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Description
Keynote Session: Lessons from Service in the Social Sector - Afua Bruce, Datakind
When leading technology initiatives, it’s critical to approach change from three distinct perspectives: Technology, people, and process. But making this happen in the real world is hard.
In this keynote, Afua Bruce shares her experience managing change in high-stakes environments including her time at the FBI. Afua dives deeper into strategies that can lead people through change. This session will help you with strategies for moving a problematic group of stakeholders forward in a digital transformation project or any change management setting.
For more Continuous Delivery Foundation content, check out our blog: https://cd.foundation/blog/
A
A
So
imagine
yourself
on
a
typical
workday
you're
sitting
at
your
desk
and
one
of
your
colleagues
says:
hey:
can
you
jump
on
the
line,
real,
quick
to
talk
to
someone
else,
and
so
you
open
up
zoom
or
whatever,
whatever
platform
you're
using
and
much
to
your
surprise,
there's
an
fbi
agent.
There
who
says
if
your
changes
go
through
missions
will
fail.
A
How
do
you
react?
You
might
think
to
yourself?
I
really
shouldn't
have
logged
in
today,
but
you
know
that's
not
the
right
response,
so
you
take
a
deep
breath
and
instead
ask
the
agent.
Well
tell
me
more
now.
This
was
actually
my
reality
on
more
than
one
occasion
when
I
worked
at
the
fbi,
this
particular
scenario
that
I'm
talking
about
here
happened
around
the
time.
A
Now
I
had
thought
that
I
had
done
everything
I
was
supposed
to
do
for
a
large
change
project
in
an
organization
I
had
done
a
lot
of
research.
I
thought
within
the
division,
I'd
gotten
the
sign
off
of
the
senior
most
executive,
who
was
sponsoring
the
project
and
led
the
division.
He'd
even
held
a
large
meeting
to
say
that
my
changes
were
going
to
revolutionize
the
way
we
did
business
and
lead
to
a
better
world
and
we'd
started
that
implementation
process,
and
this,
of
course,
is
what
led
to
the
feedback.
A
Shall
we
call
it
that
I
received
from
that
agent
that
day
now?
Fortunately,
this
project
ended
up
working
out
and
in
large
part,
because
I
invited
the
agent
who
had
come
in
with
that
that
strong
feedback
to
be
a
part
of
the
solution
and
be
a
part
of
helping
me
redesign
and
reimagine
the
process
and
ultimately,
the
new
way
of
doing
business
did
become
the
norm.
A
Now.
Why
do
I
tell
you
this
story?
Is
it
because
working
at
the
fbi
is
cool?
Well,
yes,
it
definitely
was
a
great
experience
for
me,
but
it
also
reflects
a
lot
of
the
challenges
that
we
often
encounter
when
we
try
to
do
some
type
of
digital
transformation
project,
some
type
of
technology
advancement
project,
certainly
within
government
agencies
and
ngos,
but
broadly
as
well.
A
Today,
we
don't
need
to
break
them
further,
even
if
they
don't
work
perfectly
today
or
one
of
my
personal
favorites,
I
didn't
break
it.
I
shouldn't
need
to
fix
it.
Go
talk
to
someone
else
about
that.
Maybe
you've
been
lucky
that
you
haven't
heard
any
of
these,
as
people
have
told
you
no
for
something,
but
my
guess
is
you
probably
have,
and
so
what
I
found,
though,
is
that,
when
you're
working
on
these
digital
transformation
projects,
what's
really
common
is
that
there
are
a
lot
of
starts
and
stops
to
these
projects.
A
There
are
a
lot
of
changes
to
the
plan
and
changes
to
the
changes
to
the
plan
that
happen,
there's
often
the
initial
adoption
and
then
the
ultimate
rejection
or
backsliding
from
the
advancement
that
was
done.
The
changes
that
had
been
rolled
out
the
code
had
that
had
been
rolled
out
as
well.
So
we
have
to
really
ask
ourselves:
how
can
we
do
this
work
better?
A
How
can
we
do
this
work
in
ways
that
it
will
actually
last
and
make
an
impact
in
organizations
and
for
the
clients
and
for
the
customers
and
for
the
communities
that
these
tools
serve?
I've
heard
it
say,
I've
heard
it
said
it's
not
about
the
technology,
it's
about
the
process
or
it's
not
about
the
process.
It's
about
the
people
or
it's
not
about
the
people.
It's
about
something
else,
and
I'm
here
to
tell
you.
I
wholeheartedly
disagree
with
all
of
those
statements.
