Maneuvering Monday

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To kick off the final chapter of Marie's story, we are lucky to be accompanied by Sofie Henriksen, who is a leader within strategy in a digital innovation agency.
Sofie brings her insightful perspectives to the table as we intersect how personalities, actions, and behaviors are understood and worked with in the context of Zebra Apps.

As the end of the story is approaching, all things are escalating and new challenges are coming up. Marie is scrambling to fix the issues, both the visible and invisible ones. And suddenly, the co-founder Richard makes an appearance to provide his input to the future of Zebra Apps. How will his cultural weight and founding myth in the organization impact the tough decisions to be made? And who is even allowed to have intentions for a company?

During the episode, we discuss the importance of guarding your internal brand as a senior leader, how to be a role model (and how not be!), and we touch upon the difficult topic of employee mental health and to what degree the employer is responsible for people's well being. We talk about how involved leaders should be in a self-organized team set-up, and how a clear organizational strategy as a company level is critical to succeed if the teams are given full autonomy.

And finally, Sofie shares her perspectives on how she hopes Marie's story will end.

Find Sofie on LinkedIn, where she often shares her inspiring thoughts and opinions on leadership topics. For example, you can check out this article (in Danish) about  rethinking traditional organizational structures for the future generations. Or listen to this podcast episode (in English) of Karriereklubben, where Sofie and two other panelists are debating work dilemmas.

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Marie and the engineers talk to an advisory board of parents and teachers to get feedback on ASLO, and share the concerning results with Natalie and the leadership team, who finally seem to listen. Natalie, who used to be a teacher herself, decides to take things into her own hands.
The engineers start setting shared objectives for each sprint based on a company value. Marie meets her HR contact Todd from competitor ConvoSystems, who shares a surprising truth about life with Richard as CTO. And finally, Shaine has a suggestion for what to do with the data centre, but is it enough to save Zebra Apps?

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In the final commentary episode of chapter 5, we are happy to welcome Katja Schipperheijn, internationally awarded author, learning influencer, futurist and keynote speaker on learning, innovation and being human in a digital world. With years of experience from the EdTech company, Katja is the perfect match to guide Zebra Apps at this chaotic point in the story.

Katja sums up this story episode as "a mess". Zebra Apps is struggling to survive as a company, and Marie is managing everyone in separate groups, not seeming to understand the power of bringing people together.

We discuss corporate rebels and how they are wonderful, but sometimes lack people skills. We talk about how an external moderator (and Marie does not count as one!) would be helpful to navigate the stakeholder landscape and facilitate the needed discussions. How shall the people of the Zebra Apps organization overcome imposter syndrome? And what does it mean - and what do you do -when your CFO *literally* takes a bite of your bun without asking?

We learn about Katja's "future readiness approach", which is facilitated in two parts:

1. Invite a diverse group of people from all across the organization to individually write down their biggest obstacle, then discuss
2. Forget the problems around us and make the top management reflect over the purpose and values of the company and where they want to go. Then, have the people of the company work together to align on opportunities.

Another practical trick from Katja is to implement three standard practices in Zebra Apps. The first one is to make "why" a standard question at the end of all meetings. Secondly, create an environment where people feel secure enough to say "I don't know". And finally, celebrate your fuck-ups!

Towards the end of the episode, we learn from Katja about the status and trends in the EdTech industry (and yes, one of them is AI, and no, not many know what this means).

If you want to learn much more about learning, innovation, and technology, check out Katja's website, where you can find a lot of great resources (like examples of keynotes, workshop formats and an inspirational blog). Katja recently launched another book - The Learning Mindset - which is about the people of organizations and how to combine human competencies with technologies to thrive.

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In the final part of chapter 5, things start to get real when Marie learns from Willie that Natalie purchased spare parts from Russia for Zebra Apps' physical data center, and that she likely traveled there together with Frank and Andrea. She also learns that every time the engineers create new features for ASLO, they  increase their physical footprint in the data center.

Jenni and Marie explains to Jaque why Zebra Apps is bleeding money, and suggest him to create a better way to charge their customers for the products. They collect feedback from the engineering department, and agree to investigate the options to either migrate away from the data center or keep it and provide hosting services to other companies. But could their product quality challenges be solved by simply talking more to each other? Could it be more about culture - and taking responsibility for the whole product as a team?

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In this commentary episode, we are pleased to talk to Paul Hargreaves, CEO of Cotswold Fayre & Flourish and renowned author of the books Forces For Good and The Fourth Bottom Line about purpose-driven and compassionate leadership.

We wish Zebra Apps had a CEO like Paul. And not just as Chief Executive Officer, but Chief Empowerment Officer, who makes sure that everyone in the organization is working to their full potential.

