Unleashing Transformation: How we use the Tea strategy to revolutionize our company | Gaëlle Laigo & Emmanuelle Byrd

Hello, everyone. Very happy and excited to be here. I'm Emma Byrd. As Dan was mentioning, - both Gaëlle and I come from Orange, - which is probably the number one telco company in France, - implemented in lots of different countries in the world, - and we will be talking about how we transformed - ways of working in our company. And just to present a little bit about myself, - I'm a transformation leader actually right now in Orange, - dealing with a particular division of about 5,000 people - and focusing on the ways of working to foster collaboration within that entity. Thank you. So, I'm Gaëlle Laigo. I'm also leading the agile transformation at Orange since a while - because we started the journey seven years ago together. And our main goal, I think, is to support collaboration - and to increase valuable interaction between people. So, we support teams in the day to day. And talking about collaboration, we encourage you to flash this QR code - that you have on all of those screens here - because we will be interacting with you guys. We don't want to do all the speaking right now. We want to get some feedback from you as well. So, please flash this code so that we can ask you some questions - and see what you have to say. And the first question we're going to ask you - once you have flashed this QR code is, - what roles do you have in your own organisation? And we put "roles" because you might have several, actually. So, don't hesitate to click as many boxes as you think are relevant for you. We'll give you just a few seconds to do that, - so that we can see where you're coming from. So, are you a manager, project manager, product owner, - technical engineer, whatever area of technicality you are in, - it can be software development, it can be software testing, whatever, - finance, HR, are you an agile coach? So, right now, we have lots of others, [chuckles] which is interesting. [laughs] Okay. And since we will be talking about transformation, - we actually use a particular methodology, - which is called the Tea Strategy. And we would like to know who amongst you know about this Tea Strategy. Okay. Most of you have not. Okay, great. So, we can talk about it, and it can be exciting. So, what is Tea Strategy? Well, Tea Strategy - is actually a change management approach, - and the person who invented it is called Olivier Zara. He's a French consultant. And Olivier specialises - in collective intelligence into major companies. So, he comes in major companies, - and he likes to foster collective intelligence. And he came up with this idea. It came from actually Japanese philosophy. Japanese people, they have this ceremony, this tea ceremony, - and in the ceremony, they really focus on something that is very simple, - very slow, that takes time, that focuses on quality, - that makes sure that people are included in the ceremony. And with this philosophy, he came up with this Tea Strategy. And what is Tea Strategy? It's really about putting - your tea packet in water that is warm, - and this warm water will slowly infuse the tea - all over the cup and all over the company. So, actually, the warm water, what it is, it's motivated people. And what motivates people, usually people get motivated, - people want to change when there is something that is bothering them, - when something frustrates them. So, for you, what would be something - that frustrates you the most in your company? What would you say? Here you can type a few words - of what could be the most painful things - that you see in your company currently, and do not tell me - that nothing frustrates you because I won't believe you. [chuckles] We're all frustrated... Oh, people. People is a huge frustration. Okay. [laughs] Technology can be a frustration, for sure. Never finishing. Strategy can be a frustration as well. Processes, definitely, processes is a huge frustration. Okay, so you have lots of frustration. So, let's talk about our frustration. How did we start, Gaëlle and I? So, back in 2017, I was a technical manager. I was managing a team of about 20 technical engineers and architects. And I was very frustrated because our customer would come - with a very high expectation, - and those expectations were changing all the time. And of course, the delays of the project got bigger and bigger. We were never respecting the deadlines. And my team was, I had the most skilled people ever, I loved my team. And I didn't understand how come people that were so skilled - and so motivated by what they were doing were not able to enjoy their work. They were not able to communicate within the team, - the project team that they were working in. One of the things that made collaboration so difficult - is that they were all coming from different entities. So, everybody had their own hidden agenda, own hidden objective, - and it was very difficult to make people work together. So, this was a huge frustration for me. What about you, Gaëlle? [Gaëlle:] Yeah, so on my side, I was a transversal manager. And what I observed is that there were plenty of silos. We already talked about it [chuckles] a few minutes ago. There were also a lot of processes with milestones, - project management was very difficult to manage, - and a lack of transversal cooperation globally. So, my main objective was to