Lean staffing

Chris Dolezalek -‐ 2013

Lean Staffing

Hiring and Managing Innova>ve, Passionate Employees in a Con>nuously Evolving Market



“The most important factor in so0ware work is not the tools and techniques used by the programmers, but rather the quality of the programmers themselves.1”

Your Most Cri>cal Resource

1. Facts 1 & 2 from Facts and Fallacies of So0ware Engineers – Robert L. Glass

“The best programmers are up to 28 Emes beFer than the worst Programmers.1”


Hire for Tomorrow not Today • The top 10 in-‐demand jobs in 2010

did not exist in 2004 “Did You Know? Shift Happens (August 2011)“ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJpSqeQbh4o

Skills vs Curiosity & Passion • "CQ + PQ > IQ”

Curiosity & Passion Quo4ents are more important than Intelligence Quo4ent Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

ARtude MaSers • “It is not their ap4tude

but their aCtude that will determine their al4tude.” Jesse Jackson, Washington Post 21 May 1978

Lean Staffing Hiring Your Most Valuable Resources

Would you hire a structural, chemical or electrical engineer for a so=ware job? We did.


Hiring a Lean Mindset -‐ i Six Sigma Mike Thelen – 2/8/2012 hIp://www.isixsigma.com/community/blogs/hiring-‐a-‐lean-‐mindset

“Lean is a simple concept, yet it can be difficult for management to fully grasp. It requires a significant change in paIerns of thought.

To accomplish this goal, an organizaSon o=en has to change the way it hires individuals."1

1. hIp://www.isixsigma.com/community/blogs/hiring-‐a-‐lean-‐mindset


Hiring Open Minds

Hire people that can let go of the past, embrace change.


Hire Rock Stars

• Not just one, but everyone

• It becomes self-‐perpetua>ng. People come to IMVU because they want to work with rock stars

• "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automaEcally liberates others." -‐ Quoted in the movies Coach Carter and Akeelah and the Bee, and o=en aIributed to Nelson Mandela who used it in his 1994 Inaugural Speech. It's actually from Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love -‐ ReflecSons on the Principles in A Course in Miracles (Chapter 7, SecSon 3, Page 165).


Hire & Foster The “Right” Mindset

Wise Yoda (detail)Yoda Fountain at the entrance of the Lucasfilm offices at the LeWerman Digital Arts Center Some rights reserved by miss_millions

Michael Jordan "Failure" Nike Commercial hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc

Growth Mindset: • Embraces challenges • Persists in the face of

setbacks • Sees effort as the path to

mastery • Learns from CriScism • Finds lessons and

inspiraSon in the success of others

It can be insSlled Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Stanford, Department of Psychology hIps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXhbtCcmsyQ


• Passion v Skills? Adversity Quo>ent® 1 People who successfully apply AQ perform opSmally in the face of adversity. The AQ Profile and the 3G Panorama predict how well an applicant will perform on the job1

Passion MaSers Hiring the “Right” Mindset

Global | Good | Grit

James Reed and Paul G. Stoltz “Put Your Mindset to Work”

Global: The openness and big-‐picture perspec>ve to compete on a global scale in any job.

Good: A posi>ve force with unwavering moral compass.

Grit: The tenacity and resilience to thrive on adversity.

hIp://www.peaklearning.com/about_3G-‐mindset.php


To Climb Trees, Hire Monkeys To Swim Up Streams, Hire Fish

"Everyone is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid." – Albert Einstein

If you want to innovate, hire folks with innova>ve mindsets…


The Apple Approach

Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Hire, keep people that know what’s right.

“A lot of Smes, people don't know what they want unSl you show it to them.

That's why a lot of people at Apple get paid a lot of money, because they're supposed to be on top of these things.1”

1. hIp://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may1998/nf80512d.htm


Don’t stop at Hiring

Invest in spinning up At IMVU, we dedicate a mentor to every new engineer that will sit next to them and spend 6 weeks spinning them up according to a boot camp guide -‐ including a day-‐one push of a change to producSon. Spinning Marathon voor WAR CHILD -‐ Some rights reserved By isafmedia (cropped)


Reward Risk-Takers A Healthy Mindset:

Failure is OK

Michael Jordan "Failure" Nike Commercial hFp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc Michael Jordan statue -‐ Some rights reserved by Esparta

Michael Jordan: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 >mes, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”


hFp://beingwrongbook.com hFp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong.html

Saint AugusSne (1200 years before Descartes)

“Fallor ergo sum” I err therefore I am

Mindset: It’s OK to be Wrong “TrusSng too much in feeling you are on the right side of anything can be dangerous.”


