WEBVTT 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.000 to hearing about and we are super excited to be here with our first public meetup. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:37.000 So and after Nick gives us an intro on aspm you'll land it back to me. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:47.000 I'll do a quick introduction for rich and then rich will be able to speak about joy, for the next close to an hour, and at the end of that we're going to leave time for questions. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:01:01.000 Feel free to put your questions in the chat to do that we'll probably unmute everyone at the end, and then, finally, we'll have a recording posted up on our website for about 90 days after this meeting. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:06.000 So I will hand it back to Nick to talk about Aspm. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Sure my pleasure. Hello, everyone I'm nicholas couples as you can see, not the founder, but I am a member of the Svpm to be here and I can explain a little bit about what we're all about for those who 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:24.000 are new to it. First and foremost, aspn as a community, a collaborative community. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Evangelists as we can, eventually became a nonprofit organization which supports its community. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:42.000 Evangel practice known as Silicon Valley Project management revolves around a blog site for technical project management with a focus on agile values and methodologies. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Svpm provides an experience of agile for those looking to gain experience and scrum by developing a website. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:02:03.000 So, for example, if you've done a scrum master but we're never given an opportunity to try your hand being a product, honor, for example, give a lack of prior experience, you could gain that experience at Svpm or if you're someone 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:07.000 who only has an education of scrum, or perhaps certificate or 2. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:12.000 We offer a chance to gain experiences as chromos, or without having years of experience. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.000 What you need in order to start and a paid position the infamous catch. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:23.000 22, so you could say we're a bridge of sorts bridging the gap between academics and job experience. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:33.000 If you have any questions about our organization, just let me know i'll put a link in the chat for those of you who may watch to visit our website. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:41.000 That's it. thanks so much nick and I just want to say you know many of us on this meet up here. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.000 We've been involved in aspm for a while some are new, some are older. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:52.000 I've been involved with this organization for a few years and I want to extend a special thanks to our founders. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:05.000 David Baknia and Donald Strangari, who have built an organization around a learning practice of sharing and growing together, and safety and joy, which is the topic of the day. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And I just to bridge in this discussion over to Rich, you know. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:20.000 It was about a year ago when I started thinking about how joyful it was to be working with this group of folks at Aspm, and how wonderful it is to build an organization built around. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:30.000 Joy. What does that mean? How How does one do that? And right around that time I was lucky enough to come across Rich at a meetup for the job. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:38.000 Hackers. Some of you might have heard of the job hackers. and Rich was talking about this idea of joy in the workplace, and I was just so taken with it. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:46.000 I promptly read all of his books, went to learn more about his company. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Menlo innovations which he started in 2,001 with a co-founder, and they're based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:59.000 They're custom software and consulting firm and they have built a wonderful practice there. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:05.000 Entire vision is around joy, and delighting the customer with the products that they build. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:19.000 For the customer. Rich has been around the world talking about this content joy which, by the way, isn't just possible rich, says it's essential. and i'm sure we're gonna hear more about that from rich now and building 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:26.000 profitability, and and just about any metric you could think of at your organization. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.000 He goes around the world talking about building joyful organizations. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:38.000 About 20,000 people in the past 7 years have come to hear rich speak, and i'm sure it's even more than that. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:43.000 As the days go on, who doesn't want more joy in their organization in their life. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Right, so that's why we're so excited to hear more about it before I I, you know, send it over to rich. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:57.000 I just want to say Rich has been been in featured in many press outlets, such as ink. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.000 Forbes Bloomberg, Us. News and World Report, Npr. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Is on point. podcast Npr's all points all things considered business review. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:20.000 And as videos are with the Jemba Academy vital smarts in the Arbinger Institute. and also, I just want to say, congratulations rich. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:26.000 I know you just got inducted into the Shingo Academy, for example, flying a lifetime commitment to organizational excellence. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Congratulations and congratulations to menlo innovations that's received worldwide awards around the most one of the most joyful companies in the world. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:44.000 So without any further ado, we are so joyful to hear about what you want to bring to us. rich. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Thank you, thank you. I I wanna hear the Guy you just described. Give a talk so so great to be with you all, and i'm going to intersect joy with something that, isn't always as joyful as it should be and could 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:12.000 be in this idea of software. You know I i'll give you a little bit of background about me. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:25.000 Why i'm a guy who talks about software and joy So I love this quote from Psychologist Royal May said a long time ago, he said, The opposite of courage is that cowardice. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:30.000 But conformity. So i'm going to take you on a non-conforming journey. I'm. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.000 A guy who writes business books that have words like joy and love on the cover. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:48.000 And that's it right by itself is a non-conforming, and perhaps a little courageous journey, because I wasn't sure anybody would care, or that I wouldn't just get laughed at as diane's you know I get to speak around the world now 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:56.000 clearly. I hit a nerve with this subject, and it it was an important one for me when I was a kid way back in 1,971. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:07.000 I touched a computer for the first time. I was just 13 years old, and I tech do a two-line program and do a teletype, and it clacked out high rich, cause that's what I do. to do. and I was hooked I knew what I wanted to do the 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:13.000 rest of my days, you know. here we are 2022 51 years later, I'm still in the software business. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:16.000 So somehow the 13 year old knew i'm not quite sure how that happens. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.000 But I was fortunate to be in one of the right places at the right time. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:25.000 By 1973. I typed all the Major League baseball players into the computer. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:32.000 So, my friends, and I could play our favorite Major League baseball teams against one another in the cold Michigan winter months. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 Yep, you're looking at the guy who invented fantasy baseball. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:44.000 My life is littered with lost opportunity like that. But that that program is entered into an international programming contest. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.000 I won the gaming category and it watched a career. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:58.000 I started writing code for pay. I could even drive a car, and I stayed working through high school graduation, but eventually came to the University of Michigan. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Here in Ann Arbor, where I now live degrees in computer science, computer engineering, and had this lovely career rise by all world measures looked perfect. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:11.000 I went for programmer 1982 to Vp. of R. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:22.000 And D in 1997 you every year raises promotions, stock options, greater title, greater authority, bigger team, size, everything the world measures the success. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:35.000 I had. Well, this is Southern line that looked like this, and by my mid thirties my heart was breaking for career that I thought would carry me for a lifetime. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:43.000 I do want to be in the industry anymore. so how could it be that I had all this wonderful career success where my bosses were telling me you're doing a great job. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:50.000 Rich keep going. and yet here no way I didn't even want to be in the industry anymore. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:57.000 I was contemplating moving my wife and 3 hunters to Canoe Camp, starting a canoe camp in the boundary waters of Minnesota. