Talk given at the Dynamo 21: ‘Tech Leads the Way in a Challenging World’ event on 17 June 2021: https://www.dynamonortheast.co.uk/events/dynamo-21-tech-leads-the-way-in-a-challenging-world/

1. Applying open practices & ways of working
to improve performance
Open Leads the Way
Katrina Novakovic
Chief of Staff, EMEA Services
1
June 2021

2. 2
Agenda:
Impact of the Pandemic
Safety: Creating a safe blame free environment
Structure: Creating an open structured environment
Mindset: Think more openly and curiously
Just Start: try something new!

3. 3
Impact of the Pandemic
Unexpected disruption
Social distance
Stay home
Unprecedented times
New Normal
Non-essential
1-metre-plus
Herd immunity
Support bubble
Flatten the curve
Quarantine
Super spreader
PPE
Contact Tracing
Face covering
Hand sanitiser

4. 4
Accelerating transformation for a post-Covid-19 world
100’s of executives from business sectors around the
world share how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their
companies’ digital transformation efforts.
Many were forced to re-evaluate their priorities, and create
new strategies to adapt.
This report (2021) reveals how digital leaders are re-examining
where they are and how they move forward.
Sponsored by:
A survey from:
www.redhat.com/en/engage/digital-transformation-culture-innovation-20181113

5. 5
Digital Transformation
HBR, Accelerating Transformation for a Post-Covid-19 World, 2021 (sponsored by & Red Hat)
95% of global leaders surveyed say that
digital transformation is more important
in the last 12 months than ever before
26% believe a major organizational
challenges is the lack of a clearly
defined digital transformation strategy
26 %

6. Culture
6
HBR, Accelerating Transformation for a Post-Covid-19 World, 2021 (sponsored by & Red Hat)
84% of executives say that having the right culture is
important for their digital transformation, but still presents hurdles.
Prior to Covid-19, adopting cultural changes was difficult. However, the pandemic caused
businesses to adapt to the sudden changes in how employees get their work done.

7. People & Remote Working
7
HBR, Accelerating Transformation for a Post-Covid-19 World, 2021 (sponsored by & Red Hat)
“Cultural transformation and change
management have attracted greater focus
because retaining talent is so much harder when
large numbers of people work in home offices.
Executives need to do everything they can to
make sure remote workers continue to identify
with their companies.”
- Kai Bender, market leader for Germany and Austria at
management consulting firm Oliver Wyman
Office → remote working

8. People & Remote Working
8
HBR, Accelerating Transformation for a Post-Covid-19 World, 2021 (sponsored by & Red Hat)
of the leaders plan to earmark spending for collaboration platforms that
support video conferencing, data sharing, and content creation.
say attracting new talent and enhancing people skills are higher priorities
than in the past for their digital transformation efforts.
79 %
Another goal is fostering corporate team building and loyalty among employees who
work from home offices.
47 %

9. Innovation
9
HBR, Accelerating Transformation for a Post-Covid-19 World, 2021 (sponsored by & Red Hat)
“Certain activities, such as generating ideas for new products, are
tough to do in a remote environment. These activities rely in part on
informal interactions and chance encounters in the hallway.
Smart organizations will put processes in place that make [informal
meetings] more feasible when people are working remotely. That may
mean scheduling one day a week in the office when people come in and
have an opportunity to chat.”
- Thomas Davenport, Babson College distinguished professor of information
technology and management.

10. 10
Innovation
McKinsey & Company, June 2020
Share of executives who list Innovation as their number 1 or 2 priority pre-crisis vs today.

11. Agility
11
McKinsey & Company, Sep 2020
61 %
Silos / lack of
cross-functional
collaboration
42 %
Slow decision
making
31 %
Lack of strategic
clarity
25 %
Rigid policies
24 %
Formal hierarchy
Biggest Barriers that Impede an Organisations’ Speed:

12. 12
How do we accelerate
digital transformation?
What should we do?

13. 13
People are looking for solutions
without asking, why do I have the
problem in the first place?
“”
Peter Crone
Mind Architect. Thought leader in human potential and performance.

