AGILE: PANACEA

OR PLACEBO?

Tathagat Varma, VP Strategic Process Innovations and HR,

[24]7 Innovation Labs

AGILE

Panacea !

Greek Goddess of Universal Remedy

!

Solution to all problems; Cure-all

“There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order

of magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.”

1987

IS AGILE THE NEW SILVER BULLET?

Perkins Patent Tractors

SUBJECT-EXPECTANCY EFFECT

http://ozarker.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/n-p.gif

EXTRAORDINARY GROUPS• A compelling purpose that inspires and stretches members to make

the group and its work a top priority

• Shared leadership that encourages members to take mutual responsibility for helping the group be successful

• Just-enough-structure to create confidance to move forward, but not so much as to become bureaucratic or burdensome

• Full engagement that results in all members jumping in with enthusiasm, sometimes passionately and chaotically, regardless of role

• Embracing differences so that group members see, value, and use their diversity as a strength

• Unexpected learning that translates into personal and group growth

• Strengthened relationships among members characterized by trust, collegiality, and friendship

• Great results, tangible and intangible

LEARNINGS FROM NATURE• Collective Leadership: Any group

member can take the lead.

• Instant Messaging: Instant whole-group broadcast communications.

• Ecosystems: Small is Beautiful … but Big is Powerful.

• Clustering: Engaging many through the few.

BIOTEAMING RULES1. Stop Controlling: Communicate information not orders

2. Team Intelligence: Mobilize everyone to look for and manage team threats and opportunities

3. Permission Granted: Achieve accountability through transparency not permission

4. Always-On: Provide 24*7 instant “in-situ” message hotlines for all team members

5. Symbiosis: Treat external partners as fully trusted team members

6. Cluster: Nurture the team’s internal and external networks and connections

7. Swarm: Develop consistent autonomous team member behaviors

8. Tit-for-Tat: Team members must learn effective biological and interpersonal cooperation strategies

9. Genetic Algorithms: Learn through experimentation, mutation and team review

10. Self-Organizing Networks: Define the team in terms of “network transformations” – not outputs

11. Porous Membranes: Develop team boundaries that are open to energy but closed to waste

12. Emerge: Scale naturally through nature’s universal growth and decay cycles

CONCLUSIONS

• Sorry, there are no silver bullets

• Agile provides great training wheels

• Focus on people, teams and culture

• Believe in what you do, but test it first!

REFERENCES• http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/placebo-effect.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkins_tractors

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet

• http://www.fastcompany.com/41112/what-makes-teams-work

• http://www.medi-leadership.org/pdfs/TheNewScienceofBuildingGreatTeams-HBRApril2012.pdf

• http://www.ambysoft.com/surveys/agileJanuary2014.html