DevOps and Improv

My DevOps journey the past few years has been greatly influenced by the practices used to train Improv artists.  I was surprised to learn that there are quite a few similarities between DevOps and Improv.  The classes I took at both Washington Improv Theater and The Second City Works have been transformative in my career. I will share my experiences from the classes, podcasts and books I have read around Improv and how what I learned can help us as tech leaders within the DevOps community.  

Connecting with Improv

I was first introduced to how improv training might play a role by seeing the talk “Change the Script: Deploy Improv, Not DevOps” at DevOpsDaysDC 2017.  Some time passed and I read Alan Alda’s book “If I Understood You Would I Have This Look On My Face?" and found out Improv has helped him train so many scientists and doctors to communicate more effectively.  I had to take the plunge. I enrolled in a one day Improv for Business class at the Washington Improv Theater (WIT) facilitated by John Windmueller and loved it.  I brought him onsite to work with our shared services group for a 90 minute session. After these sessions I continued to learn and began reading Kelly Leonard’s book "Yes, And" and I felt the need to dig in deeper into Improv.  (Chapter 3 - How to Build an Ensemble is one of the best chapters I have read of any leadership book on how to build a team) I checked out some programs online and found RewireU at The Second City in Chicago. I enrolled in a class in September 2019 and I was not disappointed.

Here is what I found

Innovation is heavily intertwined in the fabric of your culture.  It cannot be mandated, ordered or dictated. It does not effectively reside in a “center of excellence.”  The research backs this up.  Google’s project Aristotle determined that the most important factor for successful teams was psychological safety, not who was on the team.   Dr. Nicole Forsgren's research in her book "Accelerate" and the annual State of DevOps reports shows that communities of practice, transformative leadership, a generative culture and lean practices are all directly correlated to high or elite performing organizations. The RewireU course demonstrated, and by demonstrate I mean you live it in the class, how innovation is fueled by a supportive team/ensemble, authenticity and resilience.  The same way an improv team innovates is not unlike that of an engineering team.

Resilience 

I was introduced to the resilience engineering community through J. Paul Reed and through him I met John Allspaw. He presented his talk “How Your Systems Keep Running Day After Day” at DevOpsDays DC event in 2019.  During his talk John says that resilience is not technology, a job, a process nor a movement (like DevOps).  However it is a community and many fields of study.  One of the characteristics of resilience John mentions is “sustaining the potential for future adaptive action when conditions change.” We experienced this in the class! We did exercises where we had to pivot hard on the initial instructions or where we had limited information and had to work together to solve difficult problems.  We had to work together in non-verbal exercises to solve problems. You can see resilience in action by watching an Improv set at The Second City. They are amazing and sometimes free after the main program. Unexpected comments, plot twists and inevitably a joke falls flat. The ensemble reacts with support and the show is always moving forward.  This resilience often turns the failures into the best parts of the show.  It is constant adaptation, experimentation and agility. Perhaps failure fuels success?  

Sharing and Culture

Resilience is a capability of your organization and it does not grow magically. It requires intentional guidance and support from leadership. It starts with support and safety on your teams. The first day and a half of the RewireU program focuses intently on Improv exercises that help build supportive teams and being your authentic self. Without these characteristics it is difficult to have true resiliency. It is an amazing feeling to experience and unlike any training I have encountered. Google’s project Aristotle determined that the most important factor for successful teams was psychological safety, not who was on the team.  When I think of that study I can't help but wander how strong those teams are and how well they work together. A quote that really resonated with me was from Kelly Leonard’s book “Yes, And”  where he references a saying from Sheldon Patinkin “Your ensemble is only as good as its ability to compensate for its weakest member.”  You begin to think about the power of the whole team, the whole organization.

