We’ve decided it’s time to venture into the great unknown and take a crack at fulfilling our lifelong dreams of entrepreneurship! Before I introduce you to Merely, let’s rewind the clock.
Memory Lane
It was 2014, and I was looking for a rebound out of a toxic workplace. I had an idea. I wanted to build an economy around sound software engineering and quality practices. I envisioned algorithms, rules, and heuristics powered by blockchain systems of record and proofs-of-work. The linchpin was a cryptocurrency that would sweeten the deal to promote better practices. A reason to follow the disciplines we now know predict software delivery performance.
It was a heady thing. And I was not prepared. I jumped into learning the crypto domain by building rigs, mining, trading, and studying open-source code. I practiced public speaking and getting over performance anxiety by streaming shows on Twitch and making YouTube videos. I wrote business plans and talked with potential investors.
I was not prepared. Despite having managed teams and massive projects in the past, I faltered as a team manager. It was crushing. You can’t launch a tech startup without being an effective team leader. You just can’t.
The Way Out is the Way In
Walking away from that idea was a challenging experience for me. When I decided to go back to a “normal job,” I needed to make it count. I needed to find an environment, not a role, that needed a team transformation and would give me some rope to figure out how to make it happen. I needed to find the zone. That’s the spot where it’s a bit too much, but not so much that you can’t get back up again when you fall.
I found that environment and stayed in the zone. Over nearly five years, my team and colleagues kept pushing me further as a leader. I learned things I didn’t even know I wanted or needed to learn. The result was something special. A team aligned not only on a vision but a collection of values and practices—an emergent culture.
Top Three
Boiling it down, I can find three things that propelled our transformations on that team.
- Nurturing Generative Behaviors
- Courageously Address Pathological and Bureaucratic Behaviors
- Generously Spread Ownership, Responsibility, and Accountability
See: A typology of organizational cultures and DevOps culture: Westrum organizational culture
The short story is that “Fear is the Mind Killer.”
While I’m a big fan of Dune and the Litany Against Fear, it is an incomplete picture. As leaders or individuals, we cannot and shouldn’t aspire to be fearless. It’s a helpful indicator to be alert to real danger. Harnessing fear yields power, but courage is even more powerful.
To nurture courage, we must reduce the potential pains that drive fear in those around us. Give room for bravery, but don’t gaslight yourself or your team into thinking there is no challenge or risk. In a generative culture, we share in ownership and risk. Failure should lead us into a dialog that benefits everyone. When we do this, blame is destroyed and replaced with people who are excited to account for outcomes.
My favorite line in the litany is, “Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.” If you have a culture that produces fight, flight, or freeze, it’s time to go down the list of behaviors that describe pathological and bureaucratic cultures. Get out the trowel, the water, and the fertilizer!
| Pathological: Power-Oriented | Bureaucratic: Rule-Oriented | Generative: Performance- Oriented |
|---|---|---|
| Low cooperation | Modest cooperation | High cooperation |
| Messengers “shot” | Messengers neglected | Messengers trained |
| Responsibilities shirked | Narrow responsibilities | Risks are shared |
| Bridging discouraged | Bridging tolerated | Bridging encouraged |
| Failure leads to scapegoating | Failure leads to justice | Failure leads to inquiry |
| Novelty crushed | Novelty leads to problems | Novelty implemented |
I didn’t know about any of this when I dove into attempting to transform a team. At least not in the terms above. I did, however, know how I failed in the past. As I explored those failures and tried to address them, people came around and gave me the tools to find the science and refine my approach.
Merely, Inc
Merely: only; and nothing more.
Founding a startup can’t be done successfully through team leadership alone. You need to find a viable opportunity in the market, have a sound strategy to address specific market challenges and execute in a highly competitive landscape.
I’m passionate about Agility. For me, it’s not the processes or frameworks around Agile but the cultural and behavioral necessities of the principles and values. It’s an open door inviting generative behaviors in to stay.
Passions are an excellent place to start. Our passions can fuel the grit required to work through challenges. Over the last six years, I’ve driven twenty products as a product owner/manager. Let’s not get into why so many, but that means I’ve seen much of how product management can nurture or discourage a generative Agile culture. Merely products and features will create open doors inviting Agile behaviors at every level of product management, development, and delivery.
Companies that are Agile at breadth and depth are seeing 60% higher revenue and profit growth rates. Now, less than 20% of companies are doing that. Our products alone won’t fix that, but we can help.
First up: Address the cognitive and practical dissonance of long-term feature roadmaps handed to Agile development teams!
Let’s make no mistake about it, I love what we are setting out to do. But not without fear. And that’s good, we’ve got plenty of courage to go around!
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