The Principles and Practices Behind Team of Teams (Part 2) with David Silverman & Jessica Reif
10/29/20 • 86 min
This episode of The Idealcast features the second part of Gene Kim’s interview with Team of Teams coauthor and CrossLead CEO David Silverman and CrossLead Head of R&D Jessica Reif.
In this episode, they take up the topic of how internal marketplaces are structures that can connect mid-level leaders to each other, helping allocate scarce resources to where they're needed most, which enables the further unlocking of capacities.
They discuss challenges around the cost of change and the new skills that mid-level leaders need in order to survive and thrive in an era where being functionally excellent in one’s own silo is not enough.
They further talk about the similarities between special operations and agile, especially comparing and contrasting terms that further concretize concepts the agile and DevOps community have held for years but struggled to name. And finally, they discuss where we go from here.
BIO:
David Silverman
Entrepreneur, bestselling author, and former Navy SEAL, David Silverman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CrossLead, Inc. Founded in 2016, CrossLead is a technology company whose leadership and management framework is used by leaders and companies around the globe.
In 2015, David co-authored the New York Times bestselling leadership and management book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. As a thought leader on culture change, high-performing teams, and leadership, he is a frequent guest speaker for business leaders and conferences around the globe.
After his 13-year career as a Navy SEAL, David and a group of like-minded friends sought to reinvent the way the world does business in today’s dynamic environment. Based on their collective service in the world’s premier Special Operations Units, they devised a holistic leadership and management framework called CrossLead. Today, CrossLead is a leading framework for scaling agile practices across the enterprise. Implemented in some of the world’s most successful organizations, CrossLead drives faster time-to-market, dramatic increases in productivity, improvement in employee engagement, and more predictable business results.
Prior to CrossLead, David co-founded the McChrystal Group where he served as CEO for five years. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, David served as a Navy SEAL from 1998-2011. He graduated Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUD/S) Class 221 in 1999 as the Honor Man. David deployed six times around the world, including combat deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia where he received three Bronze Stars and numerous other commendations.
David serves on the advisory board of the Headstrong Project and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. David lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Hollis, and their two children. He maintains an active lifestyle as a waterman and runner.
Twitter: @dksilverman
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-silverman-648035a/
Website: https://www.crosslead.com/
Jess Reif
Jessica Reif is the Director of Research & development for CrossLead Inc, where she leverages the latest management research to develop new approaches to increasing business agility for CrossLead’s clients. She leads CrossLead’s education efforts and has developed training programs that have been delivered to over 20,000 leaders. Previously, Jessica served as a Product Delivery Manager for applied machine learning and engineering teams at Oracle Data Cloud, where her role was to facilitate agile development among a team-of-teams. Jessica holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. In her free time, she enjoys golfing, baking, and hiking.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jess_Reif
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-reif/
Website: https://www.crosslead.com/
YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- How internal marketplaces are structures that can connect mid-level leaders to each other and allocate scarce resources to where they are needed most
- Concept and terms found within the agile and special operations communities
- What happens when the cost of change is intolerably high
- New skills that midlevel need to survive and thrive to help organizations win
RESOURCES
- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt...
This episode of The Idealcast features the second part of Gene Kim’s interview with Team of Teams coauthor and CrossLead CEO David Silverman and CrossLead Head of R&D Jessica Reif.
In this episode, they take up the topic of how internal marketplaces are structures that can connect mid-level leaders to each other, helping allocate scarce resources to where they're needed most, which enables the further unlocking of capacities.
They discuss challenges around the cost of change and the new skills that mid-level leaders need in order to survive and thrive in an era where being functionally excellent in one’s own silo is not enough.
They further talk about the similarities between special operations and agile, especially comparing and contrasting terms that further concretize concepts the agile and DevOps community have held for years but struggled to name. And finally, they discuss where we go from here.
BIO:
David Silverman
Entrepreneur, bestselling author, and former Navy SEAL, David Silverman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CrossLead, Inc. Founded in 2016, CrossLead is a technology company whose leadership and management framework is used by leaders and companies around the globe.
