novembre 2010Monthly :

Since the introduction of the PC in the workplace, dramatic performance improvements have been few and far between. In an age where there are more jobs in services than in manufacturing in Canada and where the employees are highly educated, we can wonder why there isn’t any dramatic performance improvements. There certainly isn’t a lack of innovation in organizations, so could it be that something else needs to change?

It is true that the people entering the workforce refuse to be managed like their parents were. They expect to be treated fairly, be given a challenging position where they can learn and apply their skills, and manage their schedule. In this context, standardized work practices and traditional management styles no longer help increase employee performance, it can actually reduce the teams’ performance. Traditional work methods also have the negative impact of driving people away or making it difficult to attract new talent.

Very few people would debate that it takes time to develop highly performing teams and once you have the team on the road to success, you wish to retain your employees. It is these high performing teams that are often the source of innovation within an organization. As long as the organization creates the right environment for people to generate new ideas.

Ever since the 1900′s with Fayol‘s – Plan, Organize, Direct, and Control – managers have been following a traditional approach to people management and we believe that changing the leadership style – to become Agile leaders – is likely to deliver better results and performance.

Why Scrum increases team performance?

As I recently mentioned, traditional managers are used to

Seeing how Scrum positively impact productivity and team performance, it becomes critical to determine how the managers must behave to support such progress. As such, managers must:

32 hours to code like it was the last code you’d ever write… Sounds like a crazy thing to do, doesn’t it? A bunch of crazy guys (myself included) formed Team Sosoft. As you may have guessed already, Sosoft stands for Social Software. André thought that if we had just a few lines of code left to write, it be awesome if it could be code that would help a non profit organization. I couldn’t agree more.

That’s why we created Hibou which you can see on my github. We built a community kindergarten management application using Ruby on Rails, driving it’s development with BDD using Cucumber and RSpec, and deploying the application on heroku.

I honestly cannot remember when is the last time I had so much fun coding. We were all either rusty or complete newbies with Rails or even Ruby for that matter, but it didn’t stop us from having a blast. I mean can you really believe that we were in production 1 hour after beginning to code? The development is obviously not over, but with less than 32 hours of development, we managed to deliver value to the “Carrefour péri-naissance de St-Eustache” sprint after sprint, with sprints that lasted only 1 hour. I don’t want to say that it happened because we were riding the Rails, but I’m almost certain that we would not have had as much fun coding for a cause if we weren’t…

A good design job and a little more time to code and Hibou will save a lot of time to the brave people of the CPN St-Eustache.

Two pairs of Rails wielding developers, trained in the art of BDD, delivering quality and value… Sounds like something you need to get web application running? You can contact Pyxis to get Team Sosoft!

Hey folks,

for the past few months, we’ve been in contact with the Illinois Regional Agile Users Group. Recently they have completely revamped their website. In order to manage their backlog, they have asked us to give them a free license of ProjectCards. We kindly did so.

So far the feedback we have gotten has been tremendously positive. Some people in the community have liked working with ProjectCards so much that they have since recommended us to some of their own consulting clients. Amongst other things, they really liked the simplicity of getting started with ProjectCards. They also enjoyed the instantaneous user feedback.

As our long time users can tell you, having your taskboard and planningboard updated in real-time when someone else makes a change is an awesome feature to have when you have a distributed teams. ProjectCards can also be used directly within Eclipse or Aptana as a plugin. Perfect to keep us developers involved !

If you represent an Agile, Scrum or a developer’s user group and need a free tool to manage your activities, drop us an email at support@projectcards.com. We are always looking forwards giving back to the Agile community.

If you’re in the region of Illinois, we’d like to invite you to check out IRAUG. You can get in touch with either Maria Matarelli or Scotty Bevill of BevillEdge who are its very friendly organizers.

The ProjectCards team.

Well, I guess I just did…

As I start my next exciting job at Pyxis today, I thought it would be a good idea to launch this new blog with a very personal and true story about some amazing events that have happened to me this year – events that have had a tremendous impact on me, my career, my colleagues, my family, my friends and even my two dogs! 

