Coaching “Up” to the C-Suite

(i.e. CIO, CEO, etc…)

By

Kevin Poole - k.poole@smt.comMargeaux Bucher - mxbucher@gmail.com

Alistair (Alex) Sloley - alex.sloley@construx.com, 425.636.0118Kelly Flynn - kelly.flynn@optum.com, 404.402.0474

Sriram (Sri) Natesan - sriram.natesan@intelex.com, 647.927.9203Brian Sjoberg - brian.sjoberg@excella.com, 301.404.0765

List of Personas

Risk Adverse

Disengaged

Results Driven

Metrics Driven

Dictator

Executive Change Agent

Risk Adverse

Traits Status quo

Failure is not an option

Fear of change

Not Adaptable

Sure things only

Traditional project management style

Insecure

Needs documention

Risk Adverse

Tells Needs Gantt charts

Punishes failure

Needs constant reassurance

Desires safety

Needs demo'd success of new approaches

Loves pilot programs (compartmentalized risk)

Needs broad base of support

Focused on peer comparisons

Does better with grass roots model - bottom-up support

Risk Adverse

How to Handle High contact, touchpoints

Understand risks/concerns

Propose low risk solutions

Be patient, gentle, reassuring

Risk exposure - what is the risk of not doing it

Risk Adverse

Tools/Resources/Games The Pheonix Project by Gene Kim

The Goal

Agile Jenga

Ball Point Game

Risk Exposure

The J curve

Disengaged

Traits I'm too busy

Delegation w/O support

Green Phaser

Hidden agenda

Nothing in it for me (NIIFM)

Exhaustion (fire fighting)

Agile is a fad

Disengaged

Tells Can't get on their calendar

Distracts them self while talking to them

Constant rescheduling of meetings

Ignoring emails

Does not have most recent info/ignores most recent data set

Gets information from wrong source

Disengaged

How to Handle/Relate Ask a coach session with their 'C' suite peers

Guest shot (in a webinar f2f session). Give them a stage to shine

Build critical mass

Identify the people that can influence the c-level folks. Influence them.

Learn how to write abstract - clear, crisp info

Disengaged

Tools/Resources/Games Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

Leading Change by J. Kotter

Lego City game

Results Driven Traits

As long I get x, I don't care

Massage the Metrics (play the stats)

Customer satisfaction

Because my bonus depends on it (danger reverting back to command and control)

Traditional project management

Results Driven

Tells Punishes failure

Clear with goals/expectations

Upset by disagreement with their stated goal/result

Constantly asking people until they get what they want/ignore chain of command

Results Driven

How to handle/relate Explain how to get metrics (basis, source,

approach)

Help them understand what results are useful (find alignment with what they want and what results are important)

Assure self regulation/correction occurs.

Demonstrate success

Results Driven

Tools/Resources/Games Visual radiators

The Penny game

From Just in Case to Just in Time by Steve Bockman

Fuzebox infographic on multitasking

Lead time/Cycle Time Flow Drive-Thru simulation

Metrics Traits

Lots of documentation (i.e. spreadsheets, slides, databases)

Trendlines (historical comparison)

Engaged in and asking for useless/wasteful metrics

Illogical comparison (between teams)

Play the stats

Seek metrics from people who would provide metrics to their advantage

Balanced budget

Lack humanity

Metrics

Tells Asks for their favorite formal "can you make

that a slide deck?"

Doesn't understand source of data

How much will that cost?

Focuses on external data (i.e. books, blogs, magazines)

Compare velocities

They seek precision

Metrics

How to handle/relate Explain how to get the metrics (basis, source,

approach)

Help them understand results are worth measuring (alignment with what they want and what makes sense/important

Show your work (tangible, credible)

Translate human into $$$

Metrics

Tools / Resources / Games Chaos Manifesto

State of Scrum

State of Agile

(Online Tool) Scrum Transition Deck

Scrum Transition Deck for printing

9 Criteria for Better Metrics

(Video) Pro SW Development by Uncle Bob

(Tech tool) SONAR, calculates technical debt

(Tech tools) Jenkins Build Automation

Cumulative Flow Diagram Examples

Cost Of Delay, Essential Scrum by Kenneth Rubin, Portfolio Planning Chapter

Dictator Traits

Typical expert leader (know it all)

