Improve and change projects fail largely because the theories, models and frameworks don't take into account the reality of people, working in real business, with pressures and priorities and problems. If change was easy as you think, why would the organization be in the place it is today? This is an alternative version to the presentation shown at the BCS offices in London on 9 October 2015.

1. Suddenly Reality…
Why your theories don’t work
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2. • We have been selling process improvement and quality for
quarter of a century…
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Where are the results?

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Pick a Framework
ISO 9001
Baldridge
People-CMM
E-Sourcing Capability Model
ISO/IEC 12207
CMM
EIA 731
ISO/IEC 15288
CMMI-SVC
CMMI-ACQ
SSE-CMM
ISO/IEC 15504
BS 15000
TickITplus
CMMI-DEV
TQM
BS 7799
Six-Sigma
V
AgileCobiT
MIL-STD-498
EIA 632
eSCM-SP
FAA iCMM
IEEE 1220
SA-CMM
IEEE/EIA 12207
IPD-CMM
ISO 15939
J-STD-016
PSM
PSP
Q9000
SECAM Automotive SPICE
TL9000
TSPPMMM
TMMi
DevOps Moar Diagrams
Trusted CMM
SECM ISO 10011
IEEE 1498
Trillium
ISO/CD 9004-8
SSAE16
SFIA

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What Went Wrong?
People
Process Technology
People

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What are People?

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What are People?
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8. • Type 1 Processes
– Subconscious
– Awareness
– Continuity
• Type 2 Processes
– Conscious
– Effort
– Concentration
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People Manage Information in Two Minds
• You have two main minds, two ways of processing:

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Type 1 Processes
2+2=?
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Type 2 Processes
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11. • “All variants of voluntary effort – cognitive, emotional and
physical – draw on a shared pool of mental energy” (Roy
Baumeister)
• This means
– Tell the children to be quiet when you drive in bad weather
– Stop walking to explain the political situation in Syria
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Type 2 Processes Interrupt you

12. • In the XIXth century, a new life form emerged: the Corporation
• Previously, people were offering services to their neighbours
based on their abilities and the needs of others
• The Corporation is only interested in its own survival, without
concern for the people affected, employees or clients
– It seeks to grow and reproduce
– It will attack, kill, swallow or destroy its competitors
– It is more interested in generating profit than in providing service
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And in business?

13. • The Corporation does what it knows, it stays in its comfort zone
• In comes a consultant who tells it to stop, listen and do what I say
• Its Level 1 Processes are busy
– Firefighting
– Struggling because “we lack resources”
– We know we need to do something but…
– Next year, when things have calmed down
– But that’s the way we have always done it
– This is how we built our business
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Corporate Survival
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14. • Strong leadership
• Sense of urgency
• Vision of success
• Communication
• Empowerment
• Regular improvements
• Consolidating gains
• Encouraging change
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Fundamentals of success
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The Consultant
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Stop. Change Everything. Now.
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17. • “Too much concern about how well one is doing in a task disrupts
performance by loading short-term memory with pointless
anxious thoughts.”
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The Audit / Appraisal / Evaluation

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Results
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19. • It is not too much work
• It is not having to make decisions
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What Causes Stress?
It is the feeling of lack of control
and continuously being judged
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What is stress?
“Masculine” reaction:
Fight or Flight
“Feminine” reaction:
Tend and Befriend
http://www.50symptomsgone.com/?p=4772

21. • Excess adrenaline
– Increased heart rate
– Forces muscle contraction
• Excess cortisol
– Increased glucose levels
– Inhibits critical functions: digestion, growth, reproduction,
immune system
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Stress Impact

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The Impact of Stress
No one to Fight…
Nowhere to Flee…
No one to Tend…
No one to Befriend…
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The Impact of Social Inequality
Health and Social Problems:
• Life expectancy
• Maths and Literacy
• Infant mortality
• Homicides
• Imprisonments
• Teenage pregnancy
• Trust
• Obesity
• Mental health
• Social mobility

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The Same is True Within Your Organization

25. 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
40-64 years 64-69 years 70-89 years
Admin Prof/Exec Clerical Other
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Mortality over 25 years by Hierarchy

26. • We are naturally beings who like to solve problems
• We are designed to take on challenges
• We have evolved to control our destiny
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Give Control, Take Control
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27. • What is the most efficient way to bring about change and reduce
stress?
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So, what should we do?

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Sex!

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Prokaryotes
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Prokaryotes are single cell
beings which multiply
efficiently through cloning

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Eukaryotes
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When one prokaryote
engulfed another, the
eukaryotes – multi-
cellular beings – came
into existence

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In Detail
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The combination,
where one became
the nucleus and
the other the
mitochondrion,
allowed growth
The presence of two strands
of DNA leads to degeneration
and requires the influx of new
DNA for reproduction

32. • Work like a Prokaryote:
– Cloning the same service, the same solution to one customer after
another
– Without hope for growth or evolution
• Work like a Eukaryote:
– Growing, multiplying and creating energy and evolution
– Losing efficiency every time something changes
– Unless it is offered fresh DNA
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Organizational Choice

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Choices for Fresh DNA
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The company can get into partnership,
merge or be bought up by another to
bring fresh ideas and creativity
Or a consultant can bring a little bit of fresh
ideas through slow and precise artificial
insemination

34. • Find the bright spots
• Script the critical moves
• Point to the destination
• Find the feeling
• Shrink the change
• Grow your people
• Tweak the environment
• Build habits
• Rally the herd
• Keep it going
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Steps to Success: Nudging

