Missile Destroyers, Supercomputers and Chernobyl

@tom_geraghtypsychsafety.co.uk

Missile Destroyers, Supercomputers and

ChernobylThe importance of psychological safety to

high performance.


Tom Geraghty

“Veteran technology team builder” Computing Magazine

TomGeraghty.co.uk @tom_geraghty






“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, "We've always done it this way."”


“You manage things, you lead people.”





Psychological SafetyDr. Amy Edmondson

“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas,

questions, concerns, or mistakes.”



And the worst?


PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETYTeam members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in

front of each other

DEPENDABILITYTeam members get things done on time and meet

Google’s high bar for excellence

STRUCTURE AND CLARITYTeam members have clear roles, plans and goals

MEANINGWork is personally important to team members

IMPACTTeam members think their work matters and creates

change source: Julia Rozovsky, Google people operations


“...an organisational culture that optimises for information flow,

trust, innovation, and risk-sharing is predictive of

performance.”

Source: Accelerate: State of DevOps 2019


CULTURE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

USEFUL, EASY-TO-USE TOOLS

INTERNAL SEARCH

EXTERNAL SEARCH

CODE MAINTAINABILITY LOOSELY COUPLED ARCHITECTURE

MONITORING

TECHNICAL DEBT

PRODUCTIVITY

BURNOUT

WORK RECOVERY

---

--

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE (CONTROL)

N.S.

BOLD

CONSTRUCT

NOT SIGNIFICANT

COMMON GOAL FOR TEAM OR ORGANISATION

CONTROL VARIABLE

PREDICTIVE RELATIONSHIP

NEGATIVE PREDICTIVE RELATIONSHIP

NEWLY INVESTIGATED THIS YEAR

-

N.S.



CLEAR CHANGE PROCESS

HEAVYWEIGHT CHANGE PROCESS

DISASTER RECOVERY TESTING

CODE MAINTAINABILITY

LOOSELY COUPLED ARCHITECTURE

MONITORING

TRUNK-BASED DEVELOPMENT

DEPLOYMENT AUTOMATION

CULTURE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY

CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION

AUTOMATED TESTING

CLOUD

BURNOUT

INDUSTRY (CONTROL)ENTERPRISE (CONTROL)

ORGANISATIONALPERFORMANCE

SOFTWAREDELIVERYPERFORMANCE

AVAILABILITY

SDO PERFORMANCE

BOLD

CONSTRUCT

SECOND-ORDER CONSTRUCT

COMMON GOAL FOR TEAM OR ORGANISATION

CONTROL VARIABLE

PREDICTIVE RELATIONSHIP

MIXED RESULTS

NEGATIVE PREDICTIVE RELATIONSHIP

NEWLY INVESTIGATED THIS YEAR

-

--

-




The Five Ideals1) Locality and Simplicity

2) Focus, Flow and Joy

3) Improvement of daily work

4) Psychological Safety

5) Customer Focus


Not correlated with team effectiveness:● Colocation of teammates (i.e., sitting together in the same office)● Consensus-driven decision making● Extroversion of team members● Individual performance of team members● Workload size**● Seniority● Tenure● Team size**

**Data is restricted to Google teams only


Is your team psychologically safe?1. On this team, I understand what is expected of me.

2. We value outcomes more than outputs or inputs, and nobody needs to “look good”.

3. If I make a mistake on this team, it is never held against me.

4. When something goes wrong, we work as a team to find the systemic cause.

5. All members of this team feel able to bring up problems and tough issues.

6. Members of this team never reject others for being different and nobody is left out.

7. It is safe for me to take a risk on this team.

8. It is easy for me to ask other members of this team for help.

9. Nobody on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.

10. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilised.




