In the following excerpt from Episode 19 of The Idealcast, Gene Kim and Steven Spear interviewed Trent Green, SVP and COO of Legacy Health, on how he and his team used iterative problem solving to vaccinate 8,000 people a day at Oregon's largest mass vaccination clinic. Key learnings from this excerpt include the idea that organizations are really a collection of interdependent microsystems, that you can't improve a process until you stabilize a process, and sometimes you have to slow down to … [Read more...]
Technological Maestros: Characteristics of Innovative Leaders
In Episode 17 and Episode 18 of The Idealcast, I was blown away by Dr. Ron Westrum's notion of Technological Maestros, a definition and list of characteristics for a leader that resonates deeply with me. First, let's look at Dr. Westrum's definition of a technological maestro. This is a term that is used in history of technology a lot. First of all, you're dealing with somebody who has very high energy, that's critical. The second thing is they know what questions to ask. The third thing is … [Read more...]
Organizational Culture and Integrated Problem Solving: Excerpt from Ep. 17 of The Idealcast
The culture of an organization is important. It makes a difference in how everything comes out. In this excerpt for Episode 17 of The Idealcast, Gene Kim espouses on Ron Westrum’s question: How do you measure culture? --- I just wanted to break in quickly and give some more information on what Dr. Westrum was just referring to, because believe it or not, this also came up in the workshop that I took at MIT with Dr. Steven Spear in 2014. NASA: Experimental versus Compliance-Driven … [Read more...]
Three Observations on Leading through Writing
AN EXCERPT FROM EPISODE 16 OF THE IDEALCAST WITH GUEST ADMIRAL JOHN RICHARDSON I had mentioned in part one of my interview with Admiral John Richardson, how much I admired the two documents that Admiral Richardson had shared with me. One had the title A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority. And the other was the Navy Leader Development Framework. I loved both documents because they were both so clearly written. And it was such a treat listening to Admiral Richardson and Dr. Steve Spear … [Read more...]
Building a Culture of Leaders from Day One in the US Navy
AN EXCERPT FROM EPISODE 16 OF THE IDEALCAST WITH GUEST ADMIRAL JOHN RICHARDSON Gene Kim: One of the things that really leapt out at me is your emphasis around leadership development. You had once told Steve Spear and me a story about the extent that you went to, to reinvigorate training, to toughen up the training. You had this incredible story about how that training came about. Getting away from the post 1940 human conveyor belt mentality and the amazing outcome that resulted from it. Could … [Read more...]
Learning Culture vs. Compliance Culture
An Excerpt from Episode 15 of The Idealcast with Guest Admiral John Richardson Gene Kim: I think we've all witnessed situations where an organization that once exhibited dynamic learning characteristics, well, they start to calcify. When I attended Dr. Steve Spear's workshop at MIT in 2014, I loved the way he cast the US space program in the 1960s as one of fundamental dynamic learning. I recently read Gene Kranz' book, Failure Is Not an Option. And I love the way he described his role in it, a … [Read more...]
Announcing Season 2 of The Idealcast with Gene Kim
I loved Season 1 of the The Idealcast because it was a way to further learn from some of the people I admire most within the DevOps Enterprise community. It has really helped me clarify, in my own mind, why organizations work the way they do—both in the ideal and not ideal—and what the conditions are to really enable greatness Season 2 is going to be incredible because it includes guests from outside the DevOps Enterprise community whose work I truly admire. We’ll hear from Admiral John … [Read more...]
Happier Employees Equal Better Business Outcomes
Two Simple Questions for Better Business Outcomes Two questions I ask during 1-on-1s might strike people as a bit unusual, but they directly lead to better business outcomes: Are you happy? Are you able to do work that you’re proud of? Why? A core reason is that I care about the people I work with, and I want good things for them. I want them to be happy! When I learn there are obstacles to their happiness, we generally have a productive conversation about what can be changed. My conceit is … [Read more...]
Understanding Why Organizations Behave the Way They Do: Top Lessons Learned from The Idealcast
In Gene Kim's continued quest to understand why organizations behave the way they do, he embarked on a journey of learning this last year, and he invited us all along with him. The Idealcast's first season saw some of the more influential leaders in tech talking about everything from the MIT beer game to feedback loops and how to structure architecture. As Season 1 comes to a close, we look back on the top lessons learned over 14 episodes. Digital Disruption and the Five Ideals DevOps and … [Read more...]
The Idealcast: Dispatch from the Scenius with Elisabeth Hendrickson
We’re so excited that The Idealcast, IT Revolution’s and Gene Kim’s first podcast, has been met with such a warm and enthusiastic response. This week we’re releasing our fourth episode, the second in our Dispatch from the Scenius series, featuring Elisabeth Hendrickson’s two foundational DevOps Enterprise Summit presentations on feedback loops. You’ve likely heard Gene talk about the scenius before, a term coined by Brian Eno that refers to the collective intelligence of a whole operation or … [Read more...]
