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TRANSCRIPT
CWN - 30 June, 2020
How to CreateHigh Performing Distributed TeamsCWN Online Workshop30 June 2020
Isabella Reggio Riccardo Reggio Monica Mezzacasa
Your speaker and facilitators today, from
the nest321 team
Accomplished advisors, with 20+ years
of consulting experience in strategy and
change and transformation
Apply Lean Agile methodologies to help
clients develop business agility through
training, coaching and advisory services
Learn more at www.nest321.com
Team
Co-Founder & Partner Co-Founder & Partner
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Head of Ops
At nest321 we use the SAFe® Lean Agile Framework
SAFe® - Scaled Agile Framework
● Blends principles, tools and methodologies from established disciplined and bodies of knowledge:
Agile Software Development, Lean Manufacturing, System thinking, DevOPs
● Focus on achieving Business Agility
● Enables the scalability of Agile and Lean to the complexity of enterprises (e.g. it is all good to talk about teams of 5 to 12 people, but what when we are working with hundreds?)
● We provide advisory services, formal classroom training (now remote!), coach teams in working with Lean Agile methodologies, supplement client capacity with additional roles (Scrum Masters, Change
Managers, etc.)
CWN - 30 June, 2020
Learn more at www.nest321.com or contact us at [email protected] or [email protected]
Agenda
01 | Objectives of the session
02 | Context: where are we today
03 | “Lean-Agile”: what is it?
04 | Three techniques and tools
05 | Collaboration session
06 | Q&A and Close
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This document represents nest321 view and is based on our beliefs, opinions and experience. Feel free to disagree and/or challenge this thinking – as long as you do so in a constructive way.
At nest321, we assist companies developing a robust and agile approach to deliver lasting and successful transformation. Get in touch with us, on [email protected] or [email protected], if you wish to discuss this document further or to find out how we can help with any business transformation challenges.
Goal of our session
Geographically dispersed teams can absolutely work and collaborate as if in the same room. Drawing from the Lean Agile toolkit, we will share some easily adoptable approaches and techniques to manage and collaborate with your teams, both on projects or every day activities, and keep them connected and engaged. The goal of this interactive session is to provide some new thinking and equip you with tested techniques distilled in simple and practical tips that you can implement immediately.
For you to walk away with practical techniques that you can use from tomorrow to work effectively with your distributed teams
Objectives of the session
CWN - 30 June, 2020
Currently looking at
consolidating some of its
offices
Remote work - where are we today?
Twitter said employees can work from
home "forever" if they wish.
CEO told staff it was "aggressively
opening up remote hiring" . He expects
half its workforce to work remotely
over the next 5 to 10 years.
New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern
suggested a four-day working week to
help boost the economy and address
work-life balancing.
70,000 staff currently working from
home. A big city office "may be a
thing of the past" said bank CEO Jes
Staley.
Publ
ishe
d W
eek
of 2
2 M
ay 2
020
A four-day working week last year in
Japan deemed a success in terms of
employee feedback and productivity. It
now has a "hybrid workplace strategy"
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Working Configurations Spectrum
100% co-located
Everyone in 1 office
● Different time zones
● Different work arrangements
Groups of
employees across
different offices
100% Distributed
Everyone in a
different location /
at home
Main office with bulk of team and
other satellite locations
Some people in the
office some at home /
remote
In addition: Asynchronous collaboration
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Is this an opportunity?
One way of working for any distributed
configuration
OurHistorical
Norm
OurFuture?
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OurCurrent Reality
Our Current Reality
Is this an opportunity?
● The “new normal”is a hybrid. As things adjust to COVID-19 shock, some new habits will stay
● Distributed teams also provide opportunity to access distributed talent
● Quality of life should be a concern of the enterprise
● We need ONE WAY of collaborating which applies to any team configuration
Our Historical Norm
● Everyone pushed quickly and without notice to 100% distributed
● Days spent on Zoom, fatigue is real
● Talking on video equated with collaboration?