Running over the next three weeks, this post will relate my journey through these events and how I decided to deal with these challenges.

• Week 1 (today): The first part of the story – Why quit a high-profile job? 
• Week 2: Four lessons I learned during the process. 
• Week 3: The self-analysis exercises I used to support my decisions.

I hope this story of mine will be an interesting source of insight for anyone considering a major change in their career and help them decide whether they are ready to take the leap.

A bit of background

I’m a driven professional with loads of entrepreneurial spirit and a genuine love for this thing we call management. By that, I mean the true art of achieving outstanding results by bringing together talented people and providing them with the very best environment so they can blossom to their full potential.

For the last two decades, I’ve been very fortunate to have had the privilege to do exactly that, carrying out leadership functions within a variety of organizations, from publicly traded technology start-ups to established global enterprises. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. 

On January 5, following a minor skiing accident, I wound up in a hospital emergency room, only to be greeted by the kind of the cliché you’d expect to see in a Hollywood tearjerker:

“We have good news and bad news for you, sir. The good news is that you didn’t sustain any injuries during your accident. However, when we X-rayed your head… um… well, we found a brain tumor the size of a ping-pong ball. No, this isn’t someone else’s X-ray… this is your brain…”

Whoa… talk about a nice way to cap off the 2009 Christmas and New Year’s frenzy. I’m 46. I have two beautiful sons, an amazing wife and a job many would be envious of.

A mere two months beforehand, I had received a promotion I had worked very hard for, in the midst of my employer’s most ambitious restructuring initiative in its 110-year history.

I was working for the Desjardins Group, the largest financial cooperative group in Canada, with about 50,000 employees, 6 million clients and members and assets of $173 billion. My title was Senior Director, Innovation & Strategic Planning, and I was responsible for four key groups that oversaw strategic organization-wide IT initiatives. Our job was to implement three-year strategic plans and road maps, so our work influenced a lot of people and departments within the organization.

Two months into the job, I had just finished putting together a winning team for my new department. And there I was, about to have emergency brain surgery with a 50/50 chance of making it through. Even once I did, I still had four long months of recovery at home in front of me – totally disconnected from work.

“Welcome back, Yves – the next wave is coming at you!”
 
Yes, the surgery was a total success. I’m a survivor and very grateful to be one!

My neurosurgeon was thrilled with the results. The first thing he said to my wife and kids was, “Daddy will be skiing with you guys again next year!” I was simply amazed by my good fortune. I went back to work with energy to burn. I wasn’t afraid of anything anymore. Not a single thing.

Upon my return, I was told that a significant second wave of change had had a direct impact on most departments of our IT unit, mine in particular. The purpose of the transition – which was a justified and future-oriented move – was to shake things up a bit and help realign our departments missions over a matter of months.

Details about this are not public, of course, so I won’t get into them here. The point I want to make, though, has to do with the need to be aware of the reality of major restructuring operations. Most start out enterprise-wide, then trickle down to targeted units. Along the way, the process refines itself and adapts to specific realities.

Those of you who have gone through similar changes know what it’s like: You always hope the first set of adaptations is enough so that everybody can move on, get back to work and focus on business goals. Secretly, you fear a second wave is on the horizon but hope you’ll be spared – at least until you and your team have had the chance to show you’ve triumphed over the first wave.

I felt like I had been gone from work for over a year. Things I had been building in a hurry before I left were evolving in directions I didn’t expect, didn’t fully understand or didn’t agree with. You get the picture: I was totally disoriented. The changes being made, although they were necessary and designed to ensure long-term prosperity, were brutal from my perspective. I had to ask myself a hard question: Was I the right guy to surf the next wave?

Let me be clear here: Desjardins is one of the greatest places I have ever had the privilege to work at. Desjardins is a true Canadian icon known for its social engagement, commitment to excellence and unique corporate culture. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the century-old institution will come out of this restructuring operation stronger than ever and with the utmost of respect for its most important asset – its people.

