Achi news desk-
Technological improvements such as containers, VMs, infrastructure-as-code, software-defined networking, collaborative version control, and CI/CD can make it possible to fix cultural issues related to organizational dynamics and poor product delivery. According to Nigel Kersten, software leaders should use technology to create positive changes in organizational dynamics and relationships between teams.
Nigel Kersten spoke about how technology can drive culture change at FlowCon France 2024.
Cultural change efforts across larger technology organizations tend to fail often. The most common problem is a failure to define what “cultural change” actually means, Kersten says. “Culture” is far too broad a term, and unless you identify specific, actionable issues you want to address, you won’t succeed:
First, you will find that everyone has a different idea of ​​what “culture” means and a different set of issues in mind, which makes progress difficult. Second, you will find that without a more specific and concrete set of goals, people will not be confident that they can create any kind of impact, and will feel helpless.
In most software organizations, technological improvements make it possible to solve the kinds of issues related to organizational dynamics and poor product delivery, Kersten said. Improvements don’t happen automatically because of new technology capabilities, but they become possible if leaders take advantage of them, he added.
Kersten argued that most technologists want to learn new things, as there is a natural motivation there for their own careers:
If they understand what the business is trying to achieve and why, and you regularly listen to your teams in the way good leaders do, then suggestions for new technology will come emerge naturally.
The job of a technology leader is to work out how to leverage this new technology to create positive changes in organizational dynamics and relationships between teams, Kersten mentioned.
Tech that creates simpler abstractions over complexity is driving the biggest cultural change, says Kersten. Think containers, VMs, infrastructure-as-code, software-defined networking, collaborative version control, and CI/CD:
The tools in this space all allow subject matter experts to pool their expertise and make it usable by a larger group of people.
This democratization makes it easier to get that larger group working towards a common goal, which allows teams to work at their own pace without waiting for someone else to do their bidding, getting it done’ n easier to solve problems for your users in the end, Kersten concluded.
InfoQ interviewed Nigel Kersten about driving culture change with technology.
InfoQ: You mentioned in your talk that achieving rapid flow or doing platform engineering well is much more than a change in culture. What is needed to support technological change in organisations?
Nigel Kersten: If you are an organizational leader, the best thing you can do to enable technical change is to create engaged, satisfied teams with a clear context around your business goals, motivate them to seek continuous improvements, and then give them time, space , and support to research new technologies.
Common examples here are anything to do with automation. If teams have the space to learn new skills and apply them to automate manual tasks, then it’s a relatively simple next step to expose that automation to other teams and start creating self-service interfaces. This could be something as simple as remediating a specific type of problem in production, or updating a configuration setting.
InfoQ: What are the things we can or can’t improve with software?
Kersten: Software won’t help you if you don’t have a strategy, if you don’t have a clear vision, and if you don’t have a clear set of goals you want your organization to achieve. It won’t help you solve diversity problems on your teams, and it won’t help you create psychological safety, which we know is the main driver of successful teams.
Software can help you improve internal and external feedback loops, speed up decision making, interaction between teams, and the impact teams can have on the business, but not without a conscious effort from the leaders. Software alone is never a magic bullet.
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