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:09.000 That's how far away from technology I wanted to get So what was going on well for those of you who've touched in this industry that all you know that chaos reigned supreme in the street? 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.000 I used to come home after very long days, and my wife would look at tire me. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:20.000 Say I need to get a lot done today, so I got No, I got nothing done today in the trouble with operating in chaos, for 2 longest things go bump in the night. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:26.000 They go wrong. Negative events occur right. You read about them every day in the paper. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:30.000 Some system crashes, or sometimes an airplane crashes because of bad software. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:46.000 And you know, when that happens there is typically a corporate response that looks like a big 3 ring binder full of stage dated documents, templated documents, committees, standing committees, meeting cadence sign-offs approvals 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.000 you got to put a price an office in charge of all of it. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:54.000 If you go from chaos to full bureaucracy, go from the Atlanta, be everything, and done quite frankly. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:10:00.000 The land of never doing anything started cause you're waiting You're waiting for an approval of meeting sign off or something like that. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000 And of course the trouble is in the software industry things still have to move forward. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:09.000 There's still stuff that has to happen so then shadow groups form. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:13.000 You start playcase the bureaucracy on one side, and operating in chaos simultaneously. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:20.000 And that was my life. That's why my heart was breaking Now, at a certain point I rose up high enough at management. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:29.000 I thought, Hey, you know what I think there's a better way Why don't we dial back this software development lifecycle product so onerous and create a little light version of it? 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:42.000 A little stapled gig other document just a few meetings a few committees, a few signals, but even that didn't work, and eventually get rid of all this stuff. declare we're agile or lean or some other 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.000 business buzzword of the day, and typically all that meant was for chaos over bureaucracy. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:53.000 And this was my life back in goes that's what was happening down here. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:11:01.000 And so I was trapped, and I was scared and I didn't know what I was going to do the rest of my career. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:10.000 But as I looked at those 3 daughters of mine and my wife in the house and the cars, and the wonderful life we had built. That's right. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:22.000 I can't stay trapped in this industry the way it currently is got to find a way out, and those who know me well know me as chief optimist here at memo I was stuck in a room full of manure I was going 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.000 to keep digging, because I knew there was a pony in this room somewhere. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:32.000 I was absolutely determined to find it. And so my journey out led me to authors and books, but not books on technology. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:39.000 Quite frankly. The books that I was looking at were books on teamwork and collaboration and systems. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:43.000 Thinking all of these books, like Tom Peters in search of excellence. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:50.000 Peter drecker's books on Management Peter Sang Use Book the Fifth Discipline on the Art and Practice of Building and Learning organization. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.000 All of these books were telling me there was a better way. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:12:04.000 Something companies had found it. they didn't tell you what the formula was they didn't give me an instruction guide, but at least it gave me hope that my thought of there's got to be a better way was actually 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:09.000 invalid, and then in 1999. A magical moment happened. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:15.000 I had already been Vp. for 2 years at this tired old public company. and 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:21.000 I had a quick moment I met a guy. I read a book and I saw video, and they change everything. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:25.000 And I have not looked back since it's been 23 years. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.000 It happened, the guy I met was my now co-founder, James Gobel. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.000 He was a consultant. I brought in to my old company. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:39.000 The book I read was by a fellow programmer named Kent Beck, an unusually named practice called Extreme Programming. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:47.000 And the video I saw was a nightline episode on a industrial design firm in Palo Alto called Ideal. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:56.000 And those 3 things all happen within a few weeks of one another, and it changed everything for me. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:06.000 And over the next 2 years I reinvented that tired old public company into something that looks like memo today to join. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:14.000 I got back to the joy I was seeking personally, and then in 2,001 Kaboom Internet bubble bursts. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.000 Lose my job. I go home and tell my wife what it happened. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:24.000 She looks at me with tears in her eyes she says you're unemployed, and I said, no honey, i'm an entrepreneur. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:34.000 Now. And so that was when Memo got started. and 2,001. We just celebrated our 20 first birthday last Sunday, so I guess we're legal to drink down. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:47.000 But in 2,001 I lost everything title job, authority, paycheck stock options went to 0 all gone. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:55.000 They couldn't take away what i've learned in those 2 years, and what I had learned is it isn't about finding the perfect setting for bureaucracy. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:09.000 What I learned is you can throw this picture away entirely and replace it with a different mental model for leading teams, and the model I'm gonna use with you today is one based on a hobby. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:14.000 I have of flying little airplanes a small pass on your plane side of a pilot's license. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:19.000 The forces that work in an airplane I want to compare to the forces that work on a human organization. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:26.000 Even if you don't have a pilot license like me, you probably have a basic understanding of what keeps a plane safely aloft. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:39.000 There is that force of with lift created by the camera the wing the force of weight that's trying to pull it back down the force of thrust that's pulling the plane forward and the force of drag this trying to hold it 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:52.000 back. And if these forces aren't in the right balance that plane never gets off the ground, what are the analogs to a human organization, Well, I would tell you that the most squandered energy for some planet Earth is the lift of 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:56.000 human energy. The Gallop Group measures human organizations. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:08.000 Decade after decade the numbers of the same 60 to 70% of people in workplaces literally disengaged, and work. That is a fundamental failure of leadership. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:13.000 We need to figure out how to sustain the human energy of our teams. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:24.000 That's a fundamental act of leadership the weight that holds us down the way to bureaucracy that I talked about, and i'll talk a little bit more about that in a second the thrust that pulls us 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:32.000 forward the thrust of an externally focused inspiring purpose to the organization that dragged that holds us back as the drag of fear. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:38.000 So if we're going to get our human organizations off the ground, we better have these forces in the right balance. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:43.000 So what are some things we can do? Well, I can tell you in this? 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.000 Yeah, I know there's a lot of project manager thinking in the group here. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:56.000 You know, for me, Clarity, and giving people the ability to go to work and get meaningful things actually done. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:00.000 Probably 2 of the most important things that we can do to lead our organizations. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:08.000 How often do we operate in ambiguity or operating an environment of chaos where we can't get anything done? 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.000 We started a bunch of things we go to a bunch of meetings. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:18.000 We have a bunch of fire fighting, going on it can be adrenaline producing. but it isn't satisfying there's no joy in that getting anything done. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:27.000 In fact, i'm kind of a checklist oriented person which i'm going to guess is going to appeal to a lot of people in this crowd if I have 2 things to do in the weekend and 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.000 I've already gotten 3 of them done i'm going to write down all 10. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Just so. I have the pure satisfaction of crossing off the 3 that I got done, just because it feels so good. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:52.000 The weight that holds us down meeting load yeah I get into a lot of large organizations, and there's a certain layer of management. That layer and above are literally human sacrifices to meetings, and i'll tell you here's 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.000 a simple formula for sucking the human energy out of an organization. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:01.000 This might even be worth writing down. Number one have lots of meetings. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:11.000 Number 2 do not, under any circumstances, make you need decisions in those meetings, and number 3, if perchance by mistake, you happen to make a decision that's okay. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:19.000 Just don't act on it, and if you follow that pattern day in a day out there will be 0 human energy left in your organization. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:25.000 It will be all bureaucracy at that point and so obviously I'm recommending going in the opposite direction. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:30.000 Fewer meetings, clear decision making, actually acting, taking action on things. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:37.000 You decide the thrust of purpose i'm going to plant this in your in your heads. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:44.000 This is another worthy takeaway. When we think about the purpose of an organization number one, we should look outside of ourselves. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:55.000 Number 2. Every organization, whether a unit within a company or the entire company itself, should be able to answer to easy to ask questions. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:09.000 I'll make it harder later, when I talk deep purpose. But the questions you should be able to answer for any organization is, who do we serve, and what would delight look like? 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:16.000 And this is beyond this normal stakeholder so again, i'll make. I'll give you a homework assignment on that one for you to think about. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:21.000 Mike might be. Once you land your job at the the next company and that sort of thing. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:30.000 But this is really important. This is what pulls us through tough times, and fear is so prevalent in organizations these days. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.000 It feels normal and natural. We are so used to being led by fear. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:39.000 I was taught to lead with fear, because the person who led me who promoted me they led me with fear. 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:45.000 You know I I got pretty good at? It you know I'd be able to go up to somebody hey? how's it going What you're working on? 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:52.000 Are you almost done. you know you've covered in this weekend, you know, and you know, and of course there was only one answer to that question. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.000 So again, there's so many things we can do in all of these areas. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.000 But the most important thing we can do as leaders is to think about. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:05.000 How do we deeper the fear we'll never get rid of all, in fact, that wouldn't even be healthy. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:08.000 There are some things we should be afraid of decrease. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:12.000 The weight of the bureaucracy of organizations increased. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:20.000 The things we can do to lift up the human energy of our team and make sure our team really understands the person of why we exist. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:36.000 What we believe. and if we do these things regularly and systematically every single day, our little corporate aircraft will get off the ground all the time, and then this is usually not what I talked about with groups. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:43.000 But I thought this group in particular would appreciate this little additional element of the airplane model. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:58.000 And so one of the things I appreciate about what we've done here at men, though the books we've read what inspires us is systems thinking simple, repeatable, measurable visible systems give us a lot of clarity 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.000 lift human energy, decrease bureaucracy. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:12.000 But one of the aspects of any system in an airplane system, a typical airplane system, either a private aircraft like the kind of, I think, or a commercial aircraft. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:17.000 You know, fly with the major airlines. They have this really interesting quality built in. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:22.000 They have there's an angle the wings the wings are not flat. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:37.000 They're tilted up just a little bit that angle It's called a dihedral and that dihedral gives the plane something that's really important gets the plane positive stability. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:43.000 Without it you have catastrophic instability our systems should have positive stability. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:52.000 And here's, Why, this is important because ultimately when a pilot's flying a plane let's say you're in the back of the plane, and you're on a commercial flight and all of us sudden you're in 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:58.000 the middle of a storm, and you could feel the pie and going around this, and you're like whoa I hope they're on top of everything. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:07.000 Well the way the plane is built. It is built when it's per term to get back to steady state. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:11.000 The very design of the aircraft produced. This is positive stability. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:21.000 The delightful thing about that kind of systems thinking and all all of our systems should have positive stability built into them, because that means the work of the leaders is lessened. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:34.000 We don't have to pay attention to every little thing if our systems naturally get rid of the small problems and deal with them directly. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:42.000 Then the leadership can deal with the important big problems without being peppered with all little things all along the way. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:46.000 So again, as we think about systems thinking, we should think about, How do we do this? 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:55.000 Because otherwise every little perturbed aircraft is going to have catastrophic instability, and it just goes down to the ground. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.000 So let me tell you a little bit about Menlo. Just so. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:04.000 You have a context to where all this is coming from. As Diana had introduced us. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:14.000 We are custom, software design and development firm that means the work that's happening in the room behind me is the spoke work we're building, designing and building software on behalf of our business. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:18.000 Clients. That's what we do for a but we have this crazy mission. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.000 We want to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:30.000 There's plenty of it out there and the word we chose to focus our culture on is bringing joy those we serve. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:38.000 So when we say, Who do we serve interestingly enough it's not people who pay us for what we do? 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:40.000 It is the end. Users of the software would create typically don't meet us. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Never pay us for what we do don't even know we exist quite right, frankly, because we're doing business with the customers asking us to build software that they're going to deploy out to their end users either their customers 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:57.000 who bar the products, or if they're using it internally their employees. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:00.000 Those people don't know who we are but that's our focus of joy. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:10.000 And when I give you this purpose-driven homework assignment been, you know, asked, who do we serve, and what would delay look like for them? 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.000 I always tell people, Take your customers, your employees, and your shareholders off the table. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.000 When you consider that, of course you have to serve them if you don't serve them. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:21.000 You go out of business, but a worthy purpose that keeps it. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Team going forward like a powerful engine can pull you forward is one that looks beyond those normal state colors. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:31.000 And you feel like you're making your force for good in the world. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:46.000 You're making a difference in the lives of people and so in order to accomplish a big mission like that we invent some other systems of work, and one of them here that makes us fairly unique is our design thinking practice that we gave 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:51.000 an unusual name, because it takes an unusual approach to design thinking. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:57.000 We call it high tech anthropology and a lot of people who don't know us, who hear this term for the first time. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:01.000 They're like what what is anthropology have to do with software. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:12.000 Well, if you accept that software is ultimately used by humans, Anthropology is the study of human being in their native environment. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:26.000 It starts to make sense, Our high-tech anthropologists go out into the world and study the people. We are intending to serve with the software that we're designing and building trying to answer 3 big questions important 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.000 ones once it can define or not define the success of the project. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.000 If not answered correctly. Number one: What problem are you actually trying to solve? 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:43.000 Too. many people start with solutions in our industry that actually don't have problems need an app really what's the problem you're trying to solve. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:47.000 Well, the problem is, I don't have an app I could tell you nobody on planet Earth. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.000 Every woke up on a given morning, saying, You know what I need more than anything to be. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:57.000 I need a new app. No, nobody has ever uttered those words but me. Right in these presentations. 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:03.000 Finding out the problem is actually challenging right it's often different than people give us. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:09.000 Exactly. Are you trying to solve it for and I can sure you set the team that's building the software it's somebody else. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:18.000 So we need to really understand them. and ultimately, through an iterative and incremental design practice, much like the iterative and incremental software development practice. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:22.000 We have. what is the best solution for that problem in our high tech. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:30.000 Anthropologists have their own process. They go through to get through these initial observations and interviews, and this is an important part about hiking. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:39.000 Anthropology is much of the things they discover about what will ultimately work for end user are not discovered through interview. 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:49.000 They're discovered through observation. and that's an important anthropologists have to be a lot more listening and seem than they are talking and and asking questions. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:26:02.000 I mean they'll ask questions, too, but that'd be usually comes later and ultimately work through an iterative and incremental design practice that produces the kind of results we're trying to do and as diane said 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.000 we get lots of people who come to visit us from all over the world. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:14.000 We get between 3 and 4,000 people a year come from all over planet Earth just to see how we do what we do, and why does it work as well as it does? 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:25.000 And they want to ask us lots of questions and so imagine I mean We're this little company in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan, and people are coming on airplanes from Australia and Africa. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:30.000 America. They want to find out why Memo works as well as it does. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:39.000 They want to learn from us, and we and believe me, we have not discovered the one true way of working, or the best and only way to design and develop software. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:47.000 But we are a living, breathing example of a company that's done it well, and that's why people want to come and learn from us. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:53.000 I wish I had had a memo back in my 1997 days when I was looking for my own solution. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:07.000 But ultimately we share what we've learned trying to keep anything we've learned a trade secret because when you pick a big mission like ending human suffering in the this is really technology, you know you can't do it by yourselves So we try and 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:13.000 enable others to do it as well through our classes through our tour sort of thing. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:16.000 Now I could tell you this is fun. part of memo. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:25.000 All the tour groups. We usually have one to 3 tour groups come in a day in any given day, and of course that all stopped in March March of 2,020. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.000 Nobody was going anywhere and there wouldn't have been any anything to see, anyways. 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:36.000 And so all the tour. stop which is is very sad for us and Then in June of 2,020, we said, Hey, let's let's try virtual tours. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:47.000 Let's run an experiment. We had no idea if people would be interested Since June of 2020, when we started this experiment we've had this centers from 45 Us. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:51.000 States than 68 countries. So they're still coming from all over the world. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:58.000 The delightful thing much like for you today. You're here by the click of a button, and you're back home by a click of another button. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:09.000 And so the virtual tours have democratized a lot of the access to memos thinking, because now people can come from all over the without the expense and inconvenience of flights and the time, required and all that kind of 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:12.000 stuff. Just stay in their homes and click on a button in there. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:20.000 Here, and you know when people do come, whether virtually or otherwise, they want to know. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:23.000 Is this joy thing actually tangible? Can I see it, or is it just something? 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:31.000 Some of the theory concept and when people would come in the room the one behind me here, and that's the big door and up in the corner there. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:42.000 This is what they'd see one big open room no walls, no offices, no cubes, no doors, people working 2 to a computer. the pair switching every 5 days. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:46.000 All of our programming work is done as per programming. but so is our high teachers. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:52.000 Anthropology. So is our Qa. work, everyone working shoulder to shoulder in close collaboration. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:05.000 The walls, no offices, no cubes, my co-founder and I sitting right on the room, using tons of visual artifacts, paper-based planning systems, but all of the work done a memo in this 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:14.000 fashion in this big open room in downtown and Ourber Michigan, and then, of course, March sixteenth, 2020 get out of the building. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.000 It's like a fire drill, take as much equipment as you need. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:24.000 Go home and It was a very sad day for Memo to watch this. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:36.000 All get dismantled, absolutely embraced things to to make sure people were safe and healthy, and I wondered, would men will survive with this? 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:40.000 Finally tune crafted in person, work, environment survived. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:49.000 Yes, and what I realized was all of the things we'd done in the previous 19 years to build teamwork and collaboration and trust. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:55.000 The communication we had with each other, the relationships, the empty we have for those we serve in the human energy. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.000 Our team pulled us through remained even when we went virtual. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:06.000 This reacts absolutely embrace the physical distancing that was going to keep us safe and healthy, completely rejected. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:14.000 The concept of social We don't have to be a part socially, in order to be a part physically and safe and healthy. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:28.000 We could still work together. And one of the things that fascinated the people who would come on tour is this idea of 2 programmers working shoulder to shoulder together like, really where do you find people who want to do this right and then, switching the pairs every 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:35.000 5 days. So here's ian and then working the other 8 h a day, sharing a keyboard in a mouse, working on the same task at the same time. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.000 This isn't Come, help me with my work this is our work done together. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:52.000 This is what pair programming looks like they're their peers are sitting nearby them, so you'll see them jump into conversations every now and then talk through some issue, maybe in a ben need to help Maybe somebody else needed help 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:57.000 from me, and then and then they're back to work and this wide, open, collaborative kind of noisy environment. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:02.000 Constant conversation in all the pairs every single day. This was Memo. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:07.000 For our first 19 years, and I will tell you the people who come into virtual tours want to know. 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:12.000 How How did this park translate? I mean, I could see how maybe some of the other stuff did. 00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:17.000 But this part Well, it's actually kind of easy to imagine this is what pairing looks like. 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:21.000 Now, or at least most of it now we're sort of back in the office. 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:26.000 But this is you, Finn and Sarah, 2 of our Menlonians. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:32.000 This is them attending daily standup. We were pretty sure that cat has an important role to play in. the process. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:35.000 We just haven't figured out what it is yet think It's. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:40.000 Qa: But yeah, this is what pairing looks like. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:45.000 There, they're in and all the video meeting with their pair partner bare partners on the right screen code. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:51.000 They're co-developing is on left screen little Research panel on the right screen in constant conversation. 00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:54.000 This was actually the easiest part of memo to translate. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:58.000 We had been doing remote pairing with our clients for about a decade. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:04.000 Up to this point where the other person on the screen was a science developer trying to learn from us. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:09.000 But this way they join Helen and Nicole in a meeting, and then back to work that sort of thing. 