We discuss how Zebra Apps' customer-led strategy is out of control, and there is an absence of leadership and culture-setting across the whole business. A leader must be present - but how? Paul has several suggestions, including letting go of your individual office - and maybe even your desk! - to ensure that you spend time with your employees. While we do not talk detailed models and frameworks, Frederic Laloux (author of the book 'Reinventing Organizations' and one of the leading figures in the new ways of working movement) is brought up during the conversation.

We learn that people who eat together generally stay together, and the true/literal meaning of the word "company" (from Late Latin companio, "bread fellow," com meaning "with, together" and panis meaning "bread"). We discuss the importance of rigorously reinforcing habits, and being your true self at work, even if it gets messy from time to time. And then we talk a bit about how global conflicts and pandemics impact businesses in ways we could never imagine 5 years ago.

Curious to learn more from Paul? You can find him on LinkedIn or visit his website, where you can also find more information about his books.

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Marie interviews the engineers to map out who work on the different aspects of ASLO. She learns that they belong to two teams, and uses an animal metaphor to convince Jenni to reorganize the engineering department to fix the quality issues, and to start funding the teams in a way that ensures continuous improvement.

Marie meets up with Anne, and learns that she is secretly conspiring with Jason and Jaque to save Zebra Apps. Jaque shares that Zebra App’s financial situation is problematic due to the subscription structure, and that he suspects that Nathalie has been considering selling Zebra to a Russian company - which could explain why she did not want to offer ASLO for free to the children fleeing from Ukraine.

Thank you to Katie Christensen for reading this episode.

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In the first part of chapter 5, we have invited guest expert Michelle Leedy, who is an organization effectiveness, design and transformation business leader, passionate about creating value and positive impact through authentic leadership. Michelle brings more than 20 years experience in consulting and leadership roles across multiple business industries and functions to the table.

As Marie makes a CLM (career limiting move) and decides to join the engineering department to help fix ASLO, she seems to be so caught up in her own orbit that she misses what's going on in the universe that surrounds her. Decisions are made reactively and without much analysis or rationale. We talk about to value of taking a step back and assessing the situation before jumping to conclusions.

We debate whether engaging in scuttlebutt (thanks for teaching us a new word) can be helpful when building trust in a new group or is just problematic. We discuss integral parts of a business operating model, how to know which leaders to listen to, and how to do competency assessments. And finally, Michelle gives her take on whether Erik really has Marie's best interests in mind or if he's simply out for her job.

Concepts and frameworks

• Stakeholder Analysis
• RACI
• SWOT Analysis
• Business Operating Models
• PESTLE Analysis
• 360 Assessments

Would you like to learn more from Michelle? Please do not hesitate to contact her through LinkedIn.

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In this first section of chapter 5, the UX Designer Jason makes a comeback at Zebra Apps. A mysterious meeting is taking place with attendance by the full leadership team and a white-bearded man. And Marie's colleague and employee Erik once again urges her to use her informal power and influence to help the engineers fix their dysfunctions and save Zebra's star product ASLO. Will she accept and join the hooded man-children in the engineering department?

Thank you to Katie Christensen for reading this episode.

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In this special edition episode, we talk to IT Service Management specialist and value stream thinker David Billouz about the fourth chapter of Marie's journey in Zebra Apps.

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In the last commentary episode of chapter 4, we talk to Mary Lemmer, who is not only the founder of the company Improve, but also a keynote speaker, conference session facilitator, longtime entrepreneur, writer/author, and improv comedian.
 
The story episode is full of attempts to solve the team communication and culture problems that have been identified earlier, and to disclose the key lessons from the commentary episode up front: 

1. The way you approach a situation makes a difference
2. You need to acknowledge the root of a problem before you can fix it
3. Sugar will not solve your company's culture problem

We discuss some of the possible reasons to trust a leader besides professional capability, and how cinnamon buns are nothing but #emptyperks, when Zebra Apps' management continuously leave out diabetics like Willie. And frankly, when is sugar really the right solution? We talk about the impact of information hoarding, communication gaps, and imposter syndromes.  The importance of people's tone of voice. And finally, a kind recommendation to everyone listening: "If it feels weird, do it."

Frameworks and models

• Paradox of knowledge
• The Tiny Things Tuesdays ritual, where the team get together to surface tiny things that need to be paid attention to. 
• CliftonStrengths Online Talent Assessment to look at employee's strengths and potential to improve
• Thrive, tested, thanked: A framework for individuals to assess where they thrive, where they feel tested, and how they would like to be thanked.
• Kim Scott's Radical Candor 
• The acceptance principle: Saying “Yes, and” — A principle for improv, business & life | by Mary Lemmer | IMPROVE | Medium

You can learn more about Mary on her website, or about the company Improve on their website. Also, check out Mary's TED Talk: “How improv can improve your leadership and life”.

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