A
It
is
absolutely
about
the
technology,
but
it
is
also
about
the
people
and
it
is
also
about
the
process.
You
don't
have
to
choose
between
technology
and
process
in
order
to
make
an
impact
in
order
to
get
things
done
in
organizations
to
successfully
manage
change.
You
need
to
make
sure
that
you
are
pulling
in
the
technology,
the
people
and
the
process
into
your
change
management.
Overall
change
management
process,
you're
pulling
them
all
in
together
in
order
to
have
successful,
long-lasting
change
management.
So,
let's
dive
in
a
little
deeper,
we'll
start
with
the
technology
piece.
Now.
A
I
firmly
believe
that
you
know
governments
and
ngos
deserve
the
best
technology,
because
if
we
are
delivering
services,
if
they
are
delivering
services
that
we
believe
in,
then
we
should
believe
that
they
should
be
managed
in
ways
that
matter
in
ways
that
actually
work
now
best
case
scenario.
Policies
are
designed
when
policies
are
designed.
The
technologists
are
at
the
table
being
part
of
that
development
process
and
making
sure
that
the
policies
that
will
are
being
designed
will
actually
work
with
the
technology
and
with
the
technologist.
A
Now
that
doesn't
always
happen,
sometimes
you're
left
trying
to
fix
the
delivery
of
services,
and
sometimes
you're
left
just
trying
to
work
around
the
policies
and
figure
out
how
you
can
actually
implement
any
of
them
and
get
work
done
while
still
staying
in
line
with
those
policies.
It
can
be
really
challenging.
A
But
it's
really
important
here.
I
think
in
these
situations
to
really
focus
on
what
the
organization
you're
working
for
what
the
work
that
you're
doing
is
actually
intended
to
do,
is
actually
intended
to
help
and
is
actually
intended
to
advance.
And
then
you
pick
the
most
appropriate
technology
for
that
situation.
You
don't
need
to
over
design
or
under
design.
A
It
was
a
quickly
evolving
situation
involving
a
lot
of
people
moving
around
a
lot
of
people
who
needed
to
find
shelter
a
lot
of
people
who
needed
to
find
homes
and
a
lot
of
people
who
needed
to
find
some
sense
of
permanence
and
because
the
work
was
moving
so
quickly.
My
friend
said
that
she
was
going
to
just
pull
together
a
google
form
and
a
google
spreadsheet
for
the
shelter
that
she
was
partnering
with
to
track
all
the
people.
A
It
didn't
sound
quite
right
to
me,
but
my
friend
assured
me
that
things
were
moving
so
quickly.
This
is
all
that
they
had
time
to
do,
and
so
what
ended
up
happening
is
that
this
worked
out
initially,
but
as
there
were
more
people
as
the
phase
of
the
crisis
response
shifted,
the
google
form
and
google
spreadsheet
were
actually
overwhelmed
by
the
amount
of
traffic
that
they
were
getting.
A
The
decisions
that
needed
to
make
the
number
of
concurrent
users
and
more
and
ultimately,
the
shelter
where
my
friend
had
partnered
had
to
revert
back
to
the
way
they
were
doing
things
before.
In
addition
to
going
back
to
a
previously
and
previous
inefficient
way
of
doing
things,
they
also
had
to
add,
on
top
of
that,
a
lot
of
manual,
trans,
transferring
of
data
and
a
lot
of
manual
moving
of
data
between
systems.
So
it
ended
up
just
being
a
lot
of
extra
work.
A
So
what
what
can
we
learn
from
the
situation?
In
this
particular
crisis
response
case,
my
friend
actually
needed
a
database,
probably
a
fairly
simple
database
that
could
have
been
built
and
the
tool
to
sit
on
top
of
that
to
help
her
manage
the
situation,
and
so
what's
important
from
this
story,
though,
is
to
pick
the
right
level
of
technology,
don't
shortchange
organizations
or
situations
just
because
of
time
constraints,
or
just
because
of
some
of
the
talent
constraints
that
you
might
have,
but
really
figure
out
what
is
most
appropriate.
A
At
the
same
time,
though,
it's
important
to
not
over
correct
and
declare
yourself
the
the
technical
expert
of
the
day
and
then
over
design
over
design
solutions
for
the
partners
that
you're
working
with
at
datakind.
We
think
a
lot
about
what
are
the
solutions
that
our
partners
can
actually
sustain
after
we
leave
really
designing.
With
that
end
in
mind,
we
said
just
in
a
meeting
that
I
was
in
the
other
day.
