Cultural Confusion: Bridging the gap between initiative and implementation

A presentation at All Day DevOps 2021 by Laura Santamaria

When talking about a “DevOps transformation,” we talk a lot about changing the company culture. However, what do we mean when we say “culture”? The term itself may seem clear from a high level, but it gets fuzzier and fuzzier the more we attempt to drill down and focus. What might be clear to someone in a leadership position when they talk about changing company culture gets unfocused and confusing as implementation begins further down the chain. As a result of this fuzziness, these transformations can fail to materialize or fail to persist after the initial focus by leadership. Handling that fuzziness throughout the organization is crucial to building a DevOps mindset that sticks. Let’s explore how to find a path forward together.