fixing the people people: soft skills that lead to successful teams
DESCRIPTION
The biggest root cause for project failure is people. While processes and tools can contribute, people are at the center of it all providing sub 40% success rates. To address the problem, we need to fix people – or at least how they interact and communicate. Newer project paradigms promote individuals collaborating and constantly interacting to respond to change as key contributors to success, providing higher success rates of meeting time, scope, AND schedule. Applying the Virginia Satir communication model provides a strong framework to drive better interaction, team engagement, and potential for success.TRANSCRIPT
Fixing the People Problem: Soft Skills that Lead to Successful Teams
Troy Bitter
October 2013
Introducing Troy Bitter
• Senior Manager Consultant @ Sogeti
• Nearly 2 decades in IT, predominantly project management
• Over 7 years of experience applying tonight’s techniques
• Involved in local project management and agile communities
• PMI Director for PMI-ACP training
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Abstract
The biggest root cause for project failure is people. While processes and tools can contribute, people are at the center of it all providing sub 40% success rates. To address the problem, we need to fix people – or at least how they interact and communicate. Newer project paradigms promote individuals collaborating and constantly interacting to respond to change as key contributors to success, providing higher success rates of meeting time, scope, AND schedule. Applying the Virginia Satir communication model provides a strong framework to drive better interaction, team engagement, and potential for success.
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Contents
Results
• Empowering teams to their full potential • Trust through engagement • Soft skills that directly contribute to team success
Focus
• Explain why effective interactions are so critical to project success
• List the 5 Freedoms of the Satir model • Identify behaviors that can transform
teams from good to great
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Group Time: What is a Team?
Describe
• They sink or swim together
• No one person is more valuable then the next
• The team is flat versus a traditional hierarchical structure
Benefits
• Strong commitment to one another and the common goal
• Minimizes politics and maximizes communication
• Teams become more efficient over time
• Cross training
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Supporting Paradigms Agile Manifesto
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Communication over process NOT communication
without process
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Working software is more important than excessive
documentation NOT there is no need for
documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Customers working with developers to address a
business need NOT developers satisfying a
contractual obligation
Responding to change over following a plan
Adapting to change NOT failing to plan
Interactions means communication.
Communication & Soft skills from
tech people?
Collaboration / people working
together requires communication
Change needs to be communicated
Working software is built in
collaboration
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What if we applied with low emphasis on interactions & communication?
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Have you ever felt like a cog in the machine?
Decisions made (good or bad) without input or interaction
Code what you are told to code
Run these tests
Check this checklist
Unintended Consequences
Lower Creativity
Less Ownership
Diminished Morale
Loss of Productivity Sounds like faster waterfall
Those consequences don’t align with team – more ownership provides improved creativity and increased productivity. All of this positively affects morale.
Table Time: Communication Challenges
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Have you been to the Land of Assumptions?
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He just got a call that his wife went into labor. He needs to get to the hospital now. How does this context change your reaction?
Someone cut you off
You are driving down the expressway. Some maniac is speeding, cuts you off, and ‘almost caused an accident.’
How do you react?
Have you been to the Land of Quick Interpretation?
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Code Migration Quality
The code was migrated to the test environment. It appears that a lot isn’t working.
Let’s listen to the conversation with Tom the Tester and Dave the Developer.
Yes interactions should occur, but this interaction may not be optimal
Have you been to the Land of Must Be Right?
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Working Software
Requirement: Quantity is numeric within 1-35.
Solution Provided: Quantity is a drop down list of values 1-35. We thought it would be a text field or spin control that only accepted numeric values within the range.
Yes interactions should occur, but unsure if this was an effective use of time
Have you been to the Land of Silence?
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Unsure or Quiet Person Built a customized navigation bar for an application. It had scalability issues and other challenges after production launch. In the production triage meeting, James mentions a Google toolkit control that we could use. Offline, I learned that he had this idea during the original project but felt like no one would consider it – ‘decision was made.’
Need an environment that people feel comfortable contributing ideas,
not just hands on keyboards
5 Freedoms of Satir Model The freedom to see and hear what is here, instead of
what should be, was, or will be
The freedom to say what you feel and think, instead of what you should
The freedom to feel what you feel, instead of what you ought to
The freedom to ask for what you want, instead of always waiting for permission
The freedom to take risks on your own behalf, instead of choosing to be only “secure” and not rocking the boat
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Table Time: Learning through Sharing
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5 Freedoms of Satir Model – In Action N
D
M
The freedom to see and hear what is here
The freedom to feel what you feel
The freedom to say what you feel and think R
The freedom to ask for what you want
J
The freedom to take risks on your own
behalf
From Philosophy to Behaviors
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How do we turn a philosophy into behaviors?
Congruent behaviors are a core concept in the Satir model. The ability to be aware of and fully value the many dimensions of your self, others, and the contexts in which you work and relate.
Congruence
Clear communication 3 C’s of communication What is Done
Cooperation rather than competition My idea doesn’t have to win Inquiry over advocacy Quicker decision making
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Congruence (continued)
Empowerment rather than subjugation Increased ownership More creativity
Uniqueness rather than categorization Work on things I’m good at (fit) Higher quality
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Congruence (and some more) Use of authority to guide and accomplish "what fits," rather than forced compliance, tyranny or power
Carrot vs stick management. MBWA instead of MBF More leading, less managing
Being personally and socially responsible Responsible for interactions Responsible for intangibles like maintainability
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To use problems as challenges and opportunities for creative solutions
Keep moving forward thinking
Summary
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