Coaching “Up” to the C-Suite
(i.e. CIO, CEO, etc…)
By
Kevin Poole - [email protected] Bucher - [email protected]
Alistair (Alex) Sloley - [email protected], 425.636.0118Kelly Flynn - [email protected], 404.402.0474
Sriram (Sri) Natesan - [email protected], 647.927.9203Brian Sjoberg - [email protected], 301.404.0765
List of Personas
Risk Adverse
Disengaged
Results Driven
Metrics Driven
Dictator
Executive Change Agent
Risk Adverse
Traits Status quo
Failure is not an option
Fear of change
Not Adaptable
Sure things only
Traditional project management style
Insecure
Needs documention
Risk Adverse
Tells Needs Gantt charts
Punishes failure
Needs constant reassurance
Desires safety
Needs demo'd success of new approaches
Loves pilot programs (compartmentalized risk)
Needs broad base of support
Focused on peer comparisons
Does better with grass roots model - bottom-up support
Risk Adverse
How to Handle High contact, touchpoints
Understand risks/concerns
Propose low risk solutions
Be patient, gentle, reassuring
Risk exposure - what is the risk of not doing it
Risk Adverse
Tools/Resources/Games The Pheonix Project by Gene Kim
The Goal
Agile Jenga
Ball Point Game
Risk Exposure
The J curve
Disengaged
Traits I'm too busy
Delegation w/O support
Green Phaser
Hidden agenda
Nothing in it for me (NIIFM)
Exhaustion (fire fighting)
Agile is a fad
Disengaged
Tells Can't get on their calendar
Distracts them self while talking to them
Constant rescheduling of meetings
Ignoring emails
Does not have most recent info/ignores most recent data set
Gets information from wrong source
Disengaged
How to Handle/Relate Ask a coach session with their 'C' suite peers
Guest shot (in a webinar f2f session). Give them a stage to shine
Build critical mass
Identify the people that can influence the c-level folks. Influence them.
Learn how to write abstract - clear, crisp info
Disengaged
Tools/Resources/Games Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins
Leading Change by J. Kotter
Lego City game
Results Driven Traits
As long I get x, I don't care
Massage the Metrics (play the stats)
Customer satisfaction
Because my bonus depends on it (danger reverting back to command and control)
Traditional project management
Results Driven
Tells Punishes failure
Clear with goals/expectations
Upset by disagreement with their stated goal/result
Constantly asking people until they get what they want/ignore chain of command
Results Driven
How to handle/relate Explain how to get metrics (basis, source,
approach)
Help them understand what results are useful (find alignment with what they want and what results are important)
Assure self regulation/correction occurs.
Demonstrate success
Results Driven
Tools/Resources/Games Visual radiators
The Penny game
From Just in Case to Just in Time by Steve Bockman
Fuzebox infographic on multitasking
Lead time/Cycle Time Flow Drive-Thru simulation
Metrics Traits
Lots of documentation (i.e. spreadsheets, slides, databases)
Trendlines (historical comparison)
Engaged in and asking for useless/wasteful metrics
Illogical comparison (between teams)
Play the stats
Seek metrics from people who would provide metrics to their advantage
Balanced budget
Lack humanity
Metrics
Tells Asks for their favorite formal "can you make
that a slide deck?"
Doesn't understand source of data
How much will that cost?
Focuses on external data (i.e. books, blogs, magazines)
Compare velocities
They seek precision
Metrics
How to handle/relate Explain how to get the metrics (basis, source,
approach)
Help them understand results are worth measuring (alignment with what they want and what makes sense/important
Show your work (tangible, credible)
Translate human into $$$
Metrics
Tools / Resources / Games Chaos Manifesto
State of Scrum
State of Agile
(Online Tool) Scrum Transition Deck
Scrum Transition Deck for printing
9 Criteria for Better Metrics
(Video) Pro SW Development by Uncle Bob
(Tech tool) SONAR, calculates technical debt
(Tech tools) Jenkins Build Automation
Cumulative Flow Diagram Examples
Cost Of Delay, Essential Scrum by Kenneth Rubin, Portfolio Planning Chapter
Dictator Traits
Typical expert leader (know it all)
No faith in people below them
Delegate responsibility but not authority
Instills fear, threatens
Metrics used to their advantage
Single scope of authority
Bottleneck
Dictator's pet
Impatient with people not on the same page
Unforgiving
Dictator
Tells Upset by questioning, asking for "the why"
Strong, rash decisions
Highly focused on chain of command
Surrounds self with technical experts
Surrounds self with "yes-men"
Discourages email colloboration
Dictator
How to handle/relate Be nice but firm
Stroke their ego
Identify their goals/motives influence them
Be the pet
Dictator
Tools / Resources / Games (Video) Schwaber Tech Talk, Scrum et al.