A large-scale restructuring is no picnic. It brings with it many challenges as well as many amazing opportunities. When you encounter major obstacles like this in the workplace, it’s important to remember it’s all about context. This is something I will cover in next week’s blog when I discuss the invaluable lessons I have drawn from my experiences during the past year.

“Hey, the tail shouldn’t be wagging the dog!”
 
My survivor attitude took a severe blow at that point. Most of my co-workers were doing their very best to keep their chin up, but some of my team members were growing discouraged and disheartened. It was hard to cheer them up on a daily basis, but it was part of my job to do just that. And, anyway, it came naturally to me, as the kind of person who automatically stands up and fights for the people I work with.

Despite my newfound feelings of fearlessness, I began questioning myself. I started to think a lot: every day, every hour, every minute. My four months at home after my brain surgery had given me plenty of time to reflect. My perspective on just about everything had already changed forever. Some interesting self-analysis exercises I did at that time were a big help in this regard (come back in two weeks for more on this, in part three).

I was tempted to make a bold move immediately and run away from the challenges I was facing. After all, the expression “life is short” had taken on a whole new meaning for me since January 5. But I did not make that leap. Instead, I decided it was time to put a positive spin on events and work even harder at the issues my team and I were up against.

Needless to say major restructuring operations are tough on people. But when managed correctly they pave the way toward a better future. In many cases, big changes put more pressure on employees and get them to work faster. In others, however, the pace actually slows down, which is what happened with our group – presenting us with a real window of opportunity.

I could have waited for official plans to be handed down to our unit, but I instead decided it was time to be bold and express my concerns. So I approached various executives from our CIO’s office, HR advisers and other key contacts within the broader organization.

Now, imagine for a moment the type of management activities going on in a large-scale financial institution in the midst of a comprehensive restructuring offensive. Surprisingly enough, my contacts, even the higher-ranking ones, were quite open and receptive to me. Even though we were all working heaps of overtime and subject to the unrelenting stress of a constantly changing environment, they did their best to provide guidance and support.

My goal was to engage in a dialogue with the executives I would most likely end up reporting to. I broached issues involving the future of my department and its people, as well as my own career path within the organization. Most of the subjects discussed were tricky. Some of the answers I got were not exactly what I was expecting; others were quite reassuring.

I kept the channels of communication open and touched on many sensitive matters over a period of three months or so. My fellow execs did not have all the answers, but they were in a position of influence and, in some cases, had a direct say as to the next steps to be taken. This part of the process ended up being very constructive, as I was laying the groundwork for a brighter future for a lot of the people on my teams, making sure their interests and their talent would be used in the most sensible and effective way, whether or not I would be there to see the outcome.

All in all, the people I consulted offered me something of great value: in-depth discussions about hard facts and new longer-term perspectives that alleviated shorter-term panic. This is something I would not have been able to achieve on my own, hidden away in my office, shaking my fist at the restructuring gods.

Plus, armed with the results of the self-analysis exercises I did during my four-month-long convalescence, I was able for the first time to compare my objectives and ambitions with what I now consider to be a very solid “due diligence report” on the situation at work and the options available to me and my employees. Incidentally, this approach also generated a lot of attention for my team from higher levels of management and empowered them to carve out their own paths as the restructuring progressed.

So what was next? It was decision time for my own future. I had tangible and real options in front of me that would translate into a constructive, comfortable career at Desjardins. Or I could leave the organization to pursue other, riskier, professional challenges.

My choice was very clear: the self-analysis sheet I had produced described exactly what my goals were for the next five years or so. And although the due diligence report I had created with my team appeared very promising for my department, many of its parameters were not in synch with the objectives I had identified.

It was then I recalled the words of my mentor, Laurent Proulx: “When the tail starts wagging the dog, it is time to ask yourself if you are doing the right things at work.”

