Embracing Change or Bracing for Change Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Product Teams

Emily Webber / @ewebber emilywebber.co.uk / tacitlondon.com

Hello. I’m Emily

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Write down: What is the vision for your team if everything was as good as it could be

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Ideas

CodeData

MEASURE

LEARN BUILD

The Lean startup

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The Scientific method

Ask a question

Do background research

Construct ahypothesis

Test your hypothesis

Analyse data and draw conclusions

Because I think [this] is true

I think that doing [this]

will mean [this will happen]

And I will know [like this]

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Why aren’t your team already embracing change?

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Photo from m

usictour.eu

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Photo from m

usictour.eu

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“This is just how we do things around here”

Five reasons people resist change

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Photo by Jethro Taylor

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“Uncertainty can cause more stress than inevitable pain”

www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0316/290316-uncertainty-stress

Photo by Jethro Taylor

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Get into the habit of changing

Photo by Jake Edwards

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Change means learning new skills

Photo by Jake Edwards

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Be willing to support people learning new skills

Photo by Aaron Silvers

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A condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed.

Learned helplessness

Photo by Aaron Silvers

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Create a safe to fail environment

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It could mean throwing away their hard work

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Build on what already exists

Photo by Nancy Kam

ergorodsky

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They don’t understand the reason for change

Photo by Nancy Kam

ergorodsky

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Have a vision for the future state

Evolution vs revolution

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Satir Change Curve/stevenm

smith.com

/ar-satir-change-model/

AVOID CHAOS (unless you need a revolution)

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Kaizen

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Understand the direction of challenge

Grasp the current condition

Establish the next target condition

Experiment towards the target condition

Planning phase Executing phase

Improvement Kata

Because I think [this] is true

I think that doing [this]

will mean [this will happen]

And I will know [like this]

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Photo by Elaine with G

rey Cats

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Telling

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Questioning

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Identifying what to change

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On a regular basis the team get together to reflect on how they work together and find ways to improve

The Agile Retrospective

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Have you been part of a retrospective?within the last 6 months

within the last 3 months

within the last month

within the last 2 weeks

Photo by J Marks D

odds

The 30 second retrospective

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1. What is the vision for your team?

2. What one change can you make towards it? 3. How will you know it’s worked?

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1. What is the vision for your team?

2. What one change can you make towards it? 3. How will you know it’s worked?

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Lots of ideas at retrospectivewiki.org

Some other techniques

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• map out your pain points

• review your blockers

• #retro slack channel

• one to ones

• five whys

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Remember…

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Change is hard

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Understand what direction you are heading in

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use experimentation and the scientific method

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Make small changes

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Get into the habit of experimenting

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Embrace change, don’t brace for change

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Thank you.

Emily Webber @ewebber emilywebber.co.uk / tacitlondon.com