(Video) Scrum for Product Owners, PO In A Nutshell
(Video) Shit Bad Scrum Masters Say
(Video) Agile Hitler (don't share with exec but funny)
(Video) Scrum Gathering Keynote 2012, Henrik Kniberg
Executive Change Agent Traits
Trusts
Empowers
Engaged
Company success over personal success
Open minded - open to change/failure
Has an inherent thrust for knowledge
Acknowledges and supports individuals and teams at all levels
Servant leader
Executive Change Agent
How to Enable Make easily consumable information available
Abstracts
Soundbytes
Elevator pitch for them to deliver
Integrate them into the team/org level training
Get them involved in theam activities in a controlled manner
CxO retrospective backlog (Teams surface organizational impediments and they are tracked)
"CxO" retreat to share incentive approaches at organizational level
Help identify leadership path/org path?
Executive Change Agent
How to Enable (Cont.) Gather metrics and Report them
Projects we didn't start because of bad ROI
Projects we stopped because of bad ROI
Bug reports (ideally going down as quality is seen as inflexible)
Release date accuracy
Customer satisfaction
Organization WIP over time
Turnover/attrition
Extending avenues of influence Providing training
Continuous communication
Executive Change Agent
How to Enable (Cont.) Open invite training (across all organiZation levels)
Quarterly (periodic) executive lunch and learn/question free-for-all
Cultivate internal-facing blog provide guest shot opportunities)
"5 Why's"
Needs versus solutions training so CxO can champion that thinking
Snapshots (1/2 to 1 page "editorial" pieces for wide distro written execs or anyone else for that matter. Trends strategies, observations, etc...)
Scrum of CxOs (this is where the CxO's surface organization impediments and help each other remove them)
General Resource List Books
Agile Software Requirements
The Scrum Guide
Innovation Games
Agile Samurai
The People's Scrum by Tabias Mayer
Agile Adoption Patterns
Agile Retrospectives
Essential Scrum by Ken Rubin
Leadership Agility
Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Agile in a flash - Speed learning agile software development
Agile Testing by Lisa Crispin
Scrum Field Guide by Mitch Lacey
Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn
Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum
Kanban by David Anderson
Collaboration Explained
General Resource List Videos
Pair programming bit bucket
Spotify Culture
Games Game storming
Multitasking game
Tastycupcakes.org
White Papers Price for Multitasking
Good Experience
Ball Point Game
Penny Game
Conscious Discipline Child rearing approach that focuses on identifying brain
state of yourself as child care provider as well as the child during challenging moments or incidents
Survival state (need safety); Emotional state (need to be heard/acknowledged); Executive state (need for problem-solving)
PO in a Nutshell Short and sweet, only 15 minutes
Visually well-done: clear, fun diagrams & drawings
Covers basic concepts with clarity: basic team roles, limiting work in progress (WIP), how to project when stuff will get done (for roadmapping, etc)
Good Experience
Embed CxO in training. The CXO attends Scrum training as any other IC would.
You must set expectations for the CXO so they understand that they are IC's in the class, they shouldn't act as a CXO.
The CXO participates in all the practical workshops as part of the training as any other IC would.
Editorial features Invite them to provide brief content to an internal blog,
documentation collection, sharepoint, video collection on Agile related topics
Less than 1/2 page, 10 min etc.
Distribute to the related Scrum Teams, VPs and extend into other CxO
Good PR prods good behavior as well as positions them as Agile leaders in all directions