How to Mo>vate Dan Pink: The surprising truth about what moSvates us

It’s not about the $

hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc


Achievable Challenges

• Engineers can be inspired to reach for achievable challenges they believe in.

• Solving tough problems can be rewarding, but even rescue dogs needs to find an occasional survivor. www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1cf63i/Sl_when_dogs_were_searching_the_rubble_a=er_911


A sustainable work pace gets you to the top.

Chris D. 2001 Climb for CARE: hIp://www.flickr.com/photos/8505628@N04/sets/72157611331749165/


Believing Makes the Impossible Possible

How could a team that’s never competed before almost defeat last year’s naSonal champions?

Blank-‐slate new players not burdened by convenSonal thoughts on what could and couldn’t work allowed unexpected offense and defense tacScs to completely throw the experienced players off their game. Photo by Chris Dolezalek from 1989 UlSmate

World Championships. Leuven Belgium.


It’s About the People Some of these “new” ideas have been around for a while

hIp://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-‐ProducSve-‐Projects-‐Teams-‐Second/dp/0932633439/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319495839&sr=1-‐1#_ hIp://www.amazon.com/Stephen-‐J.-‐Andriole/e/B001JP48LW/ref=nI_athr_dp_pel_1

“By and large, cost-‐effecSve informaSon technology (IT) management is more about people, personal relaSonships, and corporate culture than it is about the technology itself. Simply put, IT doesn’t work if you are surrounded by bad people and stupid processes in a deranged corporate culture. “ IT’s All About People, Stephen J. Andriole (October 21, 2011)

“The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature”. PeopleWare, Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister originally published in 1987


Educa>onal Background How will what an employee knows today benefit you tomorrow?

• If you’re one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people like you • India has more honors students than the US has students

• College students are preparing for jobs that don’t exist yet

Did You Know: hIp://scoImcleod.org/IowaDidYouKnowSlides.pdf


Happiness Inspires Produc>vity

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to beSer work We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards?

Psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires produc>vity.

Abraham Lincoln: “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Think about what characterisSc is shared among the most producSve employees you have ever worked with…

Could it be that it is that they are happy? hIp://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2011X/None/ShawnAchor_2011X.mp4


Why Leaders Succeed, Bosses Fail

Forbes: Entrepreneurs My Boss is a Jerk! Three Reasons Why Leaders Succeed and Bosses Fail Alan Hall -‐ 4/05/2013 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanhall/2013/04/05/my-boss-is-

a-jerk-three-reasons-why-leaders-succeed-and-bosses-fail

Business Examiner What is Leadership? Stephanie Schramm - 11/2012 http://www.businessexaminer.com/November-2012/What-is-Leadership-It-is-more-than-just-being-the-boss

Differences Between a Boss & a Leader

Drives employees … Coaches them

Depends on authority … On goodwill

Inspires fear … Generates enthusiasm

Says, “I” … Says, “We”

Places blame for breakdown

… Fixes the breakdown

Knows how it is done … Shows how it is done

Uses people … Develops people

Takes credit … Gives credit

Commands … Asks

Says, “Go” … Says “let’s go”

Courtesy NotestoQuote.com


Lao Tzu on Leadership

太上，下知有之；其次，親而譽之；其次，畏之；其次，侮之。信不足，焉有不信焉。悠兮，其貴言。功成事遂，百姓皆謂我自然

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu as translated by Stephen Mitchell Chapter 17

When the master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best, is a leader who is loved. Next, one who is feared. The worst is one who is despised.

If you don't trust the people, you make them untrustworthy. The master doesn't talk; he acts.

When his work is done, the people say: "Amazing! We did it, all by ourselves."

Chris Dolezalek - 2013

The background image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years. Laozi Riding and Ox, hanging scroll, light color on paper, 101.5 x 55.3 cm. Located at the NaSonal Palace Museum. Laozi is carrying a copy of the Dao De Jing. 中文: 畫老子騎牛 -‐ 立軸 -‐ 紙本淺設色纵101.5厘米横55.3厘米中国國立故宮博物院.老子手拿《道德經》


Effec>ve Leadership

“A leader brings people where they want to go. A great leader brings people where they ought to go but may not be want to go."

-‐ Rosalyn Carter

”An effecEve leader helps people discover their own desire to go where they ought to go."

-‐ Chris Dolezalek


Promo>ng from within • Employees feel valued and see a possible future within.

Paradigm Ship in Skills Needed • Engineers loving solving problems. Managers need to

solve problems. • However, there are fundamental differences between

technical problems verses business and people problems. • In order for the transi>on to be successful, mentoring

from an experienced manager is needed.

