Psychologically Safe Process Evolution in a Flat Structure

Psychologically Safe Process
Evolution in a Flat Structure
Chris Lucian
@ChristophLucian

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Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
process-evolution-flat-structure/

Presented at QCon New York
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Purpose of QCon
- to empower software development by facilitating the spread of
knowledge and innovation
Strategy
- practitioner-driven conference designed for YOU: influencers of
change and innovation in your teams
- speakers and topics driving the evolution and innovation
- connecting and catalyzing the influencers and innovators
Highlights
- attended by more than 12,000 delegates since 2007
- held in 9 cities worldwide

The environment today
• Processes come and go as needed
• Innovation happens regularly
• Safety is a prerequisite
Twitter: @ChristophLucian Web: www.ChrisLucian.com

Where we started

Mob Programming

From the mob to
the Flat Structure

Establishing A Safe
Environment

Complacency & Status quo

Teams & Forming Storming Norming

Satir Change
Model

Diffusion of
Innovation

The InfoQ
trends chart
is a Diffusion
of innovation
bell curve!

Critical Mass of
Early Adopters

Kindness Consideration
Respect

Vulnerability
Trust and
Appreciation

Psychological Safety
• being able to show and
employ one's self without
fear of negative
consequences of self-image,
status or career

Holding Space

Establishing Safety

Flat
Structure
Decision
Making

Decentralization
of decision
making

Encourage new ideas
to emerge, and treat
them like experiments

Learning
Sessions

Retrospectives as
experiments

The
Virtuous
Cycle

Reflection on Patterns

Decide how to remove
a bad process.
(Examples to follow)

Emerging Ideas,
Experimentation,
Nurturing

Decentralize the
process and avoid
deferring to “the
bosses' ideas”

League of
Interested
Individuals
or
H.O.A

How we decide with the complexity of interpersonal networks

When it falls down

Evolutionary Algorithms
• HOA/LII
• 8 teams = 8 population
• Goal Setting
• 27 people = 27
population
• Complex adaptive system?

Let it
fracture but
have
common
interfaces

Patterns, Antipatterns,
Successes, and Failures

Pattern: Peer reviewed Goal Setting

Pattern: Use the Emergencies
to create passionate change

Pattern: Lofty Goals

Pattern: Make failures common,
inexpensive, and informative

Pattern:
Inclusivity &
Sharing
Credit

Pattern:
Frequent
Experimentation

Pattern: Everything on
wheels

Antipattern: Management
Kanban

Antipattern:
Exclusive meeting
invites

Antipattern:
Inappropriate
Gamification

Antipattern:
Software Task
Estimation

Antipattern:
Practice
Envy

Antipattern:
Low Frequency
Contact with
Critical
Relationships

Antipattern: Prolonged
feeling of inequity

Escape complacency in your
organization by allowing the good
ideas to flourish and removing the
bad ones from your processes

Transparency, Results, Consistency
Twitter: @ChristophLucian Web:
www.ChrisLucian.com

Feed them what
they enjoy eating.
• To influence non technical people being
data driven can backfire
• Find the publications they trust
• Find and deliver supporting articles
• Propose and run experiments suggested
by their favorites showing that you are
getting ideas from a “credible source”

Third party
practices audit

Second order effects have
$$ tied to them

Terms to research. Take a picture of this slide!
Satir Change
Model
Diffusion of
Innovation
Psychological
Safety
Agile
Retrospectives
Mob
Programming
Open Space
Technologies
Radical
Candor
Evolutionary
Algorithms

Thank You!
Key Takeaway
• Make your process iterative and
iterate quickly!
More on everything I am
interested in at
www.ChrisLucian.com
Today we Learned how to:
• Establish a safe environment
• Encourage new and experiments
• Decentralize the process
• Identify good and bad patterns
• Escape complacency

Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
process-evolution-flat-structure/

Psychologically Safe Process Evolution in a Flat Structure

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