probably more credibly than you.

That kind of ROI is priceless.

Dietary Manipulation (Part 2) – Carbo-Caution

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My first article on dietary manipulation was intended to be the last. However as I learn, so I must adjust…

Some time ago I had the pleasure of guiding a team through a backlog prioritization session – taking items from a large unsized, unordered backlog down to a subset that we believed could be achieved in a short window of time (either in the next 6 weeks or to the end of the summer).

I had the benefit of free lunch in the staff canteen. At the time I wasn’t sure if the food selection was normal for the site or if it was just an end of the month special – either way, the food was very good. Although there were salads and yogurt, it was frighteningly easy to load up on a mountain of well-prepared comfort munchies.

The session I was running was scheduled for about 2-3PM.

Can you see this coming?…

Remember how I previously loaded a team up on carbs so my audience would hit their low-ebb during a difficult patch?

When I’m leading a workshop with an unfamiliar group I’m not very good with pauses & quiet periods so I tend to fill in the gaps (I already know it’s a weakness for coaching). Despite the mix of comfy armchairs and the post-lunch downturn, the team did a great job. They were very tolerant of my ad-libbing and ran the exercise in really good faith but even so it was really hard work for me.

The good news is we achieved our goal in just under an hour. A small, actionable, prioritized set of “must do” items for the team to dedicate some time to clearing before the end of the summer.

Next time, I’ll try loading up with fresh coffee and see what we can get done in 30 minutes and before everyone needs a bathroom break 🙂

Epilogue: – I’ve just started working with this team full-time. The food is that good and the team are that accommodating all the time.

Must try to remember… No mid-afternoon team workshops. Oh and …must… …stick… …to….  salad & smoothies.

Well – sometimes.

Black Holes & Revelations

Reading time ~ 3 minutes

Have you ever had to deal with a black hole on your team?

“As predicted by general relativity, the presence of a large mass deforms spacetime in such a way that the paths taken by particles bend towards the mass. At the event horizon of a black hole, this deformation becomes so strong that there are no paths that lead away from the black hole” – Wikipedia

I’m not a physicist so here’s a simplified view that I can fit in my smaller brain:

Black holes are like huge “gravity traps” sucking in all energy from the surrounding area. Energy and mass are drawn toward the event horizon, sucked in and lost forever. The more they take in, the larger or denser they get.

Here’s some cool stuff I learned from Karl Schoemer a few years ago.

A team undergoing change can be coarsely divided into 3 behaviors: Design, Default and Defiant/Detractor.

• The “Design” population are your role models; your supporters & change agents – but be aware, some may have short attention spans or become zealots. This is up to 20% of your population.
• Those following the “Default” behavior will sit on the fence; “What.. …ever”, “it doesn’t apply to me”, “I’ll carry on as I am thank you” are all common “default” responses. Typically this is 70% of your population!
• “Defiant/Detractor” behavior exhibits extreme symptoms including shouting, arguments, tantrums, sabotage, threatening to leave and pulling everyone else down with them. Less extreme responses include focusing on the minutiae, public cynicism and endless debate without action. In many cases, whilst this may seem prevalent, often this is actually as little as 10% of your population!

Now let’s return to the Black Hole. In space, black holes are invisible – only their effects can be seen. In change management, we simply fail to recognize and identify them.

Human black holes must be understood and handled with extreme caution.

For those inexperienced with black holes, your instinct will be to try and defuse them. You must spot when you are feeding a metaphorical black hole, rewarding negative behavior by pouring your finite energy and resources in. Feeding black holes provides them additional credibility in front of their peers – their gravity trap grows ever-larger.

Lean values time… Eliminate waste! – Where are you wasting your energy?
If you removed the energy feeding a black hole would it eventually burn out?
In human change, detractors usually either get with the program or leave.

If you’ve read some of my prior articles you’ll know that whilst I appreciate good people; if your behavior and attitude isn’t up to scratch, all the technical prowess in the world is unlikely to make me want you on my team.