A
You
know
we
would
never
develop
a
solution
that
required
running
from
the
command
line
if
the
partner
that
we're
working
with
didn't
actually
have
that
talent
on
board.
That
day,
the
day
that
we
were
going
to
actually
deliver
the
technology
so
really
thinking
through
what
is
the
appropriate
use
of
technology?
What
is
the
appropriate
technology
for
that
specific
situation?
A
And
just
to
bring
that
home,
as
we
think
about
again
these
guidelines
for
developing
technology.
That's
there.
You
want
to
make
sure
that
you're
bringing
into
these
situations
the
true
deep
technical
expertise
that
you
have,
that
your
team
has
and
that
the
organization
needs.
And
then
you
are
designing
those
appropriate
and
responsible
solutions
for
that
organization.
A
A
Finally,
it's
important
to
start
investing
in
talent
early
and
if
what
you're
doing
touches
government
in
any
way
encourage
your
government
partners
to
start
the
procurement
process
early,
because
otherwise
you
won't
be
able
to
get
that
talent
in
you
won't
be
able
to
get
the
technology
in
that
you
need,
but
really
to
make
this
first
piece
of
that
trifecta
that
we've
discussed
stick
drive
home.
These
three
points
for
the
teams
that
you're
working
in
and
the
teams
that
you
you've
empowered
to
help
manage
through
the
change.
A
So
with
that,
let's
go
to
the
next
piece
of
people
and
many
times
as
we're
talking
about
managing
these
transformation
projects.
People
management
actually
just
comes
down
to
change
management,
the
solid
change
management
process.
So
we're
going
to
go
back
to
basics
here
and
talk
about
john
cotter's
work
and
leading
change
where
he
studied
what
executives
need
to
what
he
studied.
What
a
lot
of
executives
did
a
lot
of
leaders
did
when
leading
change
initiatives
in
their
organization.
A
He
followed
that
up
several
years
later,
with
a
work
where
they
studied,
where
john
cotter
and
dan
cohen
studied
the
main
problems
that
people
come
up
with,
and
one
of
the
main
problems
is
speaking
to
people's
feelings
throughout
change
management
processes.
So,
as
you
think
about
managing
change
processes,
it's
important
to
think
about
what
is
the
discipline?
A
What
are
the
steps
that
you
need
to
go
through
to
make
sure
that
you
can
have
a
clearly
defined
change,
idea
and
change
vision
and
more
to
navigate
through
that,
but
also
that
you're
speaking
to
not
just
what
needs
to
be
done,
but
how
it
needs
to
be
done
and
you're
addressing
some
of
the
emotional
concerns
that
people
have.
Even
though
oftentimes,
especially
in
tech
environments,
they
may
not
state
them.
A
So
cutters
put
together
the
eight
step
change
model,
and
I
think
this
is
a
great
framework
to
use
when
thinking
about.
How
do
we
manage
change
and
how
do
we
manage
people
through
change
in
organizations
again
all
in
the
context
of
some
type
of
digital
transformation
or
technology
rollout
technology
upgrade
now
the
eight
steps
listed
here
again,
I
believe,
are
a
strong
framework.
A
It's
been
a
couple
of
decades
since
this
framework
was
released,
and
so
you
could
argue
that
maybe
you
switch
around
some
of
the
steps
or
I
sometimes
do
a
couple
of
these
steps.
Concurrently
now,
as
I
think,
about
managing
change
in
my
own
organization,
but
these
steps
creating
urgency
forming
a
powerful
coalition,
creating
a
vision
for
change,
communicating
the
vision,
removing
obstacles,
creating
short-term
wins,
building
on
the
change
and
then
anchoring
the
changes
in
corporate
culture
are
crucial
to
success
of
any
type
of
digital
transformation
project.
A
A
The
second
step
that
I
wanted
to
highlight
is
creating
a
vision
so
many
times
as
you're
working
on
rolling
out
new
software
you're
working
on
updating
code,
you're
working
on
moving
something
to
the
cloud
from
whatever
state
that
it
was
in
before
the
changes
that
you're
doing
are
complex.
They
require
a
lot
of
steps.
If
you
don't
create
a
strong
vision
for
people
to
buy
into
you,
don't
create
a
strong
vision
that
people
can
easily
understand.
A
They're
not
going
to
want
to
put
in
the
time
and
effort
required
to
help
do
that
change
and
help
execute
that
change.
So
it's
really
important
that
when
you
create
your
vision,
then
you
paint
for
people
to
see.
