collaboration: insights, methods, and practice

COLLABORATIONI n s i g h t s , M e t h o d s , P r a c t i c e

W I L L E V A N S / / N O R T H A M E R I C A , S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

BOUNDARIES

● Be on time

● No laptops or cellphones. Period.

● Respect each other

● Write questions on post-its and save for the end of the session

● What happens in this room, stays in this room

● That goes for us as well

● No laptops or cellphones.

We are seeing a transition from process-defined work, where tightly defined rules and narrowly constrained roles shape people’s working lives, and organize the company culture into a collective mindset, toward relationship-framed work, where people use creativity, innovation, and connection to determine how to accomplish increasingly nonroutine work, and where we see a shift to fast-and-loose cooperation from tight-and-slow collaboration.

- Stowe Boyd

“

”

SPEAKINGRate Yourself 1-5

1. I mostly listen

2. I talk when I am asked to

3. I talk in most meetings

4. I talk first

5. I interrupt other people

EXPLAIN YOURSELF

What skills do you bring to a team?

You had a business problem, which was actually a culture problem.

You licensed some collaboration software.

Now you have three problems.

SCHEIN’S 3 LEVELS OF CULTURE

What you see and hear

ARTEFACTS

ESPOUSEDVALUES

SHARED, TACIT ASSUMPTIONS,

STORIES, TABOOS

“Culture theatre”

+ Situational Forces

Actual essence of culture

G E N E R A T E S

Let’s be more explicit:Technology can’t solve culture/systems problems.

Examples of Failure*: Knowledge ManagementEnterprise SocialEnterprise Learning Mgmt Systems

* Failure defined as programs that achieve business outcomes less than 20% of the time, less than 10% adoption.

PURPOSE, PROCESS, PEOPLE

❏ Purpose: What customer problems are we trying to solve to grow the business? What is the value? Where is the target?

❏ Process: How will the organization assess each major value stream to make sure we’re maximizing optionality while decreasing waste?

❏ People: How do we empower people to own the process, own the work, and be constantly learning? How can everyone touching the value stream be actively engaged collaboratively to improve the system?

“True collaborative assumes shared responsibility, shared ownership, and boosts

creativity and learning.”–Ester Derby

D E S I G N T H I N K I N G

COLLABORATION

WHAT IS COLLABORATION?

The cooperative behavior of a team empowered to solve a clear and meaningful problem, such that the capabilities of the team are leveraged in addition to the collection of individual talents to solve a problem – and deliver value.

This is accomplished through rigorous dialogical* practices among team members.

* Fancy word meaning conversation.

DOUBLE DIAMOND

2

3

EXPLORE PROBLEMS

PROBLEM SETTING

LEARN

SUCCESS

PAIN

1

SELECT

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

PROBLEMFRAMING

PROBLEM DISCOVERY

EXPLORE CONCEPTS

EXPERIMENT

LEARN

“The Double Diamond: Strategy + Execution of the Right Solution” http://buff.ly/1TGRfX2

DOUBLE DIAMOND

ExplorationWe have problemsWhat is the context?Who is impacted?Where is the value?

Id eationI have an opportunity for designHow do I make sense of the data?What are our options?What would better look like?

Experimen tationI have an interesting solutionWhat is the smallest experiment I could run?How will we know things are getting better?How do I scale the solution?

DOUBLE DIAMOND

ACTIVITY

Methods

EXPLORE

Research

SELECT

Synthesis

EXPERIMENT

Ideation

SELECT & SCALE

Execution

A B

Solving the right problems Solving problems the right way

WE KNOW

Should Be

WE GUESS

Could Be

Inspired by "How to apply a design thinking, HCD, UX or any creative process from scratch," http://buff.ly/1P0yezT

NOT TOOLS, NOT SOFTWARE

Collaboration isn’t about using tools (though some tools can support and enhance your collaboration).

Collaboration isn’t about management techniques like timeboxed meetings(though good meeting management is an excellent tool).

WHY IMPROVE COLLABORATION

• To create a competitive advantage. Organizations have to work collaboratively, and do it well, to succeed in today’s environment.

• To create a context for team success. Teams and other collaborative structures have a much better chance of success if the organization is designed to support collaboration.

• To promote lateral integration and alignment.

• To better connect to your environment. Continual links to the environment create awareness of the need to change to survive and thrive.

• To increase flexibility. The ability to collaborate provides flexibility to meet the needs of the environment (including customers), which improves the success and longevity of the organization.

VALUE STREAM

A B C D+ + + =

V a l u e S t r e a m

SYSTEMS THINKING

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

1 1 4 4 3 3 1 1

h i g h e r t h r o u g h p u t

FIRST DELIVERY OF VALUE TO CUSTOMER

FIRST DELIVERY OF VALUE TO CUSTOMER

INCREASED COGNITIVE LOAD SWITCHING COST

Flow efficiency

How long did we actually spend

working on it?

10 TO 20 TIMES

LONGERTypical organizations take

to deliver something than they actually spent working on it

How long does it take to deliver a

piece of work?

