reducing small team culture shock with agile
TRANSCRIPT
Handling immigration with grace
Jamie RiedeselDevOps Engineer
@sysadm1138
Reducing Small Team Culture ShockWith Agile
Service Organization
Do things for other parts of the
organization, at the direction of
those other parts.
Experts charged with keeping
things running, but have to ask
others to approve any
improvements.
A
TRADITIONAL IT CULTURE
Generative Organization
Create a product, continually
make it better, in collaboration
with the entire product group.
Experts working in a group to
keep things running, and
continually improve them.
B
SMALL TEAM AGILE CULTURE
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Traditional IT Organizations are Different:
● Extremely heterogenous in supported technologies.
○ Many different platforms, software frameworks, and even
databases.
● Separation of duties.
○ Separate departments for SysAdmin, Development, DBA,
Network...
● Mixed ownership.
○ Some parts it owns, other parts it merely supports.
○ Sometimes, which is which is not clear.
● Bureaucratic and sometime pathologic in organizational culture
○ Rarely generative
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PsychologicalSafety
Americans are absolute crap at treating their service-workers with respect.
Even highly trained technical service-workers.
It gets old.
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Little makes for a toxic environment faster than being highly trained, with professional standards,
and no one listens to you.
Microaggressions. OMG Microaggressions.
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PsychologicalSafety
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MICROAGGRESSIONS COME FROM
ALL SIDES
Stupidity from Below
Malware
Phishing Failures
Mr. Helpful
Porn collections
DMCA Notices
UnauthorizedVPNs
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My Team is Awesome
We are the thin line between the duct-taped infrastructure and
the chaos monkeys that will wreck it.
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Reflexive Change Resistance
Fear of change not initiated by me, or my
team of awesome.
By pitching a fit, we can sometimes affect
positive change. Maybe involve us earlier
next time.
1
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY METHODS
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Intentional Deinvestment
To be used when pitching a fit doesn’t
work.
To save my sanity, I no longer care how
this turns out.
2
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY METHODS
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CompartmentalizationI see you’re getting steamrolled by
management.
You have my sympathies.
To save my own sanity, I won’t help you.
3
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY METHODS
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Bonding through negativity
Pain shared is pain divided.
4
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY METHODS
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Negativity:Pain shared is pain divided.
Not just IT types.
Police
Fire-fighters
ER Professionals
Animal Control officers
4
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY METHODS
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Service Organization
Toxic cesspit of disrespect and
things I hate.
A
TRADITIONAL IT
Generative Organization
Wonderland of promise and
not hating my job.
B
SMALL TEAM AGILE
SaaS
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Wait, what?No.We can’t do this, we don’t know how.
REFLEXIVE CHANGE RESISTANCE
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What challenges are you seeing?
Let’s make some user-stories about that.
Can you work with #{person} to make a list?
REFLEXIVE CHANGE RESISTANCE
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Comes from having an initiative denied.
Re-engage them, find out why they shut off.
DEINVESTMENT & COMPARTMENTALIZATION
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Everyone loves a good stupid-user story…
I got lots.
BONDING THROUGH NEGATIVITY
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Check that shitSignpost your office culture. This is not acceptable.
Even you, Upper Midwesterners. This conflict is worth it.
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Stop hurtful negativity
It does not reinforce
psychological safety, it
hurts it in most people.
Check that shit.
Fire the assholes who
don’t adapt.
3Redirect
Turn the reflexive
negativity into an
opportunity to provide
feedback.
Teaches that they can
provide feedback without
excessive verbal elbow.
1 Reengage
If they retreat after a loss,
look at it as another
opportunity for feedback.
Teaches them that they
are not a service, they
are a person; and you
know that.
2
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