14. 14
People Practices Platforms
Successful transformation
+ +

15. 15
Organisational Culture
A group of
People
Sub
cultures
Unique
A group of people form certain mindsets, behaviours, habits and values,
which influence how we act, including how we communicate and collaborate.

16. 16
Open Source Communities
People actively participating in Open Source communities
tend to be highly effective in distributed/remote teams.
What is Open Source?
● is a development methodology made possible by a specific
licensing decision
● refers to something (software, hardware...) that can be used,
viewed, modified and shared

17. 17
Open Source Software Communities
An open source software community is a group of people united
by the shared purpose of developing, maintaining, extending,
and promoting a specific body of open source software.
Members occupy
different geographic
regions and work across
numerous industries.
Globally distributed
Members unite around a
common vision, a spirit of
camaraderie, and a
collective identity.
Shared vision

18. 18
Address challenges
the open source way.

19. 19
How to Implement Cultural Changes
Based on Open Source Principles
Safety Structure Mindset Just Start
1 2 3 4

20. Safety
20

21. 21
Physiological Safety
Psychological safety is being comfortable to be and express yourself without fear of
negative consequences of self-image, status or career. Safety looks different to everyone.
In 2015, Google published a study about what they saw as the 5 attributes for a high
performing team. Psychological Safety was by far the most important attribute.
“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not
be punished or humiliated for speaking up
with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes."
- Amy Edmondson, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, 2014
Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE

22. 22
Assessment via a Survey
1. If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against
you.
2. Members of this team are able to bring up problems and
tough issues.
3. People on this team sometimes reject others for being
different.
4. It is safe to take a risk on this team.
5. It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
6. No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that
undermines my efforts.
7. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and
talents are valued and utilized.
reWork, with Google
OPTIONAL: Ask additional questions, eg.
● “It is easy to collaborate with members of this team”
● Comments

23. 23
What do You do with the Assessment Results?
● CAUTION - Involve the right people: HR team, external facilitator with expertise...
● Set the intention: Does everyone on the team agree that we want to be better and improve our performance?
● Share the results: show overall scores on charts and present comments. Ask people for their comments.
● Identify the top issues you’d like to improve.
● Perform a specific exercise, Eg.
○ Statement: “Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.”
○ Focus on conflict (don’t make it personal):
■ How often is there conflict in your team? (no conflict doesn’t mean everything is ok!)
■ How is conflict dealt with? How do people feel about conflict?
■ How comfortable are you to disagree with various team members?
■ How open is the team to include diverse perspectives?
● Ask: Which 3-5 actions/behaviours can we (as a team and each of us) do to improve psychological safety?
● Eg. Be more patient, give my feedback more often, celebrate our team successes more, encourage silent
voices to be heard...

24. 24
Mindset and Behaviours to Create Physiological Safety
● Value truth. Be open to criticism.
● Focus on a problem and not a person
● Assume good intent: ask what is the person’s intention?
● “My team will be annoyed if I disagree with them” vs “My team expects me to speak up.”
● Encourage others to speak up, give them the space for it.
○ Encourage questions. Ask questions yourself.
○ Ask for feedback. Act on that feedback (show you’ve listened)
● Show vulnerability or fallibility. Admit mistakes, lead a good example.
● Replace blame with curiosity, focusing on improving in the future.

25. 25
Open Practices to Create Physiological Safety
Create a social contract
An agreement created by team
members to define the way the team
chooses to behave and work together.
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/social-contract/ & https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/retrospectives/
Hold retrospectives
Opportunities to reflect, inspect, and adapt
ways of working. Often at the end of sprints
(rather than project) but can be any time.
Respect Honest
Have fun
Keep the culture
Be present
Core hours 10:00-16:00
Team Social Contract

26. Structure
26

27. 27
The Open Organisation

28. 28
Degrees of Openness: Default to Open
Individuals have self-interest
Trust is earned
Information is protected
Lack of cross-functional collaboration
Title equals power
Closed
Control
Isolated
Hierarchy Release early,
release often
Participation Inclusivity
Meritocracy
Community Transparency
Free exchange
Open
Teams connect and form community
Trust is given
Information is shared (highly transparent)
Collaboration across functions and projects
Meritocracy

29. 29
The Open Organisation
Red Hat why: Transparency
Conventional
approach:
vs.
▸ Share what we are
doing & why
▸ Invite participation
▸ We all have access
to information &
materials necessary
for doing our best
work.
Inclusivity Collaboration Community Adaptability
▸ Good ideas can
come from
anywhere. The best
ideas should win.
▸ Give everyone a
voice
▸ Take steps to get
inclusive feedback
▸ Co-create with
passionate people
globally in all
functions & levels
▸ Enhance each
other's work in
unanticipated ways
▸ Solve problems that
we can’t alone.
▸ Create a community
that welcomes all &
encourages
participation
▸ Unite around a
common purpose
▸ Shared values &
goals guide decision
making
▸ Release early,
release often
▸ Experimenting &
iterate to see
problems faster & in
new ways
▸ Adjust continuously
throughout the
process
▸ Work not shared
until completed
▸ Inclusivity driven by
corporate leadership
▸ Leader-mandated
collaboration
▸ Participation pushed
from top down
▸ No adaptation:
Leaders know best

30. 30
Starts with Leadership Buy-In
● Eg. training, career
development,
performance reviews,
recruitment, budgeting…
● Model the behaviours
you want to see
Organisational &
team structure
● Incentives: career
advancement, pay raises /
bonuses, recognition…
● Rewards: individual vs. team
performance (metrics), trust
& cooperation, peer reward
systems...
● Autonomy: instead of rigid
command & control
structures
● Cross functional teams:
eg. DevSecOps, Business...
Incentives
drive behaviour
Importance of
middle managers

31. 31
Communities of Practice
A community of practice is where a group of people who share a common concern or
passion interact regularly to improve their understanding and produce a better outcome.
Within Red Hat, we have internal global communities for all RH roles to collaborate to help
solve our customer needs. These communities can be technical or non-technical.
Learn more: article “What is a community of practice in an open organization?”
Take down hierarchies &
champion cross-functional
contributions
Hear new ideas no matter
your role/position
Tap into everyone’s
unique abilities & skills

32. 32
Create an Environment for a Fail Fast Culture
Design experiments that
fail fast and fail small.
Use rapid feedback
cycles to evaluate &
adjust as needed.
Impact on customer services.
Failing early in the process
can spot defects & errors
before deployment.
Build new skills, eg. via
pairing and mentoring.
Have the tools needed to
fix defects promptly &
efficiently.
Work in iterations
(small chunks)
Train & equip
your people
Consider the costs of
failure

33. 33
Benefits:
● Lightweight, modular
● Faster development
● Easier to use
● Cost effective
● Improved user experience
10X
Velocity to
production
Cost reduction
per app
Less people
per app
$19.3 M
4 YR NPV
(Infrastructure)
90%
Infrastructure
cost reduction
10X
More value per
public servant
10X
10X
Key Results:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat CloudForms
Red Hat Gluster Storage
Red Hat Consulting
Red Hat OCP
Red Hat
CloudForms
Red Hat Fuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aux0n73gFoU
https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/government-of-british-columbia-case-study

34. CORPORATE SLIDE TEMPLATES
34
https://thenarwhal.ca/it-s-official-no-provincial-charges-mount-polley-mine-spill-one-largest-environmental-disasters-canadian-history/

35. 35
Open Government Allows...
● Any citizen can contribute to
open source code repos
● Legislative policy debates in
open source repos
● Complete transparency of
progress (monitor as being
built) builds trust &
confidence
Facilitation of Collective
Civil Action
● Visible in GitHub repos
● Procure external developers
and pay for SPRINTS
● Removed the Costly & Time
Consuming RFP process
Agile Procurement
Methodology
● Break down silos; allow
cross-jurisdictional collaboration
○ Generic workflows (wizards)
○ E.g. Ministry of
Transportation
● Engaging more citizens,
employees, & entrepreneurs
● Gov operates more like a startup
● https://codefor.ca/
Communities
of Practice

36. Mindset
36

37. 37
Mindset: How Open Leaders think, on Our Best Days
DEFAULT TO OPEN
Inclusive Growth
Enterprise
Opt-in
Everyone has something
unique to contribute
Everyone has untapped
potential
Everyone has a
responsibility to lead
Everyone benefits when
we all put the mission first

38. 38
What We Believe: Open source culture enables
self-sustaining, constant innovation and transformation
Be open &
share
Put
customer
needs first
Embrace
complexity
Pick principles
over practices
Choose
agility over
agile
Test
internally
Use the
right
recipes
Think big

39. 39
Objective:
● Improve experience for banking
customers and back-end tech users
● Shorten dev cycle to get products to
customers quicker
https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/deutsche-bank
Built open source PaaS to simplify
DevOps collaboration, optimize
capacity, & increase efficiency
Cut end-to-end app dev time from
6-9 months to 2-3 weeks
Moved from traditional approach to
agile, flexible integration, iterative
work and automation
“Transformation goes beyond the
infrastructure and applications to the
capabilities you need & the way you work”
- Nick Boyle, program director for enterprise risk
technology, Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank.

40. Just Start
40

41. 41
JUST START.
Avoid long-term roadmaps
● Plan just enough to start,
identify key challenges
Communicate & share
● Appropriate tools for
distributed teams,
celebrate progress
Transparency
● Provide access to
view/comment/edit
documents.
● Share drafts (not just
final versions)
● E.g. Pair programming
Small chunks/iterations of
work
● Establish a social contract
● Regular updates to ensure
progress
● Know people’s workloads &
challenges (don’t assume)
● Hold retrospectives

42. 42
“We need to deliver products to market quicker than ever and be more responsive
to market trends. We want to become the bank of the future.
We want to be more dynamic in the way we produce applications and make
better use of our underlying hardware and software, as well as our staff.”
https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/deutsche-bank
Implemented a DevOps approach and a PaaS environment, allowing developers to work more
efficiently to quickly release updates and features. Self-service capabilities have cut provisioning times
from weeks to hours and freed up IT staff to work on new, valuable projects instead of routine tasks.
“We can think of an idea, try it, fail, learn, and make adjustments. Culturally, that’s a big change.”
- Simon Cashmore, Head of PaaS Middleware Engineering, Barclays

43. Summary
43

44. 44
Safety: Aim is for teams to feel safe to try new things out (experiment) and
openly discuss failures in a blame-free environment where fail-fast leads to fast
success.
Structure: Encourage teams to experiment in a structured environment where
the quicker they fail, the quicker they can make improvements
Mindset: Learn to perceive failure as fine-tuning processes and spotting
errors/defects. Change from “failure is not an option” to “failing fast means
learning early”.
Just start: try something new! Work in iterations. Design experiments that fail
fast and fail small.
1
2
3
4

45. Learn More
45

46. 46
Accelerating transformation for a post-Covid-19 world
A survey from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services
Hundreds of executives from business sectors around the world
share how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their companies’ digital
transformation efforts. Many were forced to reevaluate their
priorities, and create new strategies to adapt. Read this report from
Harvard Business Review Analytic Services to discover how digital
leaders are reexamining where they are and how they move forward.
www.redhat.com/en/engage/digital-transformation-culture-innovation-20181113

47. 47
Not Just Technology… Building High Performance Teams & Cultures
● Psychological safety
● Open Organisation
● Open Leadership
● DevOps Culture & Practices
Training: DO500, DO250
● Open Practice Library
● The Open Organization book
series
Open Source Program
Office (OSPO)
● Support & consultation for
strategic Red Hat customers &
partners who desire to integrate
open source principles in their
business model.
● redhat.com

48. 48
Open Leadership Enablement Program
9 interactive webinars [May - July 2021], each just 25mins
https://red.ht/open-leadership-program

49. linkedin.com/company/red-hat
youtube.com/user/RedHatVideos
facebook.com/redhatinc
twitter.com/RedHat
Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise
open source software solutions. Award-winning
support, training, and consulting services make
Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500.
Thank you
49