A talk on building trust in distributed teams

1. Can I trust what I can’t see?
(Building Successful Distributed Teams)
Mark Kilby
April 2017
Orlando Code Camp

2. What about you?

3. Why Listen?
2001
2003
2008
2012
2013
2016
???
2014
Community
Group
Support

5. culture clash -
7 layoffs
2001
early success
1995
Crushed It!
(with agile)
2003
Sold to Big Co.
1999
Sold to Mega Corp
2007
buy back

7. Why did this work?

8. Satisfy the
Customer
Welcome
Change
Deliver
Frequently
Collaborate
Daily
Support & Trust
Motivated
Teams
Promote
Face-to-Face
Conversations
Measured by
Working
Software
Promote
Sustainable
Pace
Promote
Technical
Excellence
Maximize
Through
Simplicity
Have
Self-Organized
Teams
Reflect &
Adjust
Regularly
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Something missing?

9. more info at
http://remotelyagile.info / @mkilby
Satellite
one or a few remote
from team
Nebula whole team dispersed
Clusters
team in a
few locations

10. Back Channel - always have all
hailing frequencies open (chat);
someone should always monitor
Buddy System - each remote
person has a “buddy” in the
room to make sure they are
connected to the team
(paired communication)
Co-Pilot – someone at another
location that can help you
coordinate the whole team
(paired facilitation)
Developed different “safety procedures”
more info at http://remotelyagile.info / @mkilby

11. modernagile.org

12. Trust

13. Trust
among team
members
as an
environment
built by leaders

14. To try: Who do you trust?
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

15. list who you trust at work
Bob
Judy
Fran
Harry
Laurie
Trenton
Matthew
Frank
Jody
Joseph
Tom
Terry
Adam
Alicia
Arthur
Anu
Manoj
Mark
Mary
Nancy
Mike
Xena
Thor
Pilar
Lisette
Mandy
Bill
David
keep space between columns
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

16. rank those on your list
who you trust the most
Bob
Judy
Fran
Harry
Laurie
Trenton
Matthew
Frank
Jody
Joseph
Tom
Terry
Adam
Alicia
Arthur
Anu
Manoj
Mark
Mary
Nancy
Mike
Xena
Thor
Pilar
Lisette
Mandy
Bill
David
1
5
3
4
2
10
6
7
8
11
9
23
12
13
14
17
15
25
26
27
22
24
21
17
16
19
20
18
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

17. Flip the card over and draw concentric circles
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

18. Place Numbers in the circles as follows …
Trust with
personal info
Trust with
sensitive info
Trust with a task
1
2
limited trust
3 4
5
87
9 10
11 12
13
14
15
16
17
18 19
21
20
22 23 24
25
26
27
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

19. How many in the
center?

20. How can you bring people in to deeper trust?
1
2
3 4
5
87
9 10
11 12
13
14
15
16
17
18 19
21
20
22 23 24
25
26
27
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

21. Trust
among team
members
as an
environment
built by leaders

22. Trust among
team members

23. Trust or
Trustworthiness?

24. C
O
M
P
E
T
E
N
C
E
H
O
N
E
S
T
Y
R
E
L
I
A
B
I
L
I
T
Y

25. Competence
Do I have what I need to
complete the work?
- Skills?
- Information?
- Access to right people?
- Time?

26. Honesty
Will I speak up when…
- I can get the work done?
- I cannot get it done in
time?
- I discover it’s more work
than I thought?
- I need help?

27. Reliable
- Will I …
- get the work done when I say I will?
- communicate timely updates on my progress?
- say "no" when I have too much work in progress?
- provide help when others ask?

28. Do / Will I?

30. Trust
among team
members
as an
environment
built by leaders

33. Oxytocin
- reduces fear of trusting a stranger
- revealed to have consistent relationship with trust
across industries and cultures
- stress is an inhibitor
- could also be identified by certain organizational
characteristics

34. Does your org … ?

35. encourage Ovation?

36. eXpect achievable challenge?

37. Yield to employees to choose
how they work?

38. Transfer management of work
to employees?

39. encourage and model
Openness

40. support Caring
and encourage
relationships?

41. How many people are in your core circle?
1
2
3 4
5
87
9 10
11 12
13
14
15
16
17
18 19
21
20
22 23 24
25
26
27
Exercise courtesy of John Sextro of ThisAgileLife.com

42. Invest in whole person
growth?

43. Naturally vulnerable leaders?

44. Trustworthy organizations
- encourages Ovation
- eXpects achievable challenges
- Yield to employees for process
- Transfer management to
employees
- encourage Openness
- support Caring
- Invest in whole person
- Naturally vulnerable leaders

45. Trustworthy organizations
- encourages Ovation
- has eXpectation of achievable
challenge
- Yield to employees for process
- Transfer management to
employees
- encourage Openness
- support Caring
- Invest in whole person
- Naturally vulnerable leaders
- appreciations
- continuous improvement
- self-organization
- self-management
- transparency
- make safety a prerequisite
- make people awesome
- set vision & collaborate

46. Trusting I’ll wrap
this up on time…

47. Circles & Soup
from Diana Larsen http://www.futureworksconsulting.com/blog/2010/07/26/circles-and-soup/

48. If your team is facing multiple challenges…
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge

49. If your team is facing multiple challenges,
which can they …
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Control
Influence
Respond
(the soup)
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge

50. From Exercise #1, copy numbers of people who
might be able to help
Challenge
(#9)
Challenge
(#1)
Challenge
(???)
Challenge
(#20,#22)
Challenge
(#3)
Challenge
(#18)
Challenge
(#5)
Control
Influence
Respond
(the soup)
Challenge
(???)
Challenge
(???) Challenge
(???)