A story I’d like to share from the early part of the RewireU course directly impacted me about a month later at the DevOps Enterprise Summit in Las Vegas. One of the first exercises we had to do was to sit down with someone 1:1 and tell them little bit about your who you are and why you are there. Then at the end of the conversation we were instructed to get up in front of the group and tell the other person’s story. (We also did this later in the course about a specific topic as well)  It is a very unique experience telling another person’s story and requires another level of listening knowing that you are going to be responsible for translating their thoughts and words into something you are going to say on their behalf.  Fast forward a month and I am in Las Vegas with Michael Winslow and Roshani Lapinski They are leading a diversity workshop at DOES19 Las Vegas sponsored by Comcast and I was going to help with the introduction for the workshop.  Michael suggested a last minute change where instead of doing a traditional introduction I ended up telling Michael’s story about how the workshop came together.  It was a great experience and I was honored to tell Michael's story.  Imagine doing this with your peers and co-workers and how powerful of an experience it could be.

Innovation and Lean practices

Dr. Nicole Forsgren’s book Accelerate is a must read for anyone in technology. Her analysis of years of annual DevOps surveys concludes that practices like lean management and lean product development directly correlate to high performing organizations. Some of those practices include small experiments, small batch sizes, small teams, and quick feedback from customers and production. This also is the backbone of agile software development practices. Here is some context to what innovation and elite performance in organizations looks like. Per Dr. Forsgren in the 2019 State of DevOps report elite performing organizations deploy multiple times per day, require less than one day for lead time to deployments, restore services within one hour and average 15% or less change failure rates.

We ran an exercise towards the end of the RewireU Class where we had to work in small teams (~six people) and we were given specific tasks to complete in three minute intervals. Those tasks included listing world problems to solve, an invention to solve it, a product name, three product features, a product slogan and a product spokesperson.  Once we got all that done we then were told to pass our plan and notes to one of the other teams. They had to figure out what we did and act out a commercial for the product. This tested our resilience heavily. We had about one min to share our notes, which were not taken with the intent to share to others. It ended up being an amazing experience and the retrospective brought about many emotions from the class. 

First of all people did not feel great about giving up their ideas. This was not surprising. People also found it hard to execute someone else's idea. However, on the positive side feedback included comments that it would have taken weeks or months of endless meetings to make these decisions. We experimented with these ideas quickly in front of audiences just like a product demo. We were made more aware of when we document information how it makes more sense to us than others. This exercise showed how people might feel about using other people's work (code) or executing other people's ideas which can be an obstacle to tackling duplication of efforts across your organization. As leaders we need to acclimate our organization to sharing more effectively.

At the Second City they are an elite organization. They work in small groups. The Improv sets I mentioned that run after the feature shows are used as experiments to build new shows. They are always experimenting, making quick decisions, getting the product in front of the customer(audiences) and taking that feedback to make great shows. It is hard to argue with their results. From Catherine O’Hara to Tina Fey and so many others in between and after. Every decade they churn out star after star.   

Improv at Work

My team definitely benefitted from the onsite workshop we did. It helped my team in a couple of ways.  First it helped improve our listening skills. Second it helped with our “Yes, And” skills. These two outcomes go hand in hand. A great example is how we do our weekly demos. Over the past year the overriding sentiment in our demo sessions is supporting new ideas. We do not tear down ideas, we encourage engineers to usually expand on their ideas. If there is already a solution out there we help them find it. We have made great strides in expanding and improving our initiatives to move infrastructure to code as a result pushing each other to learn together.

As a leader I have a different perspective now on communication and building supportive teams. Experiencing first hand what its like to come together with complete strangers and do innovative and fun things together in just two and half days is transformative.  I hope more than anything this article encourages you to explore, try some classes, read some new books and continue to expand your knowledge in your DevOps and leadership journey.

Are you Curious?

The Science Behind DevOps, Accelerate, Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations - Nicole Forsgren, PhD, Jez Humble and Gene Kim

Yes, And. How Improvisation Reverses "No, But" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration - Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton

If I Understood You Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating - Alan Alda

Twitter Follows: @allspaw @jpaulreed @nicolefv @michaelswinslow @KLsecondcity @secondcityworks @mountzcjr

https://witdc.org/classes/

https://www.adaptivecapacitylabs.com/

https://www.secondcityworks.com/services/professional-development