You
also
really
simplify
the
complex,
so
people
can
actually
see
how
they
play
into
it
and
see
how
this
can
positively
impact
their
work
lives.
A
The
third
thing
that
I
want
to
point
out
here
is
the
importance
of
removing
obstacles.
If
you're
leading
any
type
of
strongly
digital
transformation
project,
you
want
to
figure
out
how
to
remove
obstacles
from
your
team.
Now,
especially
if
you're
working
in
the
government
sector
or
the
ngo
sector,
you
will
need
to
develop
a
certain
amount
of
tenacity
here,
because
you
will
hear
know
quite
a
lot,
but
it's
really
important,
then,
to
think
about
how
do
I
help
remove
obstacles
from
my
team?
How
do
I
have
some
of
the
tougher
conversations?
A
A
So
we
want
to
leave
a
good
legacy,
which
really
means
we
need
to
understand
the
organizational
culture
we
need
to
understand
the
organizational
systems
that
will
be
able
to
keep
the
work
that
you've
done
going
on
and
on
much
longer
after
you
ultimately
move
on
from
that
position,
and
so
from
there.
I
want
to
talk
about.
What's
my
favorite
piece
of
the
trifecta
that
I
mentioned,
which
is
process
now,
I
know
not.
Everyone
has
the
love
of
process
that
I
have
and
that's.
A
A
So
one
of
the
overarching
things,
though,
that
I
want
to
leave
you
with,
is
that
even
as
you're
thinking
about
how
do
I
do
this
technical
change
that
I
want
to
make
happen?
How
do
I
think
about
pulling
together
members
of
this
open
source
community
or
pulling
together
members
of
my
team
or
other
teams
or
the
company
overall,
that
I'm
working
in
really
always
think
through?
A
How
does
the
overall
mission
of
what
you're
doing
impact
the
community
now
community
can
vary
from
my
stance
in
sitting
at
an
ngo
that
works
with
other
ngo
community
is
often
the
people
those
ngo,
the
ngos
serve
community
can
be
clients,
community
can
be
partner.
Organizations
community
can
be
potential
customers,
but
really
thinking
through
as
you're
doing
your
work.
A
Statements
from
that
change
management
that
we
talked
about
to
tie
some
of
the
trade-offs
that
you're
making
in
technology
decisions
and
design
decisions
that
we've
talked
about
and
to
tie
some
of
even
the
process
for
how
you
might
and
take
requirements,
for
example,
to
the
community
that
you're
serving
so
the
work
you're
doing
again.
Ultimately
matters
and
ultimately
does
do
good
work
that
you've
intended.
A
What
do
we
need
to
minimize?
What
do
we
need
to
emphasize?
What
bias
do
we
need
to
take
off
so
be
really
intentional
about
who
you
put
on
your
team
and
then,
as
you
think,
about
how
you'll
actually
run
that
change
process
really
empower
your
team
to
do
good
work?
I
like
to
tell
many
members
of
my
team.
A
We
can
have
a
separate
conversation
about
having
unqualified
members
on
your
team,
but
in
general
you
really
want
to
make
sure
that
people
are
empowered
to
work
within
their
strengths
and
that
you,
as
a
leader,
can
bring
those
strengths
together
to
really
deliver
the
best
digital
transformation
solution
that
you
can
and
then.
Finally,
you
want
to
support
others
by
sharing
what
you
learn.
And
yes,
of
course
this
applies
within
your
immediate
team,
but
in
you
know,
open
source
communities
and
technical
communities.
A
It
also
means
sharing
what
you've
learned,
how
you've
done
the
work
interesting
code
that
you've
written
anything
else
that
you've
learned
with
the
broader
community
so
that
other
people
don't
have
to
make
the
mistake
that
you
have
to
make.
I
know
you
know
I
think,
back
to
my
college
days
when
it
was,
you
know
if
the
code
was
difficult
to
write.
A
It
should
be
difficult
to
understand
as
to
reasons
what
people
gave,
perhaps
myself
included
as
to
why
code
was
not
documented
well,
but
really
going
the
other
direction
and
really
thinking
through
how
do
we,
as
a
broad
technical
community,
really
make
sure
that
we
collectively
are
advancing
our
skills
and
advancing
the
impact
we
can
all
have
together,
and
so,
when
you
think
of
all
of
that-
and
you
combine
that
with
again
managing
together
the
technology
piece,
the
people
piece
and
the
process
piece,
you
too
can
do
great
work
that
lasts.
Thank
you
for
your
time.