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:14.000 So this is what bearing is looked like for what I would call pandemic memo. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:23.000 So the first version was original Memo 19 years pandemic memo about 18 months, and now i'll give you a little peaks into emerging them. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:27.000 That's my word for like we have no idea what's coming next Picked a fancy word. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:35.000 Make it sound like we know and just so you know a little bit of the construction of memo. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:43.000 I've a fairly simple team structure class on the left side of the you know the people who pay us for what we do. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:48.000 Processes, project managers, every one of our clients as a project manager assigned to them. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:56.000 Then some combination that'll shift over time based on the the size of the project, the phase of the project, and so on. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:06.000 Some number of high tick anthropologists some number of software developers, and some number of quality advocates the project over time every week. 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:14.000 We're making a decision. Our project managers get together, do this generic thing we call resource planning that this is really, How do we organize our team? 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:22.000 We literally reorganize the company every Thursday afternoon and publish that reorganization on Friday afternoon. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:27.000 Yeah for the next following Monday. And so what happens is everybody finds out on Friday afternoon. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:32.000 Which project am I going to be on next week? and who am I going to be paired with? 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:47.000 And this is what it looks like. it's a simple spreadsheet that our project managers collaborate together with them, and every team member has a column on that spreadsheet with 10 boxes morning and afternoon 5 days a week to 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:49.000 tell us what projects are you going to be on this week? 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:55.000 And every one of our projects is code name. So you see, Angelina, here is on the glass. 00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:02.000 John for Monday and Tuesday, and then on the Star project for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday next week. 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:08.000 And so again we We publish this to the team so everybody knows very high clarity. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:11.000 There's no ambiguity that come in a Monday morning. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:27.000 You know exactly who they're going to be paired with you know the going to be working on, which that is, And then our project being management artifacts, actually tell them what's the most topmost priority there's a 00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:30.000 lot of things we had to invent during the pandemic. 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:36.000 One of the things we delighted in when we're all in a big room together is what we call high speed voice technology. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:40.000 The ability to call a meeting by saying, Hey, Katie? 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:50.000 And you know and i'm in a meeting with Katie at that point, just by calling out across the room, Well, you can't do that when you're all home and the team really missed that high speed voice technology component how do I find 00:34:50.000 --> 00:35:01.000 my peers. How do I get a hold of them do I send them an email or text them phone call whatever And so the team's like, hey? We're already in our pairs already, which means we have a published We have a 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:05.000 video link between us. Why don't we just publish that video link to the rest of the team? 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:11.000 And so this little experiment was born that ultimately became what we call our video meet sheet, and it just has everybody's name in the left. 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:21.000 And which video link they're using on the right so it's really easy to find people we have a daily standup meeting every day called by this startboard on the wall. 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:32.000 The dartboard has an alarm in it and every day At 10 o'clock the alarm in the dark books goes off, and we gather in a big circle passing around the 2 horn plastic biking elements are talking 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:36.000 stick. Reason we like the 2 horns is, we work in pairs. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:40.000 Report out in Paris is really convenient yeah you weren't talking stick. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:42.000 We have a tradition of babies in workplace. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:47.000 You can ask me about that later. and but this is the traditional memo. 00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:56.000 For the first 19 years daily stand up. The whole team comes, takes 13 min by design or anything. 00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:59.000 We just look at the clock when the meeting ends and it's usually 1013. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:06.000 I defy most organizations to begin a meeting of the 65 people but 13 min. Let's call it assemble. 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:16.000 It started. Hold it. Give everyone a chance to talk and complete it in 13 min, and of course the pandemic kits, and we got to figure out how we're going to do this and Everybody's like Well, there's food just do a big 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:29.000 Zoom meeting it's complete. another disaster Nobody knew who was first who was paired with food and who was next our delightful little 13 min standup meeting started taking 35, 40, and we thought, Oh, we got to kill stand up and Then the team said. 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:41.000 Hey, Wait a minute. let's let's use our cultural values to run an experiment to try something because what we're missing is the plastic breaking moment. The team's like Let's use the chat window for that as you arrive 00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:51.000 at. Stand up with your pair partner, just put in there you know i'm paired with Diane, and you know it's rich and Diana, and then it's you know Nicholas and Katie and then it just 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:53.000 lines us all up and we know who's first we know who's paired with them. 00:36:53.000 --> 00:37:03.000 We knows. Next we know Who's last delightfully stand up, got back to 13 min, which is wonderful, And then, of course, we start coming back, and we got another problem. 00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:07.000 How do we hold this hybrid? Stand up Some people in the office, some people on the screen. 00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:17.000 And we said, Okay, we'll just put a big Tv screen and we'll stand near it and we'll we'll announce things, and it was a complete nutter disaster and awkward and uncomfortable 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:20.000 and nobody could hear, because the people who were talking were too far away. 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.000 And so then, teams like, Okay, we gotta solve this problem. 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:31.000 So then, he said, Let's just have the people in the office spin around and have the microphone by the television. 00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:38.000 So now our little stand up. meeting is kind of a spin around, meeting, at least for the people in the office. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:43.000 And then the obviously everybody on the screen there is chiming in as well. 00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:52.000 So again, just kind of a little bit of a sampling of how Menlo solves problems, figure sinks out for all of our history. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:38:03.000 We've done our what I like to call our work packages on index cards, storycards, we call them, and a handwritten index cards to find all the work of memo first that wasn't going to work in the 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:07.000 pandemics. we finally switched to electronic artifacts. 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:13.000 We'd plan with paper as well this is our planning system our scope authorization system. 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:25.000 What we do is we take the story cards. once estimated, we fold them to the size of the estimate, so that 4 h card literally is half as big as an 8 and a 30 two-hour card is 4 times as big 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:31.000 as an 8, and then we plan it against budget. this empty box on this, on the sheet. 00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:39.000 It represents 32 h of storycarded work and Then what our customers do Is they pick up those cards and put them down on the planning sheet? 00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:46.000 And what's delightful about this is it's a very collaborative tool that exactly defines How much do you have? 00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:50.000 How many, how many people? Every one of those sheets represent? 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:58.000 2 people working for a week for 80 h and so now they picked up the storycards, and of course, at some point the customer picks up one more. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:09.000 You're like it doesn't fit where do I put it like you can pick something if equal or greater value, and put the not strong, but that one's more important great Find one. That's less important right no project in the 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:13.000 history mankind. You go all the way back to the Pyramids. 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:29.000 If you want ever got done without prioritization without the ability to find some fundamental way to say we're going to do this, we're not going to do that simple paper based planning system gives us a chance to do that and the delightful thing 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:37.000 is once once the once the planning gets done there's still cards on the table, and those are the things we've explicitly decided not to do. 00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:43.000 Of course, can have people in touch in pieces of paper. So we started using other means of doing this. 00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:45.000 We finally settled on Trello. Same kind of thing. 