FOUR QUESTIONS - TOC

For an organization to have a process of on-going improvement, certain basic questions need to be answered faster and more effectively.

These are:

1. Why Change?

2. What should we change?

3. What should we change to?

4. How do we implement the change?

DIVERGENCE

Silently, on a post-it, describe a problem you have at work which you believe leads to poor collaboration. It can be a process problem, people problem, customer problem, or technology problem.

Contraints:• 3-5 words

• All Caps

• Legible from 10ft away.

10 minutes

SHARE YOUR PROBLEM

Everyone, get up and place the problems on the white board. Spend the next 10 minutes trying to cluster the problems based on similarity.

Make sure that everyone explains what was on their post-its, what they mean, and how they impact work.

10 minutes

“The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.”

BREAK INTO GROUPS OF TWO

Find your pair…

Identify one problem or cluster of problems that you want to work on with your co-worker.

5 minutes

GENERATE OPTIONS

As a pair, generate at least 4 options you believe might solve for the problems you experience at work.

These options might increase your ability to collaborate, decrease queues at work, decrease handoffs, decrease siloed thinking.

Only 1 of the 4 options should require a technology solution.

5 minutes

CONVERGENCE

• Choose the one option you believe is most likely to solve your problem. The one option you believe you could try in the next week.

• Re-write, as clearly as possible, your potential solution (option).

5 minutes

THINK-PAIR-SQUARE – ROUND ONE

Each group stand-up and evenly place yourselves around the room.

Make sure you are still with your pair.

Now choose one person to present your concept to another pair (next to you). One person presents, the other simply listens. You have 1 minute.

Other team (listen carefully).

5 minutes

REFLECT

Now, opposite team, choose a spokesperson.

Repeat after me, “What I heard you say was…” and repeat back the idea or option you heard from the first team. First team, take any notes about what you hear.

Now swap and do it again.

Second team, pick a spokesperson, and present your idea in 1 minute.

5 minutes

THINK-PAIR-SQUARE – ROUND TWO

Find another “Pair,” to share your idea with.

Now… Hand your idea (on the post-it) to the other team. They can ask NO Questions. They have 1 minute to present your idea (on your post-it).

Now, the other team presents the first team’s idea/concept.

5 minutes

REFLECT

What did you find interesting about what just happened?

REFLECT

What did it feel like hearing a person repeat your idea back to you?

REFLECT

What was it like to hear someone present your idea without your help?

REFLECT

Does it ever happen that you receive work from upstream that feels like what just happened?

TIP 1: PAIR – SWAP - SOLVE

Some ideas:

1. Find one ‘upstream’ and one ‘downstream’ partner at work. Upstream means you receive work from them. Downstream means you deliver work to them.

2. “Try” to swap roles with them through pairing on at least one task flow (steps in a process to achieve some outcome).

TIP 2: EMAIL POLICY

Second Email Rule: After 2 emails, call “time” and immediately get on the phone. Never let an email chain extend beyond 2 emails.

Start by clarifying the “problem,” – not the “ask.”

Remember this:

Face-2-Face > Phone > IM > Everything Else > Email*

* Email is the most passive aggressive platform for communication. Treat it with care.

TIP 3: COLLABORATE FIRST POLICY

Every time a new work task, project, email, anything needs to get done:

1. Identify WHO you could collaborate with on it.

2. Ask for help from someone that knows less than you do.

3. Colocate (scrum) to get that one thing done together.

4. Always try to use “yes, and…” instead of “yes, but...”

5. Technology as last resort. Face to face as first option.

SOME PRINCIPLES OF COLLABORATION

1. Focus on Customer Value

2. Collaboration is a Capability

3. Promote High Standards of Discussion & Sharing

4. Design Thinking both Problems & Solutions

5. Articulate Boundaries, Policies, and Rules (as little as possible)

6. Change the System to Support Collaboration

7. Align Systems to Promote Ownership

A FEW INTERESTING THINGS TO READ:

Promiscuous Pairing and Beginner’s Mind: Embrace Inexperience

Collaboration: More than Facilitated Meetings

Learn the Basics of Collaborative Work Systems

Lean and Agile Financial Planning

Organizational Culture and Leadership

[Goldratt teaches] that every problem is a conflict, and that conflicts arise because we create them by believing at least one erroneous assumption. Thus, simply by thinking about the assumptions that enforce the existence of a conflict, we should be able to resolve any conflict by evaporating it with the power of our thinking.

Evaporating Cloud

PICK A PROBLEM

Choose a problem / moral dilemma you had where there is some core conflict about what should or needs to be done.

Ideally the conflict was between yourself (or your team), and another person.

Theory of Constraints Thinking Process Tools• Managing Change

• Logic Basics

• Categories of Legitimate Reservation

• Four Pillars

Evaporating Cloud• Overview

• Step-by-Step

• Example

• Process Tips

MANAGING CHANGE

• Why Change?

• What to Change?

• What to Change to?

• How to ‘Cause’ the Change?

