Using Self-Managing Teams to Improve Service Delivery: A Case Study from JHU (166277157)

7/29/2019 Using Self-Managing Teams to Improve Service Delivery: A Case Study from JHU (166277157)

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Using Self-Managing Teams toImprove Service Delivery

EDUCAUSE Enterprise IT Leadership Conference 2013



Geof Corb | @geofdotedu | [email protected]

Deputy Chief Information OfficerResponsible for enterprise business systems, business intelligence, student information systems,

academic & classroom technologies

9+ years leading transformative information technology programs in higher education, includingERP (Financials, HRMS, Procurement), Student Information Systems, Business Intelligence, andAcademic Technologies

Hopkins graduate (BS, MBA)

Irene Zvagelsky | @izvagel1 | [email protected]

Director, Student & Administrative SolutionsResponsible for an array of university-wide administrative systems

10+ years leading transformative information technology programs in higher education, with a

focus on student administrative solutions for admissions, financial aid, student accounts, advising,and records and registration

Hopkins graduate (MBA); proud mother of a Hopkins undergrad

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mailto:[email protected]


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<background>



Yes, it is Johns Hopkins

Located in Baltimore, MD

Established in 1876

First research institution in US

#1 in federal research funding(for over 30 years)

$2.6B endowment (2012)

$4.7B revenue (2012)



11 Academic Divisions:

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Carey Business SchoolKrieger School of Arts & Sciences

Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Peabody Institute (Music)School of Education

School of Medicine

School of Nursing

Whiting School of Engineering

... plus Applied Physics Laboratory and Sheridan Libraries

Campuses:

Baltimore (7)Washington DC

Baltimore-Washington metro area (3)Bologna, ItalyNanjing, China



Full-TimePart-Time

21,267 students(16,103 FTE)

Fall 2012

GraduateUndergraduate



IT @ Johns Hopkins

Enterprise Applications

Student &

Administrative Solutions

Enterprise Business

Solutions

Academic TechnologiesEnterprise Business

Intelligence

~900

127

73

11

36

5

~$9B> 50,000 employees

http://www.computerworld.com/spring/bp/detail/956





































IT @ Johns Hopkins

Enterprise Applications

Student &Administrative Solutions

Enterprise BusinessSolutions

Academic TechnologiesEnterprise Business

Intelligence

36 skilled, talented, &

creative technical

professionals supporting:

student information system Matrix Student Suite (Ellucian)

financial aidPowerFAIDS (The College Board)

degree audit Advisor (Conclusive Systems)

room & event scheduling Astra Schedule (Ad Astra)

international students,scholars, and travelSunapsis (Indiana University)International Travel Registr y (homegrown)

ID card systemTransact (Blackboard)



<problem>

<opportunity>



Quality Quantity Morale

Exceptional

Terrible

Lousy

Mediocre

Good

dramatization









Analysts Developers

production support

facilitating change control

requirements & analysis

more customer touch/focus

software engineering

design & development

subject-specific focus

less direct customer contact



top-down managementdecisions handed down and work parceled out; non-participatory

long, unproductive meetingspeople don’t care about all that is going on as much as we do

ineffective planningconstantly reactive; difficult to be proactive

unpredictable demandconstantly changing priorities with many, varied stakeholders

fluctuating supplyhigh turnover



oh, whatto do?


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/using-self-managing-teams-to-improve-service-delivery-a-case-study-from-jhu 17/49http://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/9-things-that-motivate-employees-more-than-money.html

1. Be generous with praise

2. Get rid of the managers

3. Make your ideas theirs

4. Never criticize or correct

5. Make everyone a leader

6. Take an employee to lunch once a week

7. Give recognition and small rewards

8. Throw company parties

9. Share the rewards--and the pain

9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money Ilya Pozin | Nov 28, 2011

http://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/9-things-that-motivate-employees-more-than-money.html










we want to be agile

we want to be engaged

we want to be proud

we want to be happy

we decided that...