Some black holes may be an almost permanent rift in space. Work to minimize their impact and sphere of influence rather than offering more fuel. Consider using them as your “professional cynic” – your sounding board for the detractor response – but be aware this is a lot like playing dodgeball with a burning coal. It’s usually safer to move them away from the powder magazine instead.

Where could your wasted energy be better spent?
Simple! Use it to shift the center of gravity on your team away from the black hole.
Partner with your “design” members as a team and swing your population of defaulters toward your chosen direction. Some may be pulled toward or into the black hole but work on the overall gravity shift to bring the team around.

If you don’t have sufficient design weight to adjust the center of gravity right now, go digging for more – one person at a time if needed. At some point you will be able to tip the balance.

(Oh – a nod to Muse for inspiring the title of this post)

Intellectual Humility

Reading time ~ 2 minutes

I love having conversations with people I respect, look up to and know are an expert on a subject I’m interested in (and usually ten others besides).

Every now and again I’ll find myself nodding sagely as they reference some great wonder, piece of writing, language, blog, book, person that they assume I know about.

There’s a good reason that I nod along…

I don’t want to interrupt the flow of what they’re saying, it’s interesting and I want them to continue uninterrupted as I take what they’re saying on board.

There’s also a bad reason…

My intellectual ego is seeking their respect and validation. It’s preventing me from admitting that I’m struggling to comprehend.

Unfortunately in a group situation, this momentum can carry us too far. Once the thread has reached a suitable stopping point, how often are we willing to go back and ask for an explanation, more context or admit that we “don’t know” something that someone else assumed we do.

Watch out for rooms full of people listening to something they don’t understand and nodding, not wanting to interrupt and secretly not willing to be the first in the room to break the seal on their lack of knowledge.

What time do we waste walking away not understanding the full picture and having thrown away the best opportunity to seek clarity?

When you don’t know the answer or don’t understand, don’t pretend.  Lead by example and others will also be encouraged to ask or research and share. This in turn will build a stronger knowledge culture for your teams.

There’s no such thing as a dumb question. If you thought of something to ask in a room full of people I guarantee at least one other person will have as well.

Avoid playing intellectual chicken, be proud to ask the first dumb question of the day and get people to respect your intellectual humility rather than your intellectual ego!

Express Your Real Motivations

Reading time ~ 2 minutes

Hidden agendas make you unpopular, especially those that are poorly concealed.

Everyone has an agenda. I prefer mine open and public. Some may try to take advantage of that but most will respect it…

Some time ago I attended a session with a team where there had been some communication challenges. The team’s normal very tight, cohesive ethos was fraying.

As a globally distributed coaching team they’d arranged to co-locate for a week to bash out a few things and generally get together before returning to their usual sites.

Dinner and a couple of beers into the first evening together and the team spirit had started to sparkle again – recognizing each other as friends, not just colleagues. The hint of political undercurrent was still gnawing at the edges of the smiles.

Into the second day and one of the very perceptive team members called a halt to proceedings.

My paraphrasing of the conversation…

“OK, time for a break. Before we go on, let’s catch up with each other for a bit… …why are you really doing this job, what’s your motivation – what’s your angle?”

This team knew each other well enough to already know the answers but actually calling them out publicly in front of each other was a new step in uncovering potential hidden conflict.

Because the team ran on trust and acted as a balanced cast (I’ll write about team casting in future); everyone acknowledged and accepted each others’ motivations knowing that despite being potentially sensitive they were honestly and openly given.

Even better, they discussed how each other could support those motivations.

The politics and tension were gone.

Earlier this week I watched someone with a blindingly obvious personal motivation attempt to leverage it in front of a smart bunch of people who were mostly there for related but different reasons. Rather than a public calling out, it was handled through amiable debate over a beer later but everyone in that following conversation recognized the unspoken calling out had been made and started trying to re-engage and collaborate.

Or at least I hope they did

In keeping with the spirit of this post I therefore share my own agenda…

  • I’m naturally creative and like to share
  • I seek personal but usually not financial reward
  • I want to be recognized for “good” things

I strive to make a positive difference by sharing my thoughts or observations and by participating in conversation. I seek personal reward through constructive intelligent feedback, good friends and good company.