No faith in people below them

Delegate responsibility but not authority

Instills fear, threatens

Metrics used to their advantage

Single scope of authority

Bottleneck

Dictator's pet

Impatient with people not on the same page

Unforgiving

Dictator

Tells Upset by questioning, asking for "the why"

Strong, rash decisions

Highly focused on chain of command

Surrounds self with technical experts

Surrounds self with "yes-men"

Discourages email colloboration

Dictator

How to handle/relate Be nice but firm

Stroke their ego

Identify their goals/motives influence them

Be the pet

Dictator

Tools / Resources / Games (Video) Schwaber Tech Talk, Scrum et al.

(Video) Scrum for Product Owners, PO In A Nutshell

(Video) Shit Bad Scrum Masters Say

(Video) Agile Hitler (don't share with exec but funny)

(Video) Scrum Gathering Keynote 2012, Henrik Kniberg

Executive Change Agent Traits

Trusts

Empowers

Engaged

Company success over personal success

Open minded - open to change/failure

Has an inherent thrust for knowledge

Acknowledges and supports individuals and teams at all levels

Servant leader

Executive Change Agent

How to Enable Make easily consumable information available

Abstracts

Soundbytes

Elevator pitch for them to deliver

Integrate them into the team/org level training

Get them involved in theam activities in a controlled manner

CxO retrospective backlog (Teams surface organizational impediments and they are tracked)

"CxO" retreat to share incentive approaches at organizational level

Help identify leadership path/org path?

Executive Change Agent

How to Enable (Cont.) Gather metrics and Report them

Projects we didn't start because of bad ROI

Projects we stopped because of bad ROI

Bug reports (ideally going down as quality is seen as inflexible)

Release date accuracy

Customer satisfaction

Organization WIP over time

Turnover/attrition

Extending avenues of influence Providing training

Continuous communication

Executive Change Agent

How to Enable (Cont.) Open invite training (across all organiZation levels)

Quarterly (periodic) executive lunch and learn/question free-for-all

Cultivate internal-facing blog provide guest shot opportunities)

"5 Why's"

Needs versus solutions training so CxO can champion that thinking

Snapshots (1/2 to 1 page "editorial" pieces for wide distro written execs or anyone else for that matter. Trends strategies, observations, etc...)

Scrum of CxOs (this is where the CxO's surface organization impediments and help each other remove them)

General Resource List Books

Agile Software Requirements

The Scrum Guide

Innovation Games

Agile Samurai

The People's Scrum by Tabias Mayer

Agile Adoption Patterns

Agile Retrospectives

Essential Scrum by Ken Rubin

Leadership Agility

Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Agile in a flash - Speed learning agile software development

Agile Testing by Lisa Crispin

Scrum Field Guide by Mitch Lacey

Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn

Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum

Kanban by David Anderson

Collaboration Explained

General Resource List Videos

Pair programming bit bucket

Spotify Culture

Games Game storming

Multitasking game

Tastycupcakes.org

White Papers Price for Multitasking

Good Experience

Ball Point Game

Penny Game

Conscious Discipline Child rearing approach that focuses on identifying brain

state of yourself as child care provider as well as the child during challenging moments or incidents

Survival state (need safety); Emotional state (need to be heard/acknowledged); Executive state (need for problem-solving)

PO in a Nutshell Short and sweet, only 15 minutes

Visually well-done: clear, fun diagrams & drawings

Covers basic concepts with clarity: basic team roles, limiting work in progress (WIP), how to project when stuff will get done (for roadmapping, etc)

Good Experience

Embed CxO in training. The CXO attends Scrum training as any other IC would.

You must set expectations for the CXO so they understand that they are IC's in the class, they shouldn't act as a CXO.

The CXO participates in all the practical workshops as part of the training as any other IC would.

Editorial features Invite them to provide brief content to an internal blog,

documentation collection, sharepoint, video collection on Agile related topics

Less than 1/2 page, 10 min etc.

Distribute to the related Scrum Teams, VPs and extend into other CxO

Good PR prods good behavior as well as positions them as Agile leaders in all directions