Culture eats DevOps for Breakfast

Culture eats DevOps for Breakfast

DevOps Summit Chris Flink

@chrisflink

What is DevOps about?

The Cloud?

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What is DevOps about?

10 Deploys a day?

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What is DevOps about?

The Tools?

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DevOps is about…

•  Not ( just) the tools, but the people •  Separate Goals and Means

•  Not ( just) the people, but the culture •  Make people feel safe and co-operate

•  Not ( just) the culture, but the behaviour •  It is what you do, how you react, how you behave

DevOpsSummitBrussels @chrisflink

The questions are

•  How to make two departments collaborate •  How do you build a strong culture and influence

behaviour?

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Implementing DevOps is about Changing Organisational Culture Nolost Capital helps companies create and maintain a culture that enables them to be

successful and achieve business goals.

•  Using: Research, Data Analysis, Science •  Providing: Business Intelligence, Coaching, Interventions

•  Chris Flink – Co-Founder •  Data / Process / People / IT •  Computer Science, Business and Psychology

DevOpsSummitBrussels @chrisflink

A short story

Tension between office and outside sales force

“Why can’t they pay more attention to the quality of their notes for the offer?”

“Why are they always complaining, can’t they

see I’m busy generating business?”

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The problem is not unique

•  MarSals (Marketing – Sales)? •  ManLogs (Manufactoring – Logistics)?

•  What can we learn from this?

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What’s causing the behaviour

•  Different goals and targets •  No understanding of the peculiarities of each

others work •  Busy doing ‘their ’ work and no time for each

other •  No dialog, no constructive feedback, just

blaming

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Find a shared goal

•  Search for a broader perspective •  Get together and have a dialog

•  Hint: Look at the company’s mission

•  Make Customers Happy •  Enable the Business •  Grow number of projects / clients / users •  Etc.

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Define a shared strategy

•  How to achieve this goal together

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Make it fun!

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TheFunTheory-h;p://www.youtube.be/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

It’s never ready

•  Continuous Feedback and learning

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Second Question

How do you build a strong culture and

influence behaviour?

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Story: Coolblue •  Fast growing company •  Doubling in size every 20 months •  € 500+ million turnover •  Secret of their success?

– A very strong focus on the customer (external) and organisation culture (internal)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CahqmZPZfVc (Dutch)

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Approach

•  Know where you stand and where you are coming from

•  Know where you want to go •  Know what steps to take when

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Assess current situation

•  Employee research (questionnaires, interviews, ...) –  What is working well and should be secured –  What is not and should be changed –  Hidden frustrations, incomprehension, resistance

•  Management / Stakeholder interviews –  Business objectives –  Restrictions –  Willingness to change

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What do you want to achieve

•  What is the desired behaviour? – Make it explicit: “After helping someone, you always ask if everything is clear and if there is anything else he / she needs help with” “When someone makes an error we don’t judge but ask how we can help to recover first, and ask how we can prevent it in the future after”

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Take the right step at the right time

•  Laws of Psychology apply – Maslow Pyramid – Adam’s Equity model

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Start!

•  Make sure everybody feels safe – To make errors – To be unknowing – To speak up

•  Plan time to evaluate, give feedback, and discuss improvements – Sometimes standing still is the best way to make

progress

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Applied to DevOps

•  Know your target group (no stereotyping but often…)

– Technical – Data and metrics driven – Love their tools – Communication (feedback) skills – Combine with values of Open Source Culture

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Things to take into account

•  It’s a continuous process •  Group influence is a very strong driver for

behaviour

DevOpsSummitBrussels @chrisflink

Things to take into account

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TheAschExperiment-h;ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA-gbpt7Ts8

Things to take into account

•  Support and train people where required

•  You are the example •  Make it fun!

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Benefits of strong culture

•  Easier to attract and hire talent •  Lower employee turnover •  Happy employees

– Are more productive – Make less errors – Have lower absenteeism rate – Are more resilient

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Questions?

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Thank you!

Contact: nolostcapital.nl

chrisflink@nolostcapital.nl @chrisflink

DevOpsSummitBrussels @chrisflink