<solution>



“SAS 12.0”



create teamsthat would be

self-managedand, ideally,

self-sufficient



RedTeam

BlueTeam

GreenTeam

YellowTeam



Yellow Team: Lourdes, David, Matt, Sam, Xi

AnalystDeveloper

Analyst

Developer

Developer

s k i l l s

s t r e n g t h s

w e a k n e s s e s

p e r s o n a l i t y

h i s t o r y



every team has a color establishes identity and sense of belonging

every team has a charterdefines a contract among team members

every team has a captainrepresents, but does not manage, the team; rotates among team members



every team follows departmentalpolicies and procedures

teams have a high degree of latitude within

assign work to teams,not individuals

instill a sense of mutual accountability and collective ownership

consult but not reassignleverage experience of others but maintain ownership





Ana, Sue, Mr. Hopkins, Julie(not pictured: Justin, Derek, Zhud)



Green Team: Sumit, Kirk, Aaron, Angie, Fafa, Natalya

AYAutomation!

PowerFAIDSEA!

Self-Service!

AutoSys!Astra Schedule!

Paywire!

experts“go-to people”

created a list of expertise and identified people who possess it

cultivate aspiring go-to peopleidentified team members who wanted to master these topics

thoughtful assignment of work balance between use of “go-to people” and developing new “go-to people”



OrangeTeam

even management is a teamdo everything that we expect the teams to do; the same rules apply

collaborative management modelall participate in performance reviews for staff

Nicole P, Irene, Sherril, Bonnie



monthly sprintsaccompany monthly releases to production and planning cycles

decompose work into “chunks”not everything can be completed in a month, but parts surely can

Chunk it up!



production supportsingle team is focused on incoming support queue“privilege” of providing support rotates each monthinsulates other teams from unpredictable workload



captains’ meeting (2x weekly)attended by all team captains and orange (management) team

~ scrum meeting: what has been accomplished? what’s next? any obstacles?dialogue between captains and management

end-of-sprint meeting (monthly)not about reporting status... about celebrating successes

opportunity to express creativity

team meetingsup to each team



don’t be afraid to failaccept that some things are going to work, some things are not

... but if you do, fail fastlearn from failures, adapt, and move on... quickly!

“spaghetti principle”throw something up and see what sticks (not everything will)

feedback loopswhat worked, what didn’t, and (most importantly) who’s going to fix it?



<observations>



quality and quantityteams are not constantly pulled into “today’s crisis”

teams have fewer interruptions and better ability to focus on work

quickly produced more output than our customers ever expected

moralecivility has returned; people are collaborative and cooperative

instilled a sense of ownership and pride in our work; work is more personalspawned healthy competition between teams



“dictator”→ facilitatorshift to team-based decision making

reacting→ planningbetter ability to plan and manage our work

problem solvers→ listeners & advisorsmanagement doesn’t always have the answers (... believe it or not!)

no more “my people” and “your people”they are “our people”

sense of relief!we are all in this together



realizing unexpected benefitsnew processes, tools, and ideas are flourishing

developers brought new ideas to address production support challengesdeveloped backlog of tools and automations to improve support

unexpected people are stepping upeasier to orient and on-board new staff being a team captain builds leadership skills

model supports scaling up and down



PowerFAIDS

new university-wide financial aid system implementation



how to scale?

add new teams and resize existing teamseach team got a new member, including management (= project manager)

team size expanded from 4-5 to 5-6

no specialty teamsall teams have experience with all of the systems we support



“ t ”



“we, not me”

lack of individual ownership→ strong team ownershipthere is no fence to throw things over anymore

shared accountability >> personal accountabilityindividual performance is more visible now

effective, multi-stage prioritizationcustomer/business→ managers→ team→ individuals

constant management calibrationare the reins too loose? too tight?



smart, motivated people... who are willing to take the leap of faith that this just might work (and they might like it)

generalists, not specialistssimplified team composition; teams are (more or less) equal

mature processesyears of process development & refinement

knowledge managementyears of developing a comprehensive knowledge base

re-organizing & flexibilityorganizational change was not new to this team; many changes over the years



... and excellent leadershipwilling to take risks and try unconventional strategies



end-of-sprint meeting & pot-luck lunchcelebration of successes and accomplishments

Yellow Team, featuring Lourdes, David, and Xi video by Sam; Matt not pictured



we are agile

we are engaged

we are proud

we are happy



<discussion>



Geof Corb | @geofdotedu | [email protected] Chief Information Officer Johns Hopkins University

Irene Zvagelsky | @izvagel1 | [email protected], Student & Administrative Solutions Johns Hopkins University

thank you!

session evaluation:









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Using Self-Managing Teams to Improve Service Delivery: A Case Study from JHU (166277157)