organise an at-scale organisation - in order to promote and accelerate collaboration between people - and infuse adaptability in our organisation. So, the main goal was to better satisfy - both our employees and our customers in our company. To do that, three things. First of all, I created a core team - with different members who represent our company. So, people coming from different job roles, - coming from different divisions and countries. That was really important to start. And then, I choose a committee sponsor that will support us - in our initiative in order to promote our programme. What will be also very important for you is to start with early adopters. We already talked about it this morning. Early adopters are people who are motivated - to support you in change management. Why? Because as they are really motivated, - they will talk through the work, - and they will inspire the other to change. So, first question we would like to show, - who could be your allies to discuss, brainstorm - and experiment something different in your own company? [Emma:] So, remember, we're talking about the Tea Strategy here. So, really, what we're talking about here is, what could be a warm water? You know, so who could be the first people - that you could start discussing, brainstorming, - experimenting new things because they are like-minded people? They are people who want things to change. My boss, yeah, that's a good one. And you can think in your company, but you can also think in your network. You know, actually in this type of event - where you meet different people from different companies, - this could also be an opportunity to start discussing - how could you make things change and maybe building a network - across different companies could be a good way as well. Developers, yeah, for sure. Other silos, yeah. Create links, intersections, for sure. Great ideas. Teammates, yeah, that's a good one as well. A customer pilot group, starting small is always a good idea. All colleagues, yeah. Okay, so you have ideas already, so that's a really good point. So, how did we start? So, we started by organisation, - global organization structured in four ways of working. Strategy, operational, behavioural, and organisational agility. So, we started actually with ourselves. So, we built an agile core team, as Gaëlle was showing you just before - with the pictures of all the people that we were gathering on teams. And with this core team, we really wanted to show, to set the example. So, really to walk the talk. So, we started having sprints, organising ourselves in Scrum, - and really starting to experiment ourselves - on different aspects and really building an agile strategy. So, we would really reconvene regularly to analyse, okay, - what are our new priorities, what do we see that needs to be addressed? And within this core team, we took fast decisions. Another thing that we did focusing on the organisational side of things, - we took one hierarchical team within the company - that wanted to do things differently - instead of having the boss take decisions and have the decisions - just go down all the way to the bottom of the pyramid, - they decided to organise themselves in an agile governance way. We use adaptive governance, for those of you who know what this is. So, that was one also pilot that we did on the organisational side. On the operational side, we focused on agile project management, - and we had one particular client with whom we did an MVP. We started small with this client. It was a client from a bank, a major bank, - and we started using different types of methodologies with him - and really interacting with the client as if he was part of the team. So, he was no longer, you know, client, - he was the client, we were the company that would provide something, - so no longer a client-provider type of relationship, - but really a partnership. So, we experimented on that. And finally, on the behavioural aspect, - which was probably the most major one for us, - being such a big company, we decided to have a global awareness initiative - where we would provide acculturation sessions for all. And what I mean by acculturation sessions is really making people aware - what agility was, what agility was not, - because there was a lot of talk about this agile word. It became a big buzzword, and nobody actually knew what it meant. And we really wanted people to know how they could change, - how they can make small changes within their team, - within their work, using agile practices and having this agile mindset - instead of doing agile, really being agile. And the way we did that is we started small. We started with people from the core team who became ambassadors. So, those ambassadors did those acculturation sessions, - and slowly, we built up this network. We have now about 300 ambassadors all across the company. Those ambassadors, some of them became agile coaches. Those coaches, now we have about 150 coaches, - they are really focusing on larger transformation - and also focusing on accompanying our customers. Now, we have about 180 customer projects - that we're managing with some kind of agile methodologies, - depending on what the needs of the customers are. We also have, of course, Scrum Masters and RTEs. So, Scrum Masters, RTEs are for at-scale type of projects - using the SAFe methodology, if some of you know this methodology, - so for really