It’s all connected

Psychological Safety

Diversity and Inclusion

People over tools and processes

Systems Thinking

Feedback loops

Continuous Improvement


How to foster Psychological Safety in your teams

1. Get the basics right2. Break the Golden Rule3. Be inclusive in decision making4. Define team values and behaviours5. Hold retrospectives6. Admit fault first7. Invite feedback (or advice)8. Show vulnerability and emotion9. Be firm with negative behaviours

10. Provide financial and job security11. Be patient


Psychological Safety & Distributed teams1. Set the stage.2. Make sure everyone knows what to

do.3. Focus on outcomes, not outputs. 4. Build a culture of appreciation.5. Embrace routine and ritual.6. Establish work boundaries.7. Use the many species of video call.8. Be actively inclusive, or risk being

passively exclusive.9. Adopt Hanlon’s razor.

10. Put your own oxygen mask on first.


The four stages of psychological safety●

1. Inclusion

2. Learner

3. Contributor

4. Challenger


Tuckman

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing


Comfort zone High performance

Apathy Anxiety

Psy

chol

ogic

al s

afet

y

Drive


The Fear ChartFear Mitigation Target Norm

1. Losing a great client2. Deploying a change that breaks

the company website3. Suffering a data breach4. Missing revenue targets5. Letting down teammates6. Embarrassing yourself7. Missing a deadline

1. Client team weekly meetings to highlight risks

2. Automated pipeline tests3. Security tests and monitoring4. Early warning system for revenue

trends5. Daily team standups6. Encourage the “stupid questions”7. Reducing WIP

1. If we lose a client, we know we did everything we could.

2. We can deploy without fear3. We’re comfortable with our

security stance and pass audits.

4. We can always predict revenue trends and don’t get surprised by monthly management reports.

5. Everyone knows what each other is doing and we help each other when we’re struggling.

6. We never need to worry about our “status” in the team

7. We know what our sprint goal is and we know it’s achievable in this sprint.


The Fear Chart (workshop)Fear Mitigation Target Norm


Purpose

Autonomy

Mastery

Safety


Cognitive Load (“human-sized software”)

● Intrinsic - personal skill● Extraneous - external

unknowns● Germane - problem

solving


“The Reverse Conway Manoeuvre”


Resilience Engineering

"The intrinsic ability of a system to adjust its functioning prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions."

http://erikhollnagel.com/ideas/resilience-engineering.html


If you want to build a ship,don’t drum up the peopleto gather wood, divide the

work, and give orders.

Instead, teach them to yearnfor the vast and endless sea.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince


Recruitment


What are the benefits?Improved people retention

Faster time to market

More reliable software

Better features

Lower costs

Higher security

Increased profits

More fun.



Psychological Safety & Distributed teams● Focus on outcomes, not outputs. ● Build a culture of appreciation.● Embrace routine and ritual.● Establish work boundaries.● Use the many species of video call.● Don’t end a video call until everyone

has spoken.● Adopt Hanlon’s razor.● Put your own oxygen mask on first.


You don’t have to be told you’re a leader, to be a leader.


Blameless accountability workshopping


Example Scenario AAmy has been working as part of the design team for just over three years, and her delivery rate is high and her output quality is good. Amy’s team are happy, content, deliver what is required and rarely suffer conflict.

Amy’s skillset has become obsolete in the organisation

The COO speaks to Amy, and she is offered a good redundancy package, which she accepts, and immediately leaves the organisation. Her team are informed later that day, via an email sent from the COO, stating plainly that Amy is no longer working at the organisation.


Example Scenario BOrganisation X is a high-performing technology firm that has millions of subscribers globally. The technology delivery team are relatively small, most of the members have worked together for a long time, and are considered by themselves and others in the organisation to be high performing. Their delivery is rapid, quality is high, and they come up with innovative ideas. They hold retrospectives and root cause analyses, and use these learnings effectively.

The organisation’s CPO has announced a programme of 360-degree feedback, organisation-wide, using a mobile app which prompts team members to regularly provide feedback on their colleagues’ performance and behaviours.


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Missile Destroyers, Supercomputers and Chernobyl