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.000 Our customers picking up these trello cards moving them into swim lights. 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:56.000 I'll just say not as ideal that is tactile that sort of thing, but it is worked in is run memo for most of the pandemic. 00:39:56.000 --> 00:40:03.000 Then we go to a work authorization scheme where we put the cards up on the wall under people's names. 00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:07.000 So every the specific assignments are understood. This is a project of 16 people. 00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:19.000 Every one of the swim lanes is 2 people associated work together on this project for a week, and then the cards are placed in the order that they're expected to be, and place next to the day. 00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:25.000 We expect them to complete, based on the estimates that came from the people who do the work, and as the yarn piece of yarn moves down. 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:37.000 That's a scheduled performance syntax I Hope some of you are delighted as how well I can use Pmi term in this discussion, and I love torturing the Pmi. 00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:45.000 People who come here with this because they're like no this isn't bmi like Oh, this is that yarn is scheduled performance index and i'm like, Oh, and this is a work authorization board and 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.000 those are work packages, and all that kind of stuff are like. 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:54.000 Oh, I never thought about it that way, And so the yarn moves down, and everything above the yarn should be completed. 00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:59.000 Everything Blow it? likely not. Of course no project is perfect. and how do we know where things are? 00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:04.000 At little colorful, sticky d yellow says It's active orange, as we think we're done. 00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:11.000 Green, says Qa. Check the work It is done so now, you can look at this board, and it should only be green and orange above the string on the yellow below. 00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:22.000 If it's right where we thought it would be but no project ever is, and we delight in these kind of visual display boards as their transparency, accuracy. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:26.000 And then, because here doesn't make bad news go away it just makes it go into hiding here. 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:37.000 It's right out in the open for all the seats and of course couldn't do this during the pandemic. So we simulated the dots with the little oval in the upper left hand corner of the screen on 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:42.000 trello, and so on, and then weekly we demonstrate to our clients the work we completed. 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:48.000 It's one of the delightful things of an agile approach. Is iterative and incremental approaches? 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:55.000 Allow frequent check-ins. The best systems are the ones that have short communication. feedback loops. 00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:06.000 We work on five-day cycles so every fifth day, our customers coming in for a show and tell, and we reverse the roles in show and tell we don't show the software where we're under our customer, we have 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:10.000 them show it to us that changes the whole engagement level. 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:23.000 The whole conversation, and the whole transparency because customer doesn't always push the button exactly where you expect them to, and they're like, Oh, no, don't go there. and so again, and then, our team watches the 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:37.000 customer's reaction, and that's the way connect the human energy of our team, because every once a week they're actually sitting with our customer and feeling how happy the customer is or not that's on a really important connection rather than 00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:45.000 sending just an emissary off, They have the customer and come back and translate the entire team who worked on the project that we sits with. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:52.000 The customer, of course, can't do those in person during the pandemic not hard to imagine how you could do it. 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:56.000 Show and tell over zoom people into a Zoom meeting. 00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:04.000 Put the software up in the screen. but same sequence happens there's things we're still working on We still Haven't fully replaced. 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:09.000 The high speed voice technology, Hey, man, load a call in all company meeting we use like zoom, chat. 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:11.000 And that sort of thing is it's okay it's not as fun. 00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:14.000 We have a lot of interesting visual artifacts. 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:20.000 This is our paid pay rates that we publicly display for the way to see. 00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:25.000 But certainly our team what everybody makes it them Everybody knows exactly down to the penny. 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:28.000 But everybody makes a memo. it's all represented on this levels portion. 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:32.000 You're the only way you move up and pay is to move up from one level to another. 00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:35.000 The only way that happens is your pure evaluation. 00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.000 Because bosses here. but who would know better than the people you put with? 00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:48.000 As to how you're doing and we have unusual ways of hiring people because we have an unusual way of working. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:44:04.000 We we couldn't possibly hire in the standard way, I used to, which I now sarcastically described as 2 people setting across the table, lying to each other for a couple of hours, and but what we do is an audition we bring 30 40 00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:10.000 50 people at a time have them pair together with another candidate, and give them the weirdest instructions will ever. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:15.000 During an interview. Your job is to help the person sitting next to you that you're paired with. 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:26.000 Get a second interview in their from the same position. you are demonstrate good connections. Skills show us you can support another human being because we're teaching our culture from the moment first contact. 00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:30.000 We work, of course, can't do in-person interviews like this. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.000 So we've done 5 of them now with zoom versions, and they worked. 00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:47.000 We were really worried about this part, but, you know, put people off in zoom rooms with melonians watching in the Zoom rooms just to watch for those collaboration skills all in the spirit of what we do for our clients design and 00:44:47.000 --> 00:45:00.000 develop custom software, teach our process to others, and share and teach what We've learned, with the work and hope inspiring them to a new way of doing doing things, and so delighted to be with you on this joyful journey today I wanted to leave 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.000 some time for Q. and A. So I ran through. I fed you with the fire hose. 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:09.000 I will tell you. The presentation I gave you to you today is unique. 00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:15.000 I folded kind of a best of, because I knew things that might appeal to people in the project management spectrum. 00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:20.000 So I hope I hope this at least inspired some fresh kind of what the heck was. 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:30.000 That thinking and happy? answer any questions. You have one 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:48.000 Thank you so much rich. That was just just so exciting and just wonderful to hear about all these different ways that you're incorporating joy and purpose into your organization, and we certainly have time for some questions. 00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:54.000 Think we've Do we have any in the chat see a whole bunch of chat things here. 00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:59.000 Let's see if there's anything no chat questions doesn't. 00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:07.000 Yeah, Okay, I i've got one I can i've been thinking as you're talking rich so much of what you talk about is agile. 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:15.000 You know you you just doing doing these things right you're Not necessarily attaching ceremony names or anything right? 00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:22.000 You you threw out some of those and and one of the things i'm wondering about is you know how do you? 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:25.000 What do it look like in terms of reflecting on the process? 00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:36.000 Reflecting on. you know, feedback for individuals and for you know the organization or the or the week, or whatever you know time period you'd think about. 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:44.000 Yeah, So let's let's start with individuals So because we pair, and we switch the parents every 5 days. 00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:56.000 There's obviously a great deal of interaction directly between team members, and because we don't have any bosses here, so no one has a reporting relationship. 00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:04.000 The expectation is set very early that you are going to receive feedback from your peers, and you were going to give feedback to your peers. 00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:12.000 We want that to happen moment by moment, day by day week by week we're not kidding ourselves, you know. 00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:22.000 Some people are going to be better at it than others, and what we want to do is make sure that the people are better at it are modeling those skills to the care partners. 