4 KEY QUESTIONS IN THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS

Necessity Based Logic ← Evaporating Cloud“In order to achieve A, B must be true”“In order to reach our goal, certain factors need to be met.”

Sufficiency Based LogicIf X and Y, then ZX and Y together are sufficient or enough to cause Z

TWO SIMPLE FORMS OF LOGIC

Using the categories of legitimate reservation can be expressed in an effective and constructive way

Level 1: CLARITY RESERVATION: Are the statements clear?

Level 2: ENTITY RESERVATION: Do the entities existCAUSALITY EXISTENCE RESERVATION: Is the cause and effect relationship plausible?

Level 3: CAUSE INSUFFICIENCY: Are the causes sufficient to cause the effect?ADDITIONAL CAUSE: Is there some other cause adding to the effect?PREDICTED CAUSE: If the cause is true, then what else would youexpect to see? CAUSE-EFFECT REVERSAL: Are the cause and effect going in theright direction?TAUTOLOGY RESERVATIONS: Are the cause and effect just stating the same thing?

CATEGORIES OF LEGITIMATE RESERVATION

1. Not everything is as complex as your might first believe, but first you must visualize the conflict

2. Most conflicts can be resolved if they are diagrammed and you expose all the assumptions between conflicting actions

3. Most conflicts have a potential for a win-win situation

4. Every situation can be improved if you understand the problem

4 PILLARS OF THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS

First: people must actually want to solve a dilemma. Use of tools like evaporating cloud assume that the conflict isn’t, in fact, the goal of one or both parties.

• A cloud is an elegant graphical means of displaying and solving an apparent conflict or dilemma between two actions. It is also sometimes known as a conflict resolution diagram; however, its correct name is an evaporating cloud.

• Apparent conflicts that do arise and which we do want to solve are likely to be of two types:

1. OPPOSITE CONDITIONS: Conditions that are mutually exclusive.

2. DIFFERENT ALTERNATIVES: Conditions that preclude one another.

EVAPORATING CLOUD

“We can’t solve a problem by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Einstein

1. Frame the problem by taking both sides of the conflict into account

2. Surface all the assumptions that must hold true for causal links to be validated

3. Challenge assumptions until a win-win solution is found

EVAPORATING CLOUD

So let’s unpack the structure of the cloud.

We construct a cloud out of 5 entities

1. The first is a common objective which we must satisfy or achieve

2. In order to satisfy the common objective it is necessary we fulfill two needs

3. In order to satisfy the needs, it is necessary that we fulfill two wants

4. However, the two wants are in conflict with each other.

BUILDING A CLOUD

EXAMPLE CLOUD

Common Objective

BUSINESS THAT YIELD HIGH

PROFITS

A

Customer Service Focus

Cost Focus

MAINTAIN HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

B

ENSURE LOW COST OF RESOURCES AND

INVENTORY

C

MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY ON ALL

RESOURCES

D

DO NOT MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY OF

RESOURCES

D’

EXAMPLE CLOUD

Common Objective

BUSINESS THAT YIELD HIGH

PROFITS

A

Customer Service Focus

Cost Focus

MAINTAIN HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

B

ENSURE LOW COST OF RESOURCES AND

INVENTORY

C

MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY ON ALL

RESOURCES

D

DO NOT MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY OF

RESOURCES

D’

necessary?

necessary?

necessary?

necessary?

EXAMPLE CLOUD

necessary?

Common Objective

BUSINESS THAT YIELD HIGH

PROFITS

A

MAINTAIN HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

B

ENSURE LOW COST OF RESOURCES AND

INVENTORY

C

MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY ON ALL

RESOURCES

D

DO NOT MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY OF

RESOURCES

D’

necessary?

necessary?

necessary?

Blocker?

EXAMPLE CLOUD

List all assumptions that make D necessary to

achieve need B

List all assumptions that make D’ necessary to

achieve need C

Common Objective

BUSINESS THAT YIELD HIGH

PROFITS

A

Customer Service Focus

Cost Focus

MAINTAIN HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

B

ENSURE LOW COST OF RESOURCES AND

INVENTORY

C

MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY ON ALL

RESOURCES

D

DO NOT MAINTAIN EXCESS CAPACITY OF

RESOURCES

D’

PICK A PROBLEM

Choose a problem / moral dilemma you had where there is some core conflict about what should or needs to be doneas it relates to collaborating better across your organization, either upstream or downstream...

Now diagram that conflict as an evaporating cloud.

1. Start with the opposing side first and draw your cloud without them.

2. Write out what you think their D’ is first, then their C

3. Write out what your D and B are next.

4. Try to imagine a shared objective, write that out

5. Make sure that D’ and D are in conflict

6. Ask, “Does D block C?”

7. Then ask, “Does D’ block B?”(Block means prevent the causal chain from happening)

8. Then list all assumptions that connect the causal chain between D and B

9. List all assumptions that have to be true for D’ to cause C

10. Check assumptions (validate/disprove)

10 STEPS TO EVAPORATING THE CLOUD

THANKSW ill Evan sChief Design OfficerSemantic Foundry will@semanticfoundry.com