Chris Baynham-Hughes - Team Topologies Advocate
Chris Baynham-Hughes - Team Topologies Advocate
An economist by degree, Chris began his career as a tester and engineer before transitioning to business consulting. His focus has always been on driving business change and improving workplace efficiency. After a life-changing accident and a sabbatical, Chris led and line managed teams of up to 180 people before moving back to front-line customer facing roles.
For the past five years, Chris has been part of Red Hat's Open Innovation Labs, focusing on thought leadership and advocacy, understanding customer needs, architecting and positioning solutions that improve flow and the independence of Red Hat customers.
He is a seasoned consultant, business leader and international speaker. Experienced in transformation strategy and leadership coaching, solution design, pre-sales, sales, change and line management.
I love nothing more than focusing upon improving the flow of value within an organisation and I'm often found working as a coach/ advisor, designing solutions and workshops to remove impediments to adoption or geeking out over the impact of organisational structures, team dynamics and behaviour economics.
I'm passionate about doing work that matters and enabling others to do their best work.
You can reach him via:
Team Topologies Advocacy
Throughout my career, it’s rare that a customer presentation, meeting, or internal discussion goes by without referencing Team Topologies (TT) and connecting our work to the principles championed by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Below are specific examples of how I’ve actively contributed to spreading the Team Topologies message and advocating for its adoption, underscoring the importance of this framework. Over the past five years, there has been a strong connection between my work and the Team Topologies concepts I've been evangelizing to customers. Recently, much of my time has been dedicated to private events, working closely with teams and engineering practices within clients’ organizations to adopt these principles—moving beyond general advocacy to deeper, hands-on engagement. Here are examples of both public and private initiatives:
Public Contributions:
Blueprint LDN, March 2021: Presented What can the sport of Rugby teach us about Cloud Native Organizational Structure? Watch here.
Dual Track Residency Walk the Walls Webinars: I participated in this monthly webinar series, demonstrating how we applied TT concepts in real-world scenarios through our dual track residencies. These webinars, held for over six months, connected our work directly to Team Topologies language and principles. Learn more.
Platform as a Product Escape Room: Co-developed and delivered this concept at Red Hat Summit 2023 and other key events. The project referenced TT principles such as team types, interaction modes, and cognitive load, and has been presented to over 120 people. Promotional Video.
Keynotes and Breakouts:
CIONet (Belgium) - Exec round table: More Info
The Economist AI Roundtable: Spoke on organizational dynamics and Team Topologies' importance: View Speaker List
SEACon 2022: Delivered a keynote focused on Team Topologies and hosted a book signing with Manuel Pais: Watch Keynote.
The Times: Discussed cognitive load in the context of Shadow IT Security: Read the Article.
Private Contributions:
Escape Room Workshops: Delivered customized escape room experiences to over 150 attendees at ING Bank's ClearingCon 2023, and to 200 people at ABN AMRO Clearing Bank. These workshops tied back to Team Topologies principles.
Keynotes & Workshops: Delivered keynotes at the Dutch Tax Office Platform Conference, ING Bank's ClearingCon 2022, and facilitated several Platform as a Product workshops for customers like Achmea in the Netherlands. I also serve as a reviewer and trainer for these workshops.
Through these contributions, I continue to blend Team Topologies concepts with practical applications, influencing both public and private sectors alike.