00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:38.000 Now this happens right during the interview process itself, so what happens is once the one day once that ex what we call an extreme interview of that work, it's a mass event or people repairing, and that sort of thing for those who 00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:43.000 get back into a second interview. We do a one day trial, and they come in by themselves for a day. 00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:51.000 They appear in the morning with one pair in the afternoon with another one, and the very first feedback session they get is right there. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:53.000 No ask. You know our team lasts the candidate questions. 00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:56.000 You know. How was your day? How did you like working like this? 00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:03.000 What did you learn that sort of thing, and then we'll give them feedback about what we saw, and then if that day works. 00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:04.000 If we kind of get 3 thumbs up, you know. 00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:09.000 Our 2 Melonians prepared to look at the candidate as well as candidate themselves. 00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:14.000 Then we will extend a paid three-week trial, and in that paid 3 week trial. 00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:30.000 The goal isn't to produce a perfect malonian after 3 weeks. but to teach our process while doing real work. And again, these are all paid events, and but also start giving them explicit feedback of things they should be working on 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:36.000 during this 3 week trial, and making it clear that we don't need to see perfection. 00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:41.000 But we do need to see progress towards the goal. We do need to see uptake on the feedback. 00:48:41.000 --> 00:49:00.000 Are we getting a change of behavior if that's required along the way? and in many ways the judgment over the 3 weeks Is is this person willing to learn when just and adapt to the system we have here, and so and then ultimately once you know they're in 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:16.000 the system. And so on that levels board you saw there, we have a a system project that we call prosperity, which is how we give formal feedback to team members. and and we don't have an annual performance review process. 00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:21.000 because we think that's one of dumbest things that American management ever created. 00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:26.000 But but it is pure feedback. And the peers, are you pure? 00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:31.000 Are deciding whether you're ready to move up and if you're not ready? 00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:39.000 Move up. Your peers are expected to give you very explicit items on what you need to work on. 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:46.000 And now the team is inventing a process where particular for our youngest, newest team members, the youngest. 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:52.000 But people who've been here the least the a personal growth plan. 00:49:52.000 --> 00:50:03.000 So you know, it sounds like the things you get out of But these are actually people you work with, who care about chewing that sort of thing as opposed to a bosses who's trying to make sure that only 00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:07.000 3 point, 7% of you exceed our specific patients like that. 00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:14.000 So So yeah And then the process the process again. 00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:20.000 That's a kind of a continuous process. here. we will do retrospectives from time to time. 00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.000 I think we could do more and sometimes our customers. 00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:35.000 You know a lot of these things fit into a easily fit into a scrum kind of framework, and we're pretty adaptable, in terms of which exact framework our customers like to use. 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.000 If they don't have any will use our baseline the memo ways we call it. 00:50:39.000 --> 00:51:00.000 But it's all born out of grum and lean and design thinking, and you know the the best part about any schedule framework you know, which everyone you happen to pick is that they are the the follow the the plan Do check act 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:11.000 cycle of a construct. their their iterative they're incremental. their short communication feedback loops and that's the most important part of any system. 00:51:11.000 --> 00:51:19.000 Is, if the feedback loops are too long, you know, in in an actual or scrum you can get iterative cycles that are just too long, You know. 00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:35.000 Ours are measured in days when you start getting into months for those iterative cycle, they don't have the same value they do when you're doing them on a short term basis, because of some cost mentality thinking of like working Now, people are 00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:38.000 complaining about it. I'm like Oh, God don't change anything you know. 00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:41.000 Got 3 months into the State where if it's only 5 days. 00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:45.000 People like that would be good deal right you work 2 h on this, and you did it wrong. 00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:51.000 Let's go back and correct it and that's really the the best part of agile. 00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:56.000 The ability to make a adjustments because and this side of Heaven were humans. 00:51:56.000 --> 00:52:05.000 We're going to make mistakes incorrect the moment 00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:14.000 Thank you so much, Richard. I want to say that I really truly enjoyed this presentation of yours, and i'd love to get a copy of your deck of it. 00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:19.000 Good. Yeah, I think right here, this link let me just test it out here. 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:26.000 Yeah, maybe it doesn't work for me because i'm in I mean Powerpoint. that is does work. 00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:32.000 Yes, yeah, you go to that link in the I believe the slide deck. Is there? 00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:37.000 Correct me if i'm wrong. but if not just write me an email or shared in a demo innovations. 00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:49.000 Dot com. Make sure you get first question I have for you, which is, could you please clone yourself and put yourself in a leader to put all the plans and leadership positions of all the major corporations around the world. 00:52:49.000 --> 00:53:02.000 Well, I you know people often ask us where we find people and I say we're, you know, we're you're running a really slow a cloning process, because bring those Menlo babies to work but you know 00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:08.000 That's an 18 year process at least. but you know I will say in the spirit of that. 00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:14.000 It is one of the reasons we of these talks we give tours, we teach classes. 00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:21.000 I speak around the world and write books, is hoping to inspire others on the inspiring around joyful journey of their own. 00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:25.000 And and we have I mean I i've seen you know it's. 00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:32.000 Still you know there's a lot of work to do of course that's the best I can do cloning. 00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:39.000 Also I noticed the similarity of your I love your airplane analogy perfect. 00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:47.000 It reminded me of daniel pink and his 3 key things and drive performance, and that's autonomy mastered in purpose. 00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:51.000 And you're well familiar with that and I see purpose as your thrust. 00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:54.000 I was wondering where you think autonomy and mastery that, said I'm. 00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:57.000 I see it as a part of the lips and human energy. 00:53:57.000 --> 00:54:07.000 But how do you apply those things? Would say that is exactly right and and our economy also goes to lightning up the bureaucratic workload? 00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:17.000 Because to take away People's autonomy means inviting heavily bureaucratic systems, and it probably also goes to the fear piece. right? 00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:29.000 Micromanaging people. you know, if your micromanaged and if you have to like, you know, keep waiting for somebody to have a meeting, so you can figure out what to do next. 00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:34.000 And I also think the spirit of any system like ours. 00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:38.000 And I actually I have an interesting name for it. That team actually appreciates. 00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:42.000 I I call just go back to a particular slide here. 00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:51.000 Yeah, right here, I call these work authorization boards, our freedom through Hear any system. 00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:55.000 So let me describe the Tony first. we tell you who you're going to work with. 00:54:55.000 --> 00:55:01.000 We tell you what you're going to work on we tell you what order you're gonna work on, and it doesn't feel very autonomous. 00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:15.000 Does it, But but the freedom kicks in there now you are free to do the work that you love to do, because it's very clear what the customer's priorities are have been given the amount of time you've asked for. 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:30.000 The estimates come from the people who do the and they're simply saying, I think if you give us this current we need 8 h to work on. we need 16 h to work out we're like great Then we'll give you 16 00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:35.000 hours now even that though if they, if they take more than 16 h, are we ask them, is just. 00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:45.000 Tell us you made a guess you made the best guess you could can't as soon as you start whacking on people because they didn't meet their estimates. 00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:59.000 Guess what all estimates will rise I used to say that you know. You start beating people up about estimates, and you know, Then Smith's rise, and the clever project managers cut all estimates in have but the clever her programmers have 00:55:59.000 --> 00:56:03.000 already Pre quadrupled all the estimates Well, you don't have a system at that point. 