large projects. And we also have facilitators who are focusing - on ways of working, how to collaborate differently, - how to create those links between people to break the silos. And we have agile leaders who are managing the different communities - within the different divisions of our company. [Gaëlle:] As we have spread all over the world with different cultures - and different countries, it was important to gather - all the Agilists in the same way, focus on the same and common goal, - supporting the transformation of cooperation. So, first of all, we create what we call the Orange Agile Academy, - where we gather all the people on a unique identity for all the Agilists. Then, we created also different training paths - in order for everybody to have the common basis everywhere they are, - because we are spread everywhere. And we continue to define common processes - on how to support team with a coaching process as well. And we organise different events yearly, - locally if we can, in presential, but most of the time remotely, - every year in order to create a sense of community and a sense of family. [Emma:] Now a question for you. Considering what we already shared, - where would it be most valuable for you to start dropping your teabag? Where would you think it would bring the most value, - it would be the most impactful? Maybe thinking of where your people are the most motivated, - where it would be the most interesting for you to experiment. That's a difficult question, I know. [Gaëlle:] In my team, perfect. - [Emma:] Yeah, your team. That's a very good idea. Areas impacting customer value, for sure. Central teams as well. It's always interesting - to think about what is in my close environment. Where do I have influence? What do I have influence on? Where can I start really thinking about this next small step? So, all of those are great ideas. Business owners, for sure. Product management as well. Maybe focusing on a specific product would be interesting. So, great ideas. So, keep that in mind - so that you can start as well. [Gaëlle:] So, our main takeaways. First of all, create a core team that represents your company. So, choose managers, non-managers, technical people, - but also people from HR, from support team, - because it's also really important to embark everybody in this core team. Choose people who are early adopters and motivated to support you - in your transformation because change is a long period, and you need time. So, accept to go slowly but surely with a step-by-step approach. Then, choose a committee sponsor, - without any sponsor, you couldn't do nothing. So, perhaps it's something that you should change, - but [chuckles] you should have changed earlier. Allies in all parts of the organisation. I've already said this. And at Orange, we are more talking about agile culture. So, we talk about culture today, - because we think that we accompany the change of behaviours. And behaviour change is more linked with culture. So, it's really important to talk not about frameworks, - because we talk about scrum, SAFe, et cetera, - but agility is more a mindset for us. Walk the talk and exemplarity with your team. So, it's what we do when we infuse agility. We would like to be agile ourselves. Be in a test and learn approach with a step-by-step approach as well. And show regular results because the more you will communicate, - you will be proud, and it will show the value - of what you do in your company as well. [Emma:] And since we cannot finish without a call to action, - we would like to ask you, considering all the answers - that you gave previously and what we talked about, - what could be your first small step? What could you start tomorrow after this magnificent conference - and all those inspiring ideas that you got across the day? Read more about the Tea Strategy. Yeah, there's a book. You can buy the book on Amazon. It is translated in English. Talk with your team. Yeah, starting with what kind of ideas do they have - to actually start changing what could be the most relevant thing. Take a cup of tea. [chuckles] This is a great idea, I need one right now. [laughs] Learn more, for sure. And one thing that we learned actually is, - always being in this learning phase - because you never have the right answer all the time. Others might have the right answer, actually. So, keep learning and keep testing is probably one of the keys. [Gaëlle:] I think we should implement a learning organisation. So, agility is also a way to learn every day - and to be in a continuous improvement mode. [Emma:] And since we love feedback as Agilists, - we're going to ask you, what is your feedback on the scale of 1 to 5? How valuable or not [chuckles] was this talk to you guys? So, one, you should have stayed behind your computer. It was really a waste of time. And five, you were quite happy - you were here, you learned something new, - and you can have anything in between, of course. So, press on the little stars. Okay, great. And for those of you who didn't put five, - which is fine, by the way, - try to think maybe what could make you do plus one, - because that is really valuable for us to improve ourselves. So, if you have any idea of what was missing for you to do plus one, - don't hesitate to write a little comment. There is space, or you can write a post-it as well. Thank you so much for your time. [applause] [outro music] [music ends]