52. VirtualTeamTalk.com

53. Thanks!
Questions?
more info at
http://remotelyagile.info
http://markkilby.com
mark@markkilby.com
@mkilby

54. References
(in order of mention)
- http://agilemanifestor.org
- http://remotelyagile.info
- http://modernagile.org
- John Sextro’s Circles of Trust exercise
- Audio recording - http://www.thisagilelife.com/119
- Slides - http://www.slideshare.net/JohnSextro/truth-transparency-and-trust
- Onora O’Neill - What we don’t understand about trust - June 2013 -
TEDxHouseOfParliment - https://www.ted.com/talks/
onora_o_neill_what_we_don_t_understand_about_trust
- Mark Kilby - How to Demonstrate Trustworthiness: A Key Success Factor for Distributed
Agile Teams - April 28, 2016 - https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/328433/How-
to-Demonstrate-Trustworthiness--A-Key-Success-Factor-for-Distributed-Agile-Teams

55. References
(more in order of mention)
- Book: Crucial Conversations -Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny,
Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
- See the book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second/dp/0071771328/
ref=as_li_ss_tl?
ie=UTF8&qid=1486488607&sr=8-1&keywords=crucial+conversations&linkCode=sl1&tag=vsmarts-20
&linkId=36a614aa5416ef13d2e3f2f73d0ebe4e
- Additional Resources from the book:
https://www.vitalsmarts.com/resource/crucial-conversations-book/
- Paul J. Zak - Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies – January 17, 2017 -
https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Factor-Creating-High-Performance-Companies/dp/0814437664
- Paul J. Zak - The Neuroscience of Trust - Jan-Feb 2017; Harvard Business Review - https://hbr.org/
2017/01/the-neuroscience-of-trust
- Book: Teach What You Know by Steve Trautman (great Peer Mentoring model)
https://www.amazon.com/Teach-What-You-Know-Practical/dp/0137143680
- Circles and Soup exercise by Diana Larsen - http://www.futureworksconsulting.com/blog/2010/07/26/
circles-and-soup/

56. Photo credits (in order of appearance)
- dark boy. CCO. https://pixabay.com/en/black-and-white-black-
dark-boy-1476784/
- woman’s portrait. CCO. https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-
and-white-dark-portrait-79564/
- Red Jello mold. Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Food-Jelly.svg
- Upward Trend. CCO Public Domain. https://pixabay.com/
p-1015601/?no_redirect
- bucks. CCO Public Domain https://pixabay.com/p-1300389/?
no_redirect
- we’re getting the band back together http://memecrunch.com/
meme/P2V1/we-re-getting-the-band-back-together/image.jpg
- World map. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
International https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:A_large_blank_world_map_with_oceans_marked_in_blue-
edited.png
- agilemanifesto.org
- Satellite. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Navstar-2F.jpg
- Crab Nebula. Public Domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula#/media/
File:Crab_Nebula.jpg
- The Pleiades, an open star cluster. Public Domain. https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_astronomical_objects#/media/
File:Pleiades_large.jpg
- Trust fall. no license stated. http://www.trustseals.com/tag/the-trust-fall/
- Onora O’Neill: What we don’t understand about trust CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
https://www.ted.com/talks/
onora_o_neill_what_we_don_t_understand_about_trust
- National Capitol Columns. CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Three_in_a_row_-_National_Capitol_Columns.jpg
- My 2 sons in a Huey. Copyright 2017 Mark Kilby.
- Presidential Candidate Abe Lincoln. Copyright Adam Cuerden. Used with
permission. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Hicks_-
_Leopold_Grozelier_-_Presidential_Candidate_Abraham_Lincoln_1860_-
_cropped_to_lithographic_plate.jpg
- LNRR Old Reliable boxcar. CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:LNRR_boxcar_Old_Reliable.jpg

57. Photo credits (in order of appearance)
- Interrogations in Jail. Public Domain. https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alessandro_Magnasco_-
_Interrogations_in_Jail_-_WGA13849.jpg
- Oxytocin. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Oxytocin.svg
- Thanks for Playing the Game Show Show. Kevin Standlee.
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/
8638651@N07/7333199274
- Standing Ovation. U.S. Army CC BY 2.0. https://
www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/5677830325
- Range Rover in Iceland mountains. Tim Trad. CC0. https://
unsplash.com/photos/2gk6BDXSxlQ
- Sticker Mule Space Cat. CC0. https://unsplash.com/?
photo=FqkBXo2Nkq0
- Keep Exploring. Justin Lubke. CC0. https://unsplash.com/
photos/Gcl6jcB1r9g
- 91 Open Pictures, Corey Hodgson. CC0. https://
unsplash.com/search/open?photo=6WvIJF_gzi4
- Louisiana Tech coaching staff 1966 Creative Commons CC0
1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Louisiana_Tech_football_coaching_team_of_1966_IMG_
2015063_0001.jpg
- Old Harry Rocks (UK). CC0. Will van Wingerden. https://
unsplash.com/@willvanw?photo=cZVthlrnlnQ