Well, the findings on my sheet of paper confirmed the situation was indeed the wrong way around. I was trying to craft a large unit within Desjardins to fulfill my own personal vision – a vision that was not aligned with the key aspects of the mission for the group to ensure it persevered through the next wave of change and, ultimately, achieved success.

So I resigned… after three months of extensive discussions and contemplation, I was convinced I had done my homework, talked to the right people and was moving ahead for the right reasons and according to a timeframe that gave me the leeway I needed to make sound decisions.

On the day of my resignation, I submitted a detailed transition plan for my successors and dedicated five full weeks to coordinating these efforts before I left.

One important thing here: I quit because I knew I would have done so anyway within a matter of months. Could I ignore my self-analysis exercises and due diligence report and still preserve my personal integrity – not to mention the integrity of the people reporting to me or the organization as a whole? It was time for me to allow others better suited for the position and the mission to give it a whirl and make the most of this tremendous opportunity. It was time to allow others to motivate and inspire my crew to master the next wave of change.

Next week, I will share with you the lessons I learned from this experience. I hope my observations will help others as they contemplate their own career path.

In the meantime, you might be interested in reading the following:

• Seven Keys to Switching from a Big Company to a Small One — (Harvard Business Review – October 28, 2010)
• Turning Conflict into Cooperation — (Businessweek – October 15, 2010)
• 13 Unlucky Mistakes in Managing Traumatic Change — and How to Avoid Them (Harvard Business Review – March 22, 2010)
• Professing truths about management — (Henry Mintzberg / Finacial Post – September 14, 2010)

With the hockey season well on its way and the Canadiens doing well so far, an interesting question popped in my head – is the winning team, the one with the best players? You can guess I am less interested in hockey than I am with business teams when that question appeared.

As a manager or a leader, isn’t our job to find the best players for our project or our organization? If we don’t have the best players, aren’t we doomed to fail?

With that question in mind, I did a not-so-scientific exercice. I looked at the winning teams in the last 5 years and determined if there was a correlation between the best player (in this case, the best offensive player) and the winning team. Much to my surprise, in the last five years, only in 2008-2009 did the best offensive player(s) win the much coveted Stanley Cup when Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby played with the winning team (Pittsburgh Penguins).

Much in line with a post I wrote last year, it makes more sense to focus on creating a highly performant team than to hire on “the best” individual contributors. The same seems to be true in hockey as it is in a business setting. Wouldn’t you agre?

Hey guys,

a couple of weeks ago we started gathering massive customer feedback from our customer base. Actually, we went so far as to search for every potential customer we ever met and who ever downloaded ProjectCards without buying it and plainly asked them this question : “What did you think of ProjectCards ?”.

The reception we got was somewhat surprising. A LOT of people we had not heard of in years gave us some very candid and useful feedback on our application. A few people really did not like our products. That happens. However, a LOT of non-buyers actually LOVED our products. It just missed a little something to make a match between us.

We actually learned a lot from this whole activity. We also had a great time exchanging with you guys.

We’d like to thank everyone who gave us feedback. We’ll do the best we can to include your suggestions in the upcoming releases.

For the curious, here are a few quotes we got from people who did not even buy ProjectCards :

“We found ProjectCards extremely useful in planning our small project. If I were to end up in another Eclipse-based project that warranted such planning and activity management, I’d certainly recommend we use ProjectCards.”

“I really appreciate your continuous follow up with customers too, cause it

present your good and professional work.”

“We used ProjectCards at the start of one project. The project developers and management were very happy with it, but ….

sadly, our company standardized on [...]. We’re not as happy with it.”

“I was happy with the product. I used it at my last job. At my current position, they have chosen to use[...]”

“I think we are overall quite fine with it. We found the

burndown charts not that straight forward to understand. I guess that’s it.”

“Our biggest need was for a web tool. Sorry.”

“I really like your product, ProjectCards. I downloaded it with the intent to use to keep track of one man show projects.[...] Seeing that I only intend on one person using the product then there seem no overwhelming to purchase it.”