There is no team more productive than a healthy, engaged team. Unfortunately, some organizations still use bottom line metrics to drive performance, which typically hurt more than they help. In this talk we’ll focus on an alternative approach to fostering a great working environment, looking at how we can leverage Spotify’s “Squad Health Check Model” and Patrick Hanlon’s “Primal Branding” to build strong foundations and feedback mechanisms that set the stage for high-performance Agile Teams. Daniel Tardif

1. Measuring Team Happiness
A Real-Life Journey of Fostering an Engaging Working Environment

2. Daniel Tardif
 Practice Agile Coach
 Support over 100 professionals at TEKsystems Global
Services’ Montreal Innovation Centre
 B.Eng from the University of Ottawa in 2005
 MBA from HEC Montréal in 2013
 PMI-ACP, ICP-ACC, PSM, and ITIL
 Military Brat
 Lived in Québec, Ontario, Germany, Chile
 Video Games
 My Dog!

3. HenryFord
The Cause Of -- And Solution To -- All Of Our
Software Development Problems!

4. Invented the assembly line…
“Hours upon hours of performing the same,
mindless task was very difficult for the workers
to accept. Morale was often low.”
“Many workers faded mentally on the assembly
line because the workplace allowed for no
individuality or change.”
Seemed to understand Agile…
"Many people are busy trying to find better
ways of doing things that should not have to be
done at all.There is no progress in merely
finding a better way to do a useless thing.“
“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted,
they’d have said a faster horse.”

5. WhatDoWe
WantTo Talk
AboutToday?
 What about Team Happiness?
 Our experiments - Some Tools for Team Happiness
 eNPS
 Start With Why
 Squad Health Check
 Primal Branding
 The Secret Ingredient

6. What’s all this now
about Team Happiness?
I just want my team to get things done!
Why is that so hard to understand?

7. Time
Effort
Sprint Backlog
End of Sprint
But…You can do more than that!

8. Time
Effort
Sprint Backlog
End of Sprint
Real Sprint Backlog
But…You can do more than that!

9. Software
Development IsNot
Manufacturing…
…nor is it a Jenga game!

10. Itdoesn't makesensetohire
smart people andtellthem
what todo;wehiresmart
people sotheycantelluswhat
todo.

11. Our Situation
What is the lay of the land?

12. TEKsystems
Global Services
Montreal
Innovation Centre
 12+ projects
 For customer in the US and Canada
 Across variable business verticals
 Across variable of technical stacks
 120+ employees
 Scrum Masters,Technical Architects, Business Analysts,
Lead Developers, Software Developers, Quality Assurance
Specialists, User Experience Analysts, Management and
Leadership, and more…!

13. TEKsystems
Global Services
Montreal
Innovation Centre
 We want to enable our teams to perform at their best
 We want to create unity across projects
 We want to be a great place to work!

14. eNPS
Employee Net Promoter Score

15. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
How likely would you be to recommend us as a workplace to a friend or acquaintance?
Detractors Passives Promoters
eNPS = % - %

20. eNPS
LessonsLearned
 Pros
 Easy to complete for employees when compared to more
traditional employment surveys
 Is best done periodically (2 months)
 Requires a little bit of overhead
 Expect a cadence
 Cons
 Information produced by results is limited, you will not be
able to go in depth
 Is a bit difficult to explain the scale of the results
 Need everyone at the same place at the same time
 Expect some spoiled ballots

21. We NowHaveSomething
We CanUseAsA Baseline!
So… what’s next?

22. StartWithWhy,
SimonSinek “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it!”
We needed to find our why…
Make an Impact!

23. StartWithWhy
LessonsLearned
 Pros
 Provides clarity and vision one defined
 Can serve to unite teams/customers under one banner
when defined properly
 Cons
 Forces a challenging introspection for everyone involved
in defining the Why
 Requires good facilitation to avoid circular conversations,
to encourage continued participation

24. The Spotify Squad
Health Check Model
Aka.The Happiness Boards

30. SquadHealth
Check
LessonsLearned
 Pros
 Excitement for everyone when getting a new board
 Provides very granular information about your teams
 Provides data you can leverage to improve your
workspace and resolve issues that impact multiple teams
 Respects individual anonymity
 Cons
 Demands a lot of overhead
 Risks being a “fad” if not constantly used
 Some teams/individuals may ignore it, votes might not
change for long periods of time
 Buy-in will drop if people do not see outcomes

31. NextSteps?
DigitalBoards!

32. Primal Branding
ByPatrick Hanlon
Fundamental Paradigm Shift:
A Brand is a Belief System

33. PrimalBranding
Elements
1. Creation Story
 Where do you come from?
2. Creed
 What do you believe in?
3. Icons
 What Symbols represent you?
4. Rituals
 What ceremonies do you perform?
5. Pagans
 Who are the non-believers?
6. Sacred Words
 What words do you use that no one else does?
7. Leader
 Who is your Leader?

34. AnExample
withApple
1. Creation Story
 Two guys named Steve who started building personal
computers in their parent’s garage.
2. Creed
 Think Different
3. Icons
4. Rituals
 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
5. Pagans
 Those weird PC and Android People
6. Sacred Words
 iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iMac, iEverything
7. Leader
 Steve Jobs,Tim Cook

35. AnExample
withScrum
1. Creation Story
 Kick your team off with a strong team-building event
2. Creed
 Make one up while defining your Ways of Working
3. Icons
 Make something up while defining your Ways of Working
4. Rituals
 Scrum Ceremonies: Planning, Retro, Stand-up
5. Pagans
 Those weird Waterfall People
6. Sacred Words
 Product Backlog Item, User Story, Story Point, Burn Down,
Sprint, Agile
7. Leader
 Your Scrum Master? Your PO?Your Sponsor?

36. Whataboutour
Centre?
 Agile methodologies naturally tends to align with
Primal Branding Principles
 This is good, in that it creates strong teams that can
focus on getting the job done
 This is bad, in that it creates siloes between teams that
are working for different customers/goals
 Your company therefore needs to strongly align with
these principles, in a way that complements them
 Otherwise you risk being nothing more than a group of
teams, instead of a team of teams

37. The Secret Ingredient
None of this will work unless

38. YouMustBeAuthentic,
Credible, and Genuine About
What YouWant ToAchieve

39. “The big question about how people behave is whether
they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps
if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard…”
Think about it this way, would you rather…
a) be the world’s greatest Coach, Scrum Master,Team Leader,
or Manager, but have everyone think you’re the worst
OR…
b) be the world’s worst Coach, Scrum Master,Team Leader, or
Manager, but have everyone think you’re the best

40. WhatDidWe
TalkAbout
Today?
 Why Team Happiness Is Important?
 Our experiments - Some Tools for Team Happiness
 eNPS
 Start With Why
 Squad Health Check
 Primal Branding
 The Secret Ingredient
 Be Authentic and Genuine

41. Thank You!
Questions?