35. Agnotology
• The study of what we do not know and
why we do not know it
• Ignorance is not just the absence of
knowledge, it is frequently the result of
something else…
– Culturally induced ignorance
– The outcome of propaganda
– The effect of the repetition of lies
Metrology
• The study of measurement
• Understanding that measurement is
not just numbers
• Metrology includes all theoretical and
practical aspects of measurement
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Two Sciences
84
Still sometimes referenced as Agnatology

36. • Identify the successful person in the team, the successful team in
the organization
• Agnotology:
– Why did they succeed when others failed?
– What are the differences?
• Metrology:
– What does “successful” mean?
– What makes you believe they were successful?
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Pockets of Excellence

37. • Most resistance comes from not understanding
• Agnotology:
– Why are people resisting your proposal?
– What is it that they do not understand?
– How can I simplify this?
• Metrology:
– What is the level of understanding?
– How do you measure a team’s understanding?
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Clarify the Approach
(Agnotology is still sometimes called agnatology)

38. • Make it a thing of beauty, make it
fun
• “I will buy a drink to the one who
finds the most defects in this
review”
• Let your developers watch the
end-users using your products or
services
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Create an Emotion
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39. • Just take a step, don’t aim for the
horizon
• “We are not changing the
company, we are asking you to
just do this once and capture the
measurements and lessons
learnt”
• “Give it a try, just once, and tell
my why it does not work”
• Little strokes will tumble great
oaks
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Shrink the Change

40. • My team is going to be the best team in the company
• Create a team spirit – whatever works in your team’s culture:
– Get-together with tea and cakes
or beer and pizza
– T-shirts and badges
– Slogans and logos
• Make them proud!
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Make It Personal
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41. • Remove the blockages
• Changing the environment, the
communication can have a
profound impact on making
things happen
• “Remove the tiny obstacles, plan
for the dyslexics”
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Clear the Path
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42. • Put in place action triggers
• Include best practices in the
standard life-cycle
• Make sure that actions are
related and difficult to miss
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Build Habits

43. • Use peer-pressure and the herd mentality
• Don’t attract attention to the 20% who refuse to join in, focus on
the 80% who are doing it
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Rally the Herd

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Don’t Give Up!
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45. Put it into practice
Let’s make it happen!
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46. • I want to get my team to work smart:
– Focus on the right thing
– Doing the work correctly, not more than necessary
– Producing quality products which do not require revisiting
• Management does not want us to waste time on non-productive
activities
• We are continuously under pressure and fire-fighting
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Objective

47. • I cannot expect someone else to do my work for me
• I do not expect other people to correct my mistakes
• I am not going to impose errors and corrections on my colleagues
• I will start by cleaning my space before complaining about others
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Acceptance

48. • Some of my colleagues are producing higher standards of quality
than others
– The quality of their products / services are seen to be better
– They take less time to get a product from concept to delivery
• What are they doing different?
• Can they review my work and see where I am going wrong?
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Pockets of Excellence

49. • We are going to perform peer reviews:
– Take time to review each other’s work before it is delivered
– We will write down every error identified and classify them
– We will focus on the concept that the review is not there to find errors
but to create error-free products
– We will create checklists based on all the errors found to help us identify
them next time
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Clarify the Approach

50. • Our customers are already turning to China, Indonesia, Libya and
other countries which are cheaper
• Management is looking at reducing costs
• If we don’t do something now, next year will be too late
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Tell me Why

51. • The effort you put into reviewing will be recognized in your
performance review which I will give management
• For every hour invested in reviewing and correcting now, we will
save time at the end of the project
• If we can deliver early and under budget, I will take the whole
team out to dinner on the project’s budget
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Create an Emotion

52. • This is not a big deal:
– You take two hours per week to review a colleague’s work and report
your findings
– That includes taking half an hour to discuss or clarify any findings with
the author
– You can submit your product to be reviewed even if it is not finished
– We will book the time, so that the whole review is scheduled and
happens on time
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Shrink the Change

53. • We will be recognized as the number one team in the company
• Customers will ask for our products and services as they see the
difference in quality
• We will be able to justify a bonus
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Make It Personal

54. • You should focus on your work during the day
– You do not need to read your e-mails (or have your e-mail programme
running) during the day, if you read your e-mails three times a day, that
is enough
– You can put your phone on silent and ignore it while you are working
– Any panic and emergencies will be treated between 13.00 and 14.30,
and on Thursday – nothing cannot wait (outside those hours, everything
will get forwarded to your project manager)
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Clear the Path

55. • No product is finished without the review
• During our progress meetings (weekly meetings, daily scrums…)
we will only count the products that have been reviewed as
complete
• Your colleague’s time to review your product, with your checklist
is scheduled based on your estimated completion date
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Build Habits

56. • Already 5 people have implemented this approach and are
showing results, we have the data
• Our time to market has already been reduced by 12%
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Rally the Herd

57. • Report to management on the results
• Show the benefit to the organization of your activities
• Use their language to get their support
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Now, Use The Evidence

58. • “Conquerors estimate in their temple before the war begins. They
consider everything. The defeated also estimate before the war,
but they do not consider everything.
Estimating completely creates
victory. Estimating
incompletely causes
failures.”
» Sun Tzu “The Art of War”
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And Remember

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Q&A

60. • Peter Leeson
– Q:PIT Ltd
PO Box 6066
Milton Keynes
MK1 9BH
United Kingdom
– Direct Line: +44 (0)20 8433 4120
– Mobile/Cell: +44 (0)773 998 98 67
– E Mail: Peter@qpit.ltd.uk
– Skype: qpitpjl
– Internet & blog: http://www.qpit.net
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Contact Information