● No commute means more time spent working, though easier access to family at home seems to open new quality of life possibilities
● But “Working from home is not really effective” … or is it?
● Working means being in an office, face to face, every day
● Physical presence = prerequisite for performance
● Show up to the office to prove that work is getting done
● Some level of remote work allowed, as technology has created the opportunity - but it’s the exception, not the norm
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Our Future?
AgileAgile is a way of working which originated in software development. It is based on constant team collaboration and interaction, and short and iterative delivery and learning cycles.
It enables improving speed of execution, adapting to rapid change, and delivering business solutions and their value faster and better.
● It is based on principles and tools (techniques).
● There is structure to these ways of working
● It is widely applied and is transferable to functions and areas outside of software development
Lean
Lean is a set of principles and tools which originated in manufacturing, to support and improve quality and productivity, by reducing waste.
It was developed initially in Toyota during the post-Second World War reconstruction period in Japan, and evolved over time.
● The Lean principles and tools are transferable to and applied widely to business processes
● Continuous improvement, visualisation of work, KPIs and measurement are key within Lean
Collaborative Work Techniques
1 CONNECT
Goal: Collaboration
How: Frequent and focused interaction
Tool: Stand Up meeting
2 ALIGN
Goal: Effectiveness and Transparency
How: Visualise the work
Tool: Kanban Board
3 ENGAGE
Goal: Motivation and Improvement
How: Inspect and Adapt
Tool: Retrospective
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GOAL: Collaboration
TOOL: Stand Up Meeting
1 Connect
Why we do it ● Sets the pace and is the heartbeat of the team● Reduces needs for extra comms (emails, etc.)● Deals with bottle neck and highlights issues
What is it ● Regular and frequent collaboration space● Planning and moving the work forward● Identify impediments, rapid escalation
How does it work Each participant in turn covers:- What have I worked on yesterday- What I am going to work on today- Any impediments I need to escalate
Duration and Frequency ● Approx 1 min. per person, 15 minutes max.● Daily is recommended! Ideally start of day.
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1 Connect: stand up
● Crisp and to the point
● Identifies issues to drive resolution
● Team help each other to support work completion
● Focus on priorities
● Further discussion points are picked up separately
● Conversations drifting
● Becomes a problem solving forum
● 121 dialogues exclude other team members
● “Boss” assigns work
● Lasts longer than 15 min!
● Work discussed and agreed is not visualised (see point 2: Align, and Kanban boards)
● Reliable rhythm for team
● Rapid escalation point
● Expectation for work delivery
● Short term commitments: increased predictability of work delivered
● Reduced emails and extra messaging
● Team level accountability
What good looks like Anti-patterns Benefits
TIP:
Have a facilitator and time keeper for stand up. Record the stand up for team members who could not participate and /or other time zones.
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2 Align
Why we do it ● Creates shared understanding● Supports prioritisation and execution
What is it ● A way to visualize the work
How does it work ● Work activities are organised in “cards”● Cards move across based on completion status (to
do, in progress, done)● All team member “pull”, work on, and move cards
Duration and Frequency
● Continuous and updated in real time● Always accessible by everyone● Visible within and outside of the team
GOAL: Effectiveness and Transparency
TOOL: Kanban Board
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How to visualise the work
Physical Kanban Board Example
2 Align
Digital Kanban Board Example
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2 Align: What happens when ...
● Too much work in progress: lots of started but unfinished work
● We keep adding without taking anything out, team overload and delays in execution
● Unplanned work creeps in undetected
● We don’t know what is the actual workload and is more challenging to assess feasibility
● Shared view of what the team is working on: everyone is on the same page
● Can easily re-prioritise
● Clarity of impact of new requests on existing workload (“if we add this, then this has to move out/ back”)
● Supports in planning a realistic workload
● Keeps the execution focused
● Instant answer to “What is the team working on?”
● Shared accountability
Work is not visualisedWork is visualised
TIP:
Plan your “TO DO” on a short time horizon e.g. 2 weeks. Commit to a bucket of selected activities and focus the team execution on those.
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Learning Topics Brown Bag Lunches Innovation Days Social (quiz, drinks!)Coffee Mornings
3 Engage
… we will talk about Retrospectives
The tools alone are not enough for a healthy team spirit and collaboration
There are many ways to support Team Engagement, including:
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GOAL: Motivation and improvementTOOL: Retrospective
Why we do it ● Continuous learning and improvement● Boosts team spirit and inclusiveness
What is it As a team we take time to reflect on the work done, celebrate achievements, discuss improvement areas and agree on concrete improvement actions
How does it work Requires an environment of psychological safetyTeam members provides input on the past period on:
- What went well- What didn’t go so well- What we can do different
Outcome: actions to do better
Duration and Frequency ● At the end of every planning period (e.g. two weeks)● Approx. 30 min.
3 Engage
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● Openness and trust within the team
● Create an environment of psychological safety, that supports experimentation and potential failure
● Never shoot the messenger
● Follow through on the agreed actions, else we are just going through the motions
Pre-requisites for successful retrospectives
3 Engage: More on retrospective
● Retrospectives are at the heart of Agile practices of
“Inspecting” the work done and “Adapting” with improvements, frequently and concretely
● It is a moment of reflection and learning for the team together, and when well done is a catalyst for
change and generates concrete actions
● Actions from retrospectives should be incorporated in the workload of the next iteration (or working period)
● The focus is not only on technical and process aspects but also - and a lot - on team interaction, behaviours, issues
TIP:Have fun with the teams retrospective!Keep it simple. Change the format to keep it engaging over time
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3 Engage: Retrospective “How to”
There are many ways to run retrospectives, here
is one that we practice and find simple and effective.
Agenda:
● Brainstorming: Everyone adds their own text/ post it (5 min.)
● Review and clarification (10 min)
● Agreement on action for the next period and add to the plan: it becomes part of the work! (15 min.)
Note: improvement actions include full range, from behavioural to technical Format
example
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But the big question is ...
How quickly and easily can a distributed team collaborate?
LET’S TRY IT NOW :-)
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Exercise:
collaboration on
Mural in zoom
breakout rooms, all
participants can
access Mural via a
link shard in the
Zoom chat.
“You will discover hot to construct
retrospectives in general, how to
design them specifically for your
team and organisation, how to
make them run effectively, how to
make any necessary changes, and
how to scale these techniques. This
will help you find and fix problems,
address people issued as well as
technical ones, usen tools proven in
the real world.”
This book is all about visualising the
work, in simple and effective ways.
By doing that we can identify the
"five thieves of time" and improve
effectiveness and quality of work
and life. Includes exercises,
takeaways, examples, visual
diagrams. Written in an easy going
style, I recommend it to everyone
and especially if just starting with
Agile and Kanban boards. Isabella
Some recommended readings
During the presentation, you saw the nest321 team using these collaboration tools (software):
TRELLO - we use it for our Kanban board and work planning https://www.atlassian.com/software/trello
MURAL - in the session we used it to demonstrate the retrospective and for the collaboration exercise with participants. We use Mural extensively on our remote training, for remote workshops, and for collaboration in many different ways
https://www.mural.co/
There are several valid tools available in the market with very similar if not same functionalities, from very simple to very sophisticated. We are not promoting any specific software, and the choice should be made on your specific needs, sometimes dependent on your business policies. If you work in a corporation / enterprise, it is highly likely that similar tools are already available to you.
For example: MICROSOFT TEAMS incorporates an application called Planner, which can be used for Kanban boards similarly to Trello. Also, Trello is one of the standard integrations of Teams. Or, the GOOGLE SUITE provides opportunities for online collaboration. Similar to Mural, MIRO is an alternative whiteboard tool which is very valid and visually appealing.
We have tested and used several softwares and if you wish to have a specific conversation on this topic, please contact us.
Collaboration tools / softwares