In 2015, David co-authored the New York Times bestselling leadership and management book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. As a thought leader on culture change, high-performing teams, and leadership, he is a frequent guest speaker for business leaders and conferences around the globe.
After his 13-year career as a Navy SEAL, David and a group of like-minded friends sought to reinvent the way the world does business in today’s dynamic environment. Based on their collective service in the world’s premier Special Operations Units, they devised a holistic leadership and management framework called CrossLead. Today, CrossLead is a leading framework for scaling agile practices across the enterprise. Implemented in some of the world’s most successful organizations, CrossLead drives faster time-to-market, dramatic increases in productivity, improvement in employee engagement, and more predictable business results.
Prior to CrossLead, David co-founded the McChrystal Group where he served as CEO for five years. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, David served as a Navy SEAL from 1998-2011. He graduated Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUD/S) Class 221 in 1999 as the Honor Man. David deployed six times around the world, including combat deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia where he received three Bronze Stars and numerous other commendations.
David serves on the advisory board of the Headstrong Project and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. David lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Hollis, and their two children. He maintains an active lifestyle as a waterman and runner.
Twitter: @dksilverman
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-silverman-648035a/
Website: https://www.crosslead.com/
Jess Reif
Jessica Reif is the Director of Research & development for CrossLead Inc, where she leverages the latest management research to develop new approaches to increasing business agility for CrossLead’s clients. She leads CrossLead’s education efforts and has developed training programs that have been delivered to over 20,000 leaders. Previously, Jessica served as a Product Delivery Manager for applied machine learning and engineering teams at Oracle Data Cloud, where her role was to facilitate agile development among a team-of-teams. Jessica holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. In her free time, she enjoys golfing, baking, and hiking.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jess_Reif
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-reif/
Website: https://www.crosslead.com/
YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- How internal marketplaces are structures that can connect mid-level leaders to each other and allocate scarce resources to where they are needed most
- Concept and terms found within the agile and special operations communities
- What happens when the cost of change is intolerably high
- New skills that midlevel need to survive and thrive to help organizations win
RESOURCES
- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt...
Previous Episode
(Dispatch from the Scenius) David Silverman’s DevOps Enterprise Summit London 2020 Talk
In the latest Dispatch from the Scenius, Gene Kim shares David Silverman’s 2020 presentation from DevOps Enterprise Summit London - Virtual. In a continuation of Episode 11, the Team of Teams coauthor and CEO of CrossLead talks about the key concepts from Team of Teams, and provides even more context for so many of the topics covered in last week’s episode.
David talks about the genesis of the joint special operations command, which was created after the failure of the daring Iran hostage rescue in 1979, and how it found itself in 2003 in Afghanistan and Iraq, tactically winning but strategically losing, unable to find terrorist leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq. He describes the principles that they drew upon, which will be familiar to almost everyone in the DevOps community, the practices that it led to, the amazing outcomes that resulted, as well as the leadership skills needed in this new world.
BIO:
David Silverman
Entrepreneur, bestselling author, and former Navy SEAL, David Silverman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CrossLead, Inc. Founded in 2016, CrossLead is a technology company whose leadership and management framework is used by leaders and companies around the globe.
In 2015, David co-authored the New York Times bestselling leadership and management book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. As a thought leader on culture change, high-performing teams, and leadership, he is a frequent guest speaker for business leaders and conferences around the globe.
After his 13-year career as a Navy SEAL, David and a group of like-minded friends sought to reinvent the way the world does business in today’s dynamic environment. Based on their collective service in the world’s premier Special Operations Units, they devised a holistic leadership and management framework called CrossLead. Today, CrossLead is a leading framework for scaling agile practices across the enterprise. Implemented in some of the world’s most successful organizations, CrossLead drives faster time-to-market, dramatic increases in productivity, improvement in employee engagement, and more predictable business results.
Prior to CrossLead, David co-founded the McChrystal Group where he served as CEO for five years. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, David served as a Navy SEAL from 1998-2011. He graduated Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUD/S) Class 221 in 1999 as the Honor Man. David deployed six times around the world, including combat deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia where he received three Bronze Stars and numerous other commendations.