LeRng Go • It can be hard to let go of your favorite thing/ac>vity. • Trick lesson:

As we assign you management tasks, you’ll need to let go of some things to have enough bandwidth… Think about it over the weekend and get back to me on Monday about what you most want to hold onto… Have you decided? Ok, that’s what I’m asking you to let go.

This can teach us whether we are ready for the transi>on and whether we can help someone else be successful with our baby…

From Engineer to Manager Promoting from within


5 Whys Help Employees Turn Losses into Wins

1. Why did the server grind to a halt? DB query took forever.

2. Why did the query take so long? Un-‐indexed query on large table.

3. Why didn’t the engineer realize the query would be slow? Local tests ran fine against a small test db.

4. Why didn’t the engineer know to run a “explain” against produc4on? It was his first database change as a new hire.

5. Why did his mentor not tell him? The mentor had le= for the day.

6. Why did the new hire not know to only check-‐in with mentor? This was the first mentee for that mentor and he hadn’t told him.

Follow-‐Up 1) Update Spin-‐Up Doc for Mentor and Mentee to start with a clear

statement that mentee should not check into producSon without mentor or without having reached that stage.

Follow-‐Up 2) Add notes to DB Query secSon of spin-‐up doc on use of “try” Post-‐Mortems = Teachable Moments ; Fix what needs fixing

QuesSon mark sign photo by Colin_K on Flickr


• Learning Persons – Anthropologist – Experimenter

– Cross-‐Pollinator • Organizing Personas

– Hurdler – Collaborator – Director

• Building Personas – Experience Architect – Set Designer – Storyteller – Caregiver

Innova>ve People MaSer Ten Faces of InnovaSon

The Ten Faces of Innova>on by Thomas Kelley & Jonathan LiSman itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-‐ten-‐faces-‐of-‐innova>on/id421032598?mt=11

www.tenfacesofinnovaSon.com/tenfaces


What makes for the most producSve employee?

Happiness / Passion • Support your team

Perspec>ve: Managers work for the engineers to enable them to be produc>ve

• Sell vs Tell = No show, No go • Be Transparent & Invite Challenges • Let them pick their team & project

LiIle startups/laboratories • Let them Hack

Hack weeks once a quarter

• Let them experiment • Let them choose their tools • Let them determine when done is

Story Point Sizing

• Keep teams small, agile and fun (BVSN 5 man teams vs whole companies)

managing Your Most Valuable Resource


Suppor>ng Your Most Valuable Resources


Sell vs Tell get buy-in and win engagement

Sell verses Tell

If you tell employees what to do, you’ll rarely get more than what you ask for.

If you help them understand why what they are about to do can make a difference and let them parScipate in determining and arriving at the ulSmate objecSves, you may well discover that greater engagement can result in outcomes that exceed your iniSal expectaSons…

a.k.a. No Show, No Go


Be Transparent

Be Transparent & Invite Challenges Share business objec>ves

Share business and board mee>ng notes as well as financials and how we’re doing against goals.

Reward those who ques>ons them Recognize and praise those that challenge.

5 Whys in one-‐on-‐ones Ask individuals to get to root cause of why and how what they are working on relates to company objec>ves.



Happiness / Passion • Support your team • Sell vs Tell = No show, No go • Be Transparent & Invite Challenges • Let them pick their team & project

LiIle startups/laboratories • Let them Hack

Hack weeks once a quarter


Story Point Sizing




Hack Weeks @IMVU & @Yahoo

Cross FuncSonal Teams

Hack Weeks vs Hack Days

Inspires InnovaSon and CollaboraSon

Sell to Business at End for Further Funding

Reinforce Mindset of Thinking About Business ObjecSves

Creates BeIer Awareness of Life Cycle and Process for a Project


IMVU conSnually runs process experiments as a way to improve our processes and to avoid falling into dysfuncSonal rouSnes.

Experiment as individuals but also as teams

5 Teams 5 Different Processes




LiIle startups/laboratories

• Let them Hack Hack weeks once a quarter

• Let them experiment • Let them choose their processes and tools

Whether for how to develop code, track sprints, or whatever

• Let them determine when done is Story Point Sizing




Story Point Team-‐Sizing

As the team is sizing tasks, have them vote… • Everyone pays aIenSon • Outliers call out otherwise missed opSmizaSons and/or hurdles

• Results in greater accuracy • See also : planningpoker.com




LiIle startups/laboratories

• Let them Hack Hack weeks once a quarter


Story Point Sizing




Team Size and n!

• The number of relaSonships goes up as n! (n-‐factorial)

• Once a team reaches 8, there is diminishing return on adding more people…

• A team of less than 4-‐5 typically incurs relaSvely high overhead costs…


EQ – Emo>onal Quo>ent

In the business environment, EmoSonal QuoSent is important because it helps you leverage your awareness of emoSons for effecSveness in the workplace.

EmoSonal QuoSent is the ability to sense, understand and effecSvely apply the power and acumen of emoSons to facilitate high levels of collaboraSon and producSvity. hIp://disc-‐report.com/products/emoSonal-‐quoSent


Learn from Cri>cism


Five Team Dysfunc>ons

When you give this book to your team, don’t forget to also give them a mirror…

hIp://parisalamode.com/2011/06/the-‐five-‐dysfuncSons-‐of-‐a-‐team hIp://www.therainmakergroupinc.com/products/patrick-‐lencioni

hIp://youtu.be/509V7Z9OUQA


Google’s Rules for Managers

To engineer beIer managers, Google poured over performance reviews, feedback surveys and award nominaSons, correlaSng words and phrases as only a data-‐driven company like it can do. Here is an edited list of the direcSves it produced-‐in order of importance-‐ as well as a few management pi}alls it found.

Eight Good Behaviors 1. Be a good coach. 2. Empower your team and don't micromanage. 3. Express interest in team members's success and personal well-‐being. 4. Don't be a sissy: Be producSve and results-‐oriented. 5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team. 6. Help your employees with career development. 7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team. 8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

Three Pizalls of Managers 1. Have trouble making a transiSon to the team. 2. Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development. 3. Spend too liIle Sme managing and communicaSng.

Dan Erwin Career Development Blog: hIp://danerwin.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/google-‐wants-‐to-‐build-‐a-‐beIer-‐boss.html


Lean-‐Staffing -‐ References & Other Links • Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

hIp://www.amazon.com/Mindset-‐Psychology-‐Success-‐Carol-‐Dweck/dp/0345472322/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318359458&sr=1-‐1 hIp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/mindset/id422549774?mt=11 hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHW9l_sCEyU hIps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXhbtCcmsyQ

• Did You Know (a.k.a Shi= Happens) Blog Post, Slides, Videos hIp://www.lps.k12.co.us/schools/arapahoe/fisch/fischbowlpresentaSons.htm hIp://shi=happens.wikispaces.com

• Paul Stoltz, Peak Learning hIp://www.peaklearning.com

– Erik Weihenmayer & Paul Stoltz, The Adversity Advantage hIp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-‐adversity-‐advantage/id381515439?mt=11 hIp://www.amazon.com/Adversity-‐Advantage-‐Everyday-‐Struggles-‐Greatness/dp/1439199493/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318360603&sr=1-‐1

– Paul Stoltz, Adversity QuoSent at Work hIp://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/adversity-‐quoSent-‐work/id385756581?mt=11 hIp://www.amazon.com/Adversity-‐QuoSent-‐Work-‐Finding-‐Capacity/dp/0060937211/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318360551&sr=1-‐1-‐spell

• Michael Jordan, "Failure" Nike Commercial hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc

• Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers & Tipping Point hIp://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html hIp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/outliers/id357396748?mt=11 hIp://www.gladwell.com/Sppingpoint/index.html hIp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-‐Spping-‐point/id357658331?mt=11


Leadership Quotes I • A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work

is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu

• The best execuSve is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-‐restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. – Theodore Roosevelt

• Where there is no vision, the people perish. —Proverbs 29:18

• Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis

• Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. — General George PaIon

• Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch


Leadership Quotes II • A leader is a dealer in hope.

—Napoleon Bonaparte • You don’t need a Stle to be a leader.

–original source unknown • A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the

way. —John Maxwell

• My own definiSon of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. —General Montgomery

• Leadership is li=ing a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitaSons. —Peter Drucker

• Never doubt that a small group of though}ul, concerned ciSzens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead


Leadership Quotes III • The naSon will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping

their ears to the ground. —Sir Winston Churchill

• The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-‐that there is a geneSc factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. —Warren Bennis

• To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —Andre Malraux

• He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle

• Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no Stle or posiSon. —Brian Tracy

• EffecSve leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not aIributes. —Peter Drucker

• Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. —Publilius Syrus


Leadership Quotes IV • A great person aIracts great people and knows how to hold them

together. —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

• The best execuSve is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-‐restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt

• Leadership is influence. —John C. Maxwell

• You don’t lead by poinSng and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. —Ken Kesey

• When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out. —Napoleon Bonaparte

• “The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” -‐ Albert Einstein

Technology

Lean staffing