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Chief Disruption Officer

“Disruption” is commonly thought of as a bad thing… Disruption: disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity or process. But to teams that yearn for change to their status-quo, like many in the 90th, disruptive innovation can be welcome. Disruption: radical change to an existing industry or market due to technological innovation. Disruptive innovation is something that many would not expect to exist inside the government, much less the Department of Defense.…

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Accountability

This post documents some thoughts I have about accountability within my organization, and how I plan to speak to the team about accountability.


Accountability is vital in an organization. Within an organization members must be able to work together with trust. Trust often manifests as the belief that individuals will operate within a set of expectations. When behaviors deviate from those expectations, trust within a team is broken. When behavior deviates from expectations, accountability can bring team trust back into balance.

Almost everybody experienced the dreaded “team project” during high school. When the teacher picked the team members and you divvied up work you almost certainly had that one member, “Skip”, who did not pull their weight. Your team assigned them an entire section of writing, but the night before the project was due they didn’t turn anything in. They didn’t pick up their phone. They didn’t respond to email. You may have spent an all-nighter fixing the problem they caused just so your grade wouldn’t suffer.

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Cyber Capability Test Philosophy

I am fortunate enough to lead the 90th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, a unit that delivers software to enable cyberspace operations for combatant commands and the military services. Testing is a vital part of delivering software successfully, but there are many philosophies around how to do so. Our needs around testing are somewhat unique. This post describes how we need to shape our thinking for the future. Today Today we are in a fortunate position regarding test.…

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Philosophy on Diversity

In the unit I am taking command of, we value an environment of continual improvement, agile delivery, and rapid innovation and risk-taking. These are the philosophies and behaviors that will enable us to win, and that will enable our customers to win in competition and conflict against our adversaries. Each of these philosophies and behaviors requires a diversity of thought. Diversity of thought breaks through group-think. Diversity of thought raises issues early, and solves them more quickly.…

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The Unicorn Project

I recently finished The Unicorn Project and found it compelling, as was The Phoenix Project. I wanted to document some of the lessons it teaches, because they’re something I hope to keep in mind while leading a software development unit. These lessons are “the three ways” and “the five ideals”. The Three Ways My thoughts here are expansions of some of the excerpts at IT Revolution. Flow/Systems Thinking Amplify Feedback Loops Culture of Continual Experimentation and Learning Flow/Systems Thinking Consider the performance of an entire system instead of just a part.…

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Meeting: Setting ROE, and Introducing

Setting Rules of Engagement (ROE) Before a recent off-site the boss set the expectations for the event. This struck me as an extremely useful tool. I particularly liked the ROE - I think stating these early got everyone out of their normal mode of working and into the mode conducive to the event. It seems like developing ROE and purpose like this is good to consciously do for many types of event.…

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You Don't Know What You're Talking about

You do know what you’re talking about - you are the expert on some things, specifically, the things you’ve experienced. Remember that you know what you’re talking about there. But be careful to not generalize that and override your team because most of the time… You don’t know what you’re talking about - listen to your experts when they’re describing their situation. They are the experts in their situation, that is why they work with you.…

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An Elegant Puzzle (Part 3) (Chapter 5)

I’m continuing to read an Elegant Puzzle and chapter 5 discusses organizational culture. I think it provides some good actionable and concrete ways to think about culture, and most discussion I’ve seen about culture suggests that it is some mostly ineffable quality. Inclusiveness Will also thinks culture is difficult to reason about, but suggests two major components for fostering an inclusive organization: opportunity and membership. An inclusive organization is one in which individuals have access to professional success and development.…

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Radical Candor - Mark, Chapter Four

From “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott, Chapter 4: If Mark hadn’t decided on these OKRs, what would you all have planned to do next quarter? While Mark’s vision was inspiring, [one team member] felt it was unrealistic. […] They would be working 85 hours per week. […] He had badly underestimated the lag time in a system that made work less efficient than it should be. While Mark’s proposed goals made sense in theory, his team knew there were major obstacles that made his plan impracticable.…

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An Elegant Puzzle (Part 2)

I’m continuing to read an Elegant Puzzle and chapter 3 had some good considerations regarding defining teams and groups during a reorg that I think are good guidelines for building teams more generally: Consider team sizes and management spread. Can you write a crisp mission statement for each team? Can you define clear interfaces for each team? Can you list the areas of ownership for each team? Is each responsibility owned by a team?…

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