David serves on the advisory board of the Headstrong Project and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. David lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Hollis, and their two children. He maintains an active lifestyle as a waterman and runner.
Twitter: @dksilverman
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-silverman-648035a/
Website: https://www.crosslead.com/
YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
- Key concepts from the book, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
- The genesis of the joint special operations command
- How the principles, practices, outcomes and leaderships relate to the DevOps community
RESOURCES
- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell
- Cynefin framework
TIMESTAMPS
[00:08] Intro
[01:56] Meet David Silverman
[04:05] The inception of US special operations
[07:35] Best practices associated with management
[10:59] Cynefin framework
[11:53] Complexity environment
[14:32] How to senior business leadership can communicate effectively and persuasively
[15:59] Back to fundamentals
[19:55] DevOps Enterprise Summit Las Vegas - Virtual
[21:33] Think as a living organism
[23:19] Model of radical transparency
[24:02] How to make it work inside your organizations
[31:24] How to define great leadership
[33:53] David’s request for examples
[34:22] Coming up in the next episode
[35:42] Outro
Next Episode
The Rise of Knowledge Work, and its Structure and Dynamics with Jeffrey Fredrick
In the final episode of the first season of The Idealcast, Gene Kim sits down with Jeffrey Fredrick, coauthor of Agile Conversations, to synthesize and reflect upon some of the major themes from the entire season.
In Gene’s continued quest to understand why organizations behave the way they do, Fredrick helps connect the dots and points to new areas that deserve more study. They discuss the nature of knowledge work, including how software creation requires so much more conversation and joint cognitive work, and the challenges this presents. They also dive into the bodies of knowledge that are required as we push more decision making and value creation to the edges of the organization.
Then, Gene and Fredrick revisit the concept of integration and why it’s so much more important now than 50 years ago. And finally, they discuss why “Are you happy?” and “Are you proud of your work?” are two very powerful questions and what they actually reveal about people and the work they’re performing. And why this is all so important as we try to create organizations that maximize learning for everyone.
BIO:
Jeffrey Fredrick is an internationally recognized expert in software development with over 25 years’ experience covering both sides of the business/technology divide. His experience includes roles as Vice President of Product Management, Vice President of Engineering, and Chief Evangelist. He has also worked as an independent consultant on topics including corporate strategy, product management, marketing, and interaction design. Jeffrey is based in London and is currently Managing Director of TIM, an Acuris Company. He also runs the London Organisational Learning Meetup and is a CTO mentor through CTO Craft.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jtf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
Website: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/
YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- The nature of knowledge work and how it requires more conversation and joint cognitive work and the challenges it presents
- The body of knowledge required in decision making and value creation for the organization
- Concepts of integration and why it’s important now
- What the questions, “Are you happy?” and “Are you proud of your work?,” reveal about people and their work
- How Dr. Thomas Kuhns’s work pertains to management models
RESOURCES
- Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick
- Continuous Integration and Testing Conference (CITCON)
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Dr. Thomas Kuhn
- A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (ACOUP)
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Dr. Steve Spear’s episode on The Idealcast
- Dr. Steve Spear’s 2020 DevOps Enterprise Summit Talk
- Michael Nygard’s episode on The Idealcast
- MIT’s Beer Game
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- The DevOps Enterprise Journal
- Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
- Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore
- Command in War by Martin van Creveld
- Continuous Deployment at IMVU: Doing the impossible fifty times a day by Timothy Fitz
- Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility by Jonathan Smart
TIMESTAMPS
[00:11] Intro
[03:13] Meet Jeffrey Fredrick
[03:54] Why conversations are important
[08:03] Why conversations are more important now than 100 years ago
[11:02] The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
[13:08] Integration
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/the-idealcast-with-gene-kim-by-it-revolution-73255/the-principles-and-practices-behind-team-of-teams-part-2-with-david-si-9484029"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to the principles and practices behind team of teams (part 2) with david silverman & jessica reif on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy