As part of the National Theatre’s move to the cloud, the Operations Team looked to see what else they could do differently. Talking about embracing the change, George Tunnicliffe speaks about the culture, maximising the benefits of the change and creating a new delivery model for the team. With real-world examples and some of those lessons learned, this talk is part story, part informational and all actual about doing things differently and learning along the way!

1. National Theatre
x Cloud

2. National Theatre – What are we?
Worldwide, there were 7.8 million engagements with us in 2016-17 through live theatre and events, NT
Live broadcasts, television and radio broadcasts, learning and participation activity, and interactions with
in-depth digital content.
NT Live now broadcasts productions to 2,500 screens in 60 countries, including over 650 screens across
the UK from Penzance to the Shetland Islands.
Our New Work Department has around 200 projects in development, and receives around 1,500 open-
submission scripts in their mailbag every year.
1.Over 3,500 people worked at the National Theatre in 2016-17 - from actors, to ushers, to administrative
staff. In fact, we are technically one of the largest factories in central London, with hundreds of skilled
craftspeople, practitioners and artists working together to produce world-class theatre.

3. What is the
National
Theatre
Operations
Team?
Multi disiplinary
A friendly diverse
culture
Covers Service Desk,
Projects, Infrastructure
and Project Support
A nice group of people
to work with
Has multiple
stakeholders including
the performances
themselves

4. What did we want to do?
Use the change of moving cloud to empower a
new way of supporting an institution using a single
devolved motivated team

5. A New Way To
Work…post
“Cloud”
• What do we get back from ‘Cloud’?
• Time?
• Budget format – change Cap-Ex to Op-Ex
• Additional budget – How do we manage this?
• Resources?
• Remove the barriers –
• No more Teams/Silos/Pockets/Stealth IT
• Share the knowledge
• Let someone else have a go
• If you don’t do this, what else can you do?
• Rearrange the desks, break the mindset
• Break away from the tools
• Be dynamic – the task, not the time
• What works for us?
• Where is the control?

6. The Kubler-
Ross Change
Curve
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth., and David Kessler. On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. New York ;
Toronto: Scribner, 2005.

7. The Blended
Approach • Blending methodology of
people, systems and things
using a culture. No one system,
person, service or thing is more
important (in general…!)

8. Introducing a Team Culture
We have a Growth* mindset
Learning from others, and learning
from your own mistakes, so you can
move quickly and find the right path
forward. Even the expert can be
wrong.
We do Knowledge sharing
Share what you learn so that others
might benefit
We are a Change culture
One thing in IT never changes and
that is that IT is always changing
* Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Paperback –
December 26, 2007 by Carol S. Dweck

9. Blended Approach – Tools
• KanBan Style – MS Planner for leadership
• Allows a mix of in progress and backlog
• Balance and tracking
• At a glance review – Public viewing
• Agile Style – Liquid Planner for delivery
• Manage day to day priorities
• Manager completion and effort tracking

10. Blended
Approach –
People
An understanding that Team is first
Delivery is non-linear, the person at
the start may not be at the end
What skills do you bring, what do you
want to gain?
Tickets AND Projects – tickets are the
work, projects are the motivation

11. Blended
Approach –
Maximising
use of Cloud
Platforms
As-A-Service used reduce
operational load
Understand the responsibilities of
support partners – Capacity
Management, Patch Management,
Break/Fix
Integrate redundancy to remove
immediate requirements
Integration of platform supported
processes to teams – remove manual
effort

12. What did we
learn?
• Use ‘The Dr Pepper Analogy’ –
What's the worst that can
happen?
• Diverse teams drive diverse
ideas
• People are motivated by varied
workloads
• Thinking unclean - Change is not
a clean process
• People find giving up
responsibility difficult
• When given freedom people,
rise to the occasion
• Using phrases in repetition
supports the thinking –
“teamwork makes the dream
work” and “4Ps”

13. Where next?
Drinks on Stand P404 with Navisite