Creating Space for EVERYONE to be Awesome - Agile People Sweden

Meri Williams, ChromeRose @Geek_Manager
CREATING SPACE TO BE
AWESOME
Agile People Sweden
October 2015

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kodomut/3667608102/

WE ALL HATE BAD
BOSSES
WE DESCRIBE THEM AS
• Clueless
• Empty suits
• Pointless
• Seagulls

https://twitter.com/Caterina/status/6715084157

Traditional management beliefs
are a pile of crap
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elephant_Dung.JPG

PUT DOWN YOUR SWORD.
YOU ARE NOT A ROMAN GENERAL.

WHAT DOES WORK?
Sooo….

Across industries, across
countries, the best
performing teams
answer certain
questions positively

Predictors of High Performance
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials & equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a
person?
6. Is there someone at work who cares about my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is
important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last 6 months, have I talked with someone about my development?
12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

UNDERSTAND
MOTIVATION
• Purpose
• Autonomy
• Mastery

MOTIVATION =
+ PURPOSE (Do I believe in WHY?)
+ AUTONOMY (Do I get a say in WHAT?)
+ MASTERY (Am I proud of HOW?)
- ANY NEGATIVE FACTORS THAT DETRACT

Predictors of High Performance (remix)
PURPOSE
• Does the
mission/purpose of my
company make me feel
like my work is
important?
AUTONOMY
• Do I know what is
expected of me at
work?
• At work, do my
opinions seem to
count?
MASTERY
• Do I have the materials & equipment I
need to do my work right?
• At work, do I have the opportunity to do
what I do best every day?
• Is there someone at work who cares about
my development?
• Are my co-workers committed to doing
quality work?
• In the last 6 months, have I talked with
someone about my development?
• At work, have I had opportunities to learn
and grow?

And What Else?
OTHER FACTORS:
• In the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
• Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a
person?
• Do I have a best friend at work?
ESSENTIALLY, AM I RESPECTED & REWARDED
HERE?
CAN I BE MYSELF AND SUCCEED HERE?
I CALL THIS INCLUSION.

SPACE TO BE AWESOME =
+ PURPOSE (Do I believe in WHY?)
+ AUTONOMY (Do I get a say in WHAT?)
+ MASTERY (Am I proud of HOW?)
+ INCLUSION (Do I BELONG HERE?)
- ANY NEGATIVE FACTORS THAT DETRACT

CREATE SPACE FOR EVERYONE TO
BE THE BEST THEY CAN BE
Our mission…

Ask Yourself
• Do my people know WHY we are doing
this?
• Do my people get a say in the WHAT? In
doing the right thing?
• Do my people get opportunities to do
the thing right? And to get better at the
HOW?
• Do we do a good job of making all our
different people feel included & like
they BELONG HERE?
(PURPOSE)
(AUTONOMY)
(MASTERY)
(INCLUSION)

Predictors of High Performance (remix)
PURPOSE
• Does the mission/purpose of my company
make me feel like my work is important?
AUTONOMY
• Do I know what is expected of me at
work?
• At work, do my opinions seem to count?
INCLUSION:
• In the last 7 days, have I received
recognition or praise for good work?
• Does my supervisor, or someone at work,
seem to care about me as a person?
• Do I have a best friend at work?
MASTERY
• Do I have the materials &
equipment I need to do my work
right?
• At work, do I have the
opportunity to do what I do best
every day?
• Is there someone at work who
cares about my development?
• Are my co-workers committed to
doing quality work?
• In the last 6 months, have I
talked with someone about my
development?
• At work, have I had
opportunities to learn and
grow?

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN DAY-
TO-DAY, WEEK-TO-WEEK?

PROTECT PURPOSE
BE A TRANSLATOR – MAKE PURPOSE,
STRATEGY & DIRECTION MAKE SENSE
CONNECT WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING (AND
CAN DO!) TO OVERALL IMPORTANT
PURPOSE

ENABLE AUTONOMY & MASTERY

CLUE / SKILLS MATRIX

What’s Needed

WE’RE GOOD AT WHAT WE
PRACTICE, PROVIDING WE CAN
LEARN FROM IT

DELIBERATE PRACTICE
• You must be motivated to attend to the task and exert effort
to improve your performance.
• The design of the task should take into account your pre-
existing knowledge so that the task can be correctly
understood after a brief period of instruction.
• You should receive immediate informative feedback and
knowledge of results of your performance.
• You should repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.

IS THE WORK DESIGNED IN A WAY
THAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE
DELIBERATE PRACTICE?
CHALLENGING? FEEDBACK?
LEARNING?

CULTIVATE INCLUSION
Help people to succeed as themselves.
Best predictor of recruitment AND retention?
Someone’s ability to agree with:
“Someone like me can be
successful here”

I’m A Bit of a Diversity Statistic
 Woman… (working in tech)
 Gay…
 Foreign…
 Employed (this is a bad thing if you’re foreign…)
 Disabled…
 Atheist…
 BUT grew up hugely aware of (unasked & undeserved)
privilege I had growing up white in Apartheid South Africa.

