1. there is no talent shortage
Andrew Clay Shafer
Cloud Foundry Summit SF 2014

2. perfunctory
introduction

3. @littleidea

4. buckle up
keep your arms and legs
inside the ride at all times
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spatch/4630771984/

5. eyes on the road

6. meanwhile...

7. software kept eating the world

8. the past

9. you can either easily manage
complex systems at scale...
or you can’t

10. the rise of devops

11. INFRASTRUCTURE
IS
CODE

12. automate
all the things!!!

14. forward

15. what this talk is not about

16. talent is not necessary

17. talent is not desirable

18. talent is not an advantage

20. we can’t hire the right people

21. we can’t find talent

22. A WAR FOR TALENT!

23. FAIL

24. define ‘talent’

25. talent
a special ability that allows someone to do something well

26. assume talent exists

27. is talent finite?

28. can talent be attracted?
created?
cultivated?

29. ‘talent seeks talent’

30. ‘talent begets talent’

32. the plot

33. software kept eating the world

34. software kept eating the world??

35. 3rd Platform is eating the world
"transforming the way people and businesses relate to technology".

36. Conway’s Law
organizations which design systems...
are constrained to produce designs which are copies of
the communication structures of these organizations

37. how many put as much effort into
designing their culture as they do
their applications and systems?

38. ‘culture eats strategy’

39. define ‘culture’

40. culture
a way of thinking, behaving, or working
that exists in a place or organization

41. culture
the act of developing the intellectual and
moral faculties, especially by education

42. the origin of the word

43. culture is strategy

44. we talk about culture
like culture is a checkbox on a list

45. we talk about culture
then abstract everything into boxes with labels

46. we talk about culture
then hire based on a laundry list of buzzwords

47. dev ops
we reduce people to their jobs

48. we talk ‘around’ culture
‘commitment’ ‘values’
‘vision’ ‘motivation’

49. do we cultivate culture?

50. Conway’s
It’s not just a good idea... it’s the law

51. we are in the middle of
inventing our culture.
--Patty McCord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3e1lnixKBM

52. The real company values, as opposed to
the nice sounding values, are shown by
who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.
--Patty McCord

54. prologue

55. time for the real talk

56. Section I
The game has changed

57. never thought of myself as a developer

58. though I was paid to develop

59. never thought of myself as a sysadmin

60. though I was paid to run systems

61. never thought of myself as a manager

62. though I was paid to manage

63. I did whatever I could for companies

64. at the level I was empowered

65. I want to win

67. I am fascinated with the
dynamics of performance

68. fascinated with the
dynamics of high
performing organizations

69. fascinated with the
psychology and behavior of
high performing individuals

70. what is a master?

71. a master

72. mentally and physically unprepared for reality real talk

73. the game had changed

74. In the 1960s, GM averaged a 48.3%
share of the U.S. car and truck market

75. the game had changed
real talk

76. the game has changed

77. It is not necessary to change.
Survival is not mandatory.
- W. Edwards Deming

78. Gratuitous Diversion
game theory

79. the game has changed?
what does that mean?

80. the payoffs for a given
strategy has changed

81. Game Theory
the study of mathematical models of conflict and
cooperation between intelligent rational decisions makers

82. Rational
choosing to maximize a utility function

83. Nash Equilibrium
no players have anything to gain by
changing only their own strategy unilaterally.

84. Pareto Efficiency
an allocation of resources in which it is
impossible to make any one individual better off
without making at least one individual worse off

85. Pareto Inefficient Nash Equilibrium
possible to make an individual better off
without making any individual worse off
but no one will change their strategy

86. Pareto Inefficient Nash Equilibrium
until the game changes

87. Pareto Inefficient Nash Equilibrium
what are you trying to maximize?
what are the payoffs for a given strategy?

88. Section II
the makings of the learnings

89. I’ve seen a lot.

90. And I’ve paid attention.

91. I’ve seen a good bit...
applications infrastructures
cultures
agile
devops
success failure

92. Is there a pattern?

93. Auspicious Learning?

94. Success and Failure is highly
correlated with the degree of
‘Organizational Learning’

95. 7 dimensions of
Organizational Learning

96. 7 dimensions of Organizational Learning
• continuous learning
• inquiry and dialog
• team learning
• empowerment
• embedded system
• system connection
• strategic leadership

97. continuous learning
represents an organization’s effort to create continuous
learning opportunities for ALL of its members

98. inquiry and dialog
an organization’s effort in creating a culture of
questioning, feedback, and experimentation

99. team learning
spirit of collaboration and the collaborative skills
that undergird the effective use of teams

100. empowerment
encourage feedback and action to address the gap between
the current status and the vision regardless of rank

101. embedded system
establish systems to capture and share learning

102. system connection
actions to connect the organization to its
internal and external environment

103. strategic leadership
the extent to which leaders act strategically
using learning to create change

104. how would we measure
these dimensions?

105. Funny you should ask...

106. dimensions of the learning
organization questionnaire (DLOQ)
Behold!
Watkins and Marsick

107. In my organization?
form of questions

108. In my organization,
people openly discuss mistakes
in order to learn from them

109. In my organization,
people identify skills they
need for future work tasks

110. In my organization,
people are encouraged to
ask “why” regardless of rank

111. In my organization,
groups focus both on the group’s task
and on how well the group is working

112. My organization builds
alignment of visions across
different levels and work groups

113. how powerful would it be if
those weren’t questions?

114. In my organization!
form of statements

115. and not just is words and spirit
but deliberately incentivized
if they are not incentivized, they won’t be real

117. The learning organization is one that has
the capacity to integrate people and
structures in order to move toward
continuous learning and change.

118. learning cannot be something that
happens outside of the process
learning is the point of the process

119. continuous
learning

120. cultivate sharing

121. cultivate individuals

122. a learning organization not only has the
advantage of the increasing capacity of
cultivated talents, but has advantages
attracting and retaining talent

124. epilogue

125. this is an amazing time

126. software keeps eating

127. you are either building a
software business...
or you will be losing
to someone who is...

128. this has become obvious

129. you are either building a
learning organization...
or you will be losing
to someone who is...

131. the game has changed

132. come at me
@littleidea

133. Resources
• Netflix - culture unleashed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3e1lnixKBM
• dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire (DLOQ) - http://www.partnersforlearning.com/questions2.asp
• Maverick - the worlds most unusual workplace - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_(book)
• The Fifth Discipline - The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline
• Organizational Learning Culture's Influence on Job Satisfaction... - http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/53624/1/Hsu_umn_0130E_10474.pdf
• Yang, B. (2003). Identifying valid and reliable measures for dimensions of a learning culture. Advances in Developing Human Resources
• Fred Ettish - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5maknndsas
• the lessons of vasa http://faculty.up.edu/lulay/failure/vasacasestudy.pdf
• Gossamer Condor