00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:16.000 You get like some kind of guessing game as to who's you know who's out guessing who here and so in our system, once the board is set, there's no oversight you are free to pursue the work that 00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:25.000 you love the how you accomplish. these cards it's up to you and your per partner, thank you so much. 00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:31.000 We do have one more question. I I just realized Rose has had her hand up for a little bit, Rose. 00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:51.000 Yeah. Okay. just brief thing here. How did you come up with the solution to add pair programming to your high tech anthropologist? division? 00:56:51.000 --> 00:57:01.000 Can you want me through that a little bit? Yeah. When we started memo in the early days, the only people who paired were our programmers and 00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:09.000 But we noticed that the same problems we were solving with our programmers existed with our hypic anthropology team towers of knowledge. 00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:20.000 Hero based systems where the only way you can get more done is to scale the heroes which involved over time It wasn't scalable because you'd only have one individual knew everything. 00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:26.000 About some project, and we finally looked at the high-tech apology team and said, Wow, you guys have all the same problems. 00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:29.000 The programmers have we're gonna start pairing our heart. 00:57:29.000 --> 00:57:34.000 Take anthropologists, and I will tell you. They reacted just like our programmers did the first time we suggested it. 00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:38.000 They absolutely freaked out. No, no you don't understand my works too creative. 00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:45.000 We can't do this like really you try and I tell you now, I mean now we've been peering our it. 00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:51.000 Gift policies for 20 years they couldn't even imagine doing their work without a pair partner. 00:57:51.000 --> 00:58:00.000 Now, how did you get over the initial hesitation to prepare with your high tech anthropologist? 00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:08.000 Because when I went through my boot camp I encountered a lot of resistance towards her programming side. 00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:16.000 You might have guessed that my pair partner are pretty influential and certain about certain things. 00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:27.000 You know, i'm i'm i'm sure and I know we lost some I together about just over the years, you know, even once we already had pairing in. 00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:34.000 People are like. Well, i'll give it a try and they just found out they really wanted to be individual heroes, and that's okay. 00:58:34.000 --> 00:58:45.000 They just can't be that here you know and again, you know there's a lot, you know. I always tell people they're like. What if you got people who want to be individual heroes like yeah 99.9 9% 00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.000 of other companies that can go do that just can't do it here. and so again. 00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:53.000 It isn't just you know this is the way it's going to be. 00:58:53.000 --> 00:59:05.000 We started running experiments with it they started getting used to it there's actually a whole section enjoying the the first we got our programmers to switch to peer programming. 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:10.000 It was an interesting journey. The first time I suggested this to my programmers. 00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:17.000 Their reaction was may him murder don't do don't don't we pull out? But don't put me on a big open room. 00:59:17.000 --> 00:59:22.000 Don't make me share a computer with another being a human being and for God's sakes, please don't make peace my code. 00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:39.000 It's my goat and so that was that was the first reaction. I got to this, and it was an interesting journey. and you know I will tell you that ultimately a lot of change just simply requires storytelling 00:59:39.000 --> 00:59:54.000 persistent, consistent encouragement along these lines and declaring the why behind why you're doing things 00:59:54.000 --> 01:00:02.000 Great. thank you I mean just a time check here we're at a little past the hour, and I do see that there's one more hand up, rich, Do you? 01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:09.000 And group. Should we go another minute or 2 yeah I don't have anywhere else to be. But i'm guessing some of your people there. 01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:14.000 So clearly. You know much of what you're bringing has been great fodder for discussion. 01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:21.000 So we'll take one more question from teresa and then we'll wrap it up. Hi. 01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:25.000 Yeah, I was hoping Bruce could go if I raise my hand. 01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:39.000 I will say This is a very serendipitous, because exactly a year ago I attempted to apply for the internship. 01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:42.000 You used to have an internship on menlo innovations. 01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:50.000 And actually I had a really long conversation about care programming with from another workshop. 01:00:50.000 --> 01:01:06.000 Another kind of mentor friend introduced me to Menlo and innovations, and your book and everything which is unfortunately at the time, like all the programming, was closed and, like, I think, virtual Tours and book club was on hiatus, so did 01:01:06.000 --> 01:01:13.000 it really get engaged. And then, yeah, so sort of like trying to reopen it again. 01:01:13.000 --> 01:01:18.000 So Jay was super coincidental because it was like this name sounds familiar. 01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:23.000 The topic sounds sort of a later and then when diane's in menlo innovations. 01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:41.000 Yeah. So So I was kind of trying to bridge cause like the whole journey of transition to pair programming, and then also applying it to what you've sort of registered as high tech anthropologist 01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:53.000 that's the whole process. I was also wondering if you've thought of, or kind of done, or had other people purchasing about like, I love your model. 01:01:53.000 --> 01:02:05.000 What if it's like outside of just programming like there's lots of community development, And i'm also working with jokes in the library, who are copyright professionals? 01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:15.000 And they're trying to build. kind of education around that and I can see this type of sort of working with the way they're developing the materials. 01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:24.000 But it's just so hard to explain outside of like someone's like like you're agile or things like that. 01:02:24.000 --> 01:02:33.000 So I was just wondering, and then i'll also see like connections with like paired burning through like just education in general right, and that was kind of like this conversation. 01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:38.000 I had a year ago that sort of just ooked my 01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:46.000 So I was just wondering if other people have approached you with similar questions. And, Teresa, thank you for asking. 01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:51.000 You know, we get while a lot of the tour groups are technical teams, right? 01:02:51.000 --> 01:03:11.000 And i'm like we get It tremendous number of, for example, hospital people, health care workers I would say healthcare, and and educators are probably the second and third largest kinds of people come here than we have 01:03:11.000 --> 01:03:15.000 Companies, and so on, and I will tell you. The educators plead with us. 01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:25.000 They say, play world. This is what school should be. Yeah, this is a one room, right? 01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.000 Yeah, the trouble is one of the reasons this is so difficult. 01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:34.000 All the conversations and all the contexts is everybody wants to know. 01:03:34.000 --> 01:03:38.000 How do we measure our people? How do you measure them for individual productivity? 01:03:38.000 --> 01:03:46.000 And our answer confounds them. We see we don't care We don't care about It How can you not care? 01:03:46.000 --> 01:03:55.000 I mean it's like we violated the principle of management like the only way to measure humans is to separate them and think about school, right? 01:03:55.000 --> 01:04:07.000 Yeah, but let's put kids in a little tight box and measure their You know what they what they can regurgitate, and most of that is based on what they were able to cram in their head 3 days before the test 01:04:07.000 --> 01:04:17.000 was like that's that learning I don't know what it sure is he is in learning, and we were trying to get a learning organization here. 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:30.000 And so when you have a bigger goal you're trying to accomplish a lot of the traditions of management, the traditions of society start to fall by the wayside, and you start to see a different way of doing things yeah I 01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:40.000 resonate with what you said and it's super challenging because the reason why I was hoping to get the internship because I was I'm gonna be studying at Michigan with the school. 01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:49.000 Of education. So go blue. 9 months of conditioning is all it takes to get that what I mean. 01:04:49.000 --> 01:04:53.000 But, like the last semester, I did take a evaluation and assessment. 01:04:53.000 --> 01:05:00.000 And exactly the questions that came up is because it's like the contention is like as classmate like me and my classmates. 01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:07.000 But recognize the Dutch who meant the way the grading system is having on students and learning right. 01:05:07.000 --> 01:05:17.000 But just from like an institutional view it's like then how do we quantify like what we're doing here? 01:05:17.000 --> 01:05:26.000 So we justify, for, like the money, the funding to our like endowments, or whatever is helping this enterprise front. 01:05:26.000 --> 01:05:48.000 And just unfortunately, 12 weeks is not enough to come away with any clear direction or insight into reconciling like we know outside of school.