My childhood
was FULL of
signs like these
Horrible & horrific
but impossible
to escape

I CANNOT DENY THAT PRIVILEGE
In fact, the most useful thing I can do is assess,
understanding & acknowledge that privilege

Check out the original article from Peggy McIntosh:
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html
In Apartheid South Africa,
ALL systems were set up to
actively & blatantly give
advantage to white folks and
disadvantage non-whites.
We are less good at spotting
this when it isn’t so blatant.

“We have to aggressively, and uncompromisingly,
attack the pernicious lie that the technology
industry is a meritocracy. Perpetuating this myth
only serves to bolster the egos of those who have
succeeded already, at the expense of saying that
people who are underrepresented in tech today
aren’t present because they aren’t good”
– Anil Dash

NOT DISCRIMINATING IS
IMPORTANT
Legally, if nothing else

BUT TOLERANCE IS A
TERRIBLE WORD
Would YOU want to be tolerated?

WOULDN’T A FULLY
INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT
BE BETTER?
PROTIP: Helps Everyone!

Diversity is a Spectrum
Active hatred &
discrimination (*isms)
Micro
aggressions
Indifference
Active inclusion
Tolerance

“A micro-aggression is
telling young boys that
they are very smart,
and telling young girls
that they are very
pretty. ”
- Faruk Ates @kurafire

So How Do We Move Right Way?
1. STOP allowing underprivileged groups to be
pushed away
(actively/deliberately OR passively/unintentionally)
2. START building actively inclusive
environments

Some Things That Work…
(some of these surprised me)

Reduce Fear
Increasing opportunities is worthy & important.
But reducing fear is equally so.
(tips: reduce impact of failure, risk of
humiliation, acknowledge risk IS DIFFERENT for
those in underprivileged groups)

EDUCATE YOURSELF & OTHERS
ABOUT PRIVILEGE & IMPLICIT BIAS
If you keep doing what you always did, you’ll keep
getting what you always got

Privilege = Difficulty Setting of Game of Life
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/

Implicit Bias
Very interesting Harvard research into implicit
bias – we don’t realise it, are not ACTIVELY but
rather PASSIVELY discriminating
There is a site with tests you can do that reveal
your bias: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

http://xkcd.com/385/

Check the Signals You Send
• Logistics matter – do all your events exclude
people in particular groups? (e.g. those with
caring responsibilities)
• People can’t judge your intent – only your
actions (you can harm without meaning to)
• Language matters (what default are you
assuming?)

Check If Systems are Loaded
Companies that assess effectiveness / performance and then
AUTOMATE pay rises based on this tend to reduce the gender
pay gap.
One interpretation:
“Pitching for a pay rise” inherently favours men, who tend to be
more confident in their abilities and more comfortable talking up
their results.
Shy/humble guys suffer too.

Johnny Clegg
They taught us to forget our past
And live the future in their image
…
They said
“Learn to speak a little bit of English,
Don’t be scared of a suit and tie.”
Learn to walk in the dreams of the foreigner.
I am a third world child.

MOST ADVICE READS AS
“BE MORE LIKE A STRAIGHT CIS
AMERICAN WHITE GUY”
Finding a way to be successful and still be yourself is
important

Frame Guidance Altruistically
• Advice which focuses on how to “do better for
yourself” has a very limited appeal. (a la
“steal more pie”)
• Altruistic advice (a la “bake more pie”) appeals
to a much broader audience (including non-
individualistic cultures…)

When We Reframed Networking…

The Most Important Question
Best predictor of recruitment AND retention?
Someone’s ability to agree with:
“Someone like me can be
successful here”

VALUE THE WHAT OVER THE HOW
Know when people need telling what to do
(Hint: it’s not often)
Help them get what they need the rest of the
time (Hint: not just someone else telling them what to do)
Learn, practise, use coaching skills

As much as 40% better
Much energy is spent
if you have to hide
your private life, or
pretend to be
something you’re not

Role Modeling Matters
• When a woman presents/represents at
recruitment events, more women apply
• When you present a monoculture, people
make assumptions you won’t like

“Did You Always Know You Wanted to
Be So Senior?”
Men leaders tend to say:
“Yes, I always knew I could do more.”
Women leaders tend to say:
“No, but my mentors believed in me, and I
trusted they were right.”

Practical Diversity
1) Assume fear. Understand risk. Then focus on reducing.
2) Advise people to bake more pie, not steal more pie.
3) Understand & educate about privilege & implicit bias.
4) Connect people with role models.
5) Grow more role models. Encourage them to be visible.
6) “Someone like me can be successful here?”
7) Tell people you believe in that they can.
8) Tell people you believe in that they are there because of their
skills. (no one likes being a diversity stat)
9) Find ways for ALL to be true to self AND successful.
10) Look at whether your processes/systems discriminate. Fix.

SWEAT THE “SMALL” STUFF
Autonomy, mastery & purpose can’t overrule or
compensate for poor tools / environment / lack of
inclusion / lack of caring forever

EVERY
ROLE IS
CAPABLE OF
VIRTUOSITY

GO!
SHAPE/MAKE SPACE
BE AWESOME
BE INCLUSIVE
And thank you for participating 
Need help? meri@chromerose.co.uk

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