Agile, Culture & Change

copyright Joseph Little 2017

Culture & Agile & Change v.11

Agile CarolinasOctober 2017

Joseph LittleLeanAgileTraining.com

1


Note

• This slide deck is evolving. It started many years ago. It includes “everything” I have put together on “change” so far. I never discuss all of it in one setting.

• Version 11 is a major re-write.

2


Introduction

3


The Show by Lenka

• A bit of a theme to start.

• https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tjvoz7m4qsa2w66gvg3vm4nnajq?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics

• It connects to one of the slides at the end. A baseball reference.

4


What is it?

• First: The whole world needs changing

• Specifically: Better and more agile (Scrum) can help A LOT in a lot of situations

• You (you) can make a huge difference in lots of peoples’ lives. Yourself (your family), your team, your customers.

• Change is not happening fast enough. In the right direction.

• We can learn to make change happen faster.

• Nothing is in our complete control. Everything can be influenced eventually.

5


More specifically

• We are not fixing impediments fast enough

• What is an impediment?

• Anything that’s slowing down the Team. Or making it less happy. Or keeping it from maximizing delivery of BV quickly to the customer.

• Example impediment groups:

• Not doing all of Scrum

• Not adding the right things to Scrum (eg, XP)

• Distractions or disruptions of any sort

• Things the Team needs to learn and do better

• Things outside the Team that impede them

6


YOU CAN DO IT!

• That’s the most important thing I will say tonight.

• YOU CAN.

• Where there is a will, there is a way.

• “If you want to change the world, make your bed.” Adm. McRaven

• “Little things are big.”

7


Some quotes

• “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Adm. McRaven

• “If you don’t change things, nothing’s gonna change.” J. Little

• “Change is the only constant.” Heraclitus

• “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Y. Berra

• “Could you please get those morons out of the road!”

• “Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast” P. Drucker

8


A ripple

9


10 pieces of advice

1. Do something and learn

2. Just do Scrum (more) and learn

3. Get a (better) impediment list

4. Use the Retrospective better

5. Show up (daily)

6. Use the FearLess Change patterns (48)

7. Use John Kotter’s advice (8 steps)

8. Use Adm. McRaven’s advice (10)

9. Use Taiichi Ohno’s advice

10.Take comfort and support from your friends

10


A word of sympathy

• I am sympathetic

• It is hard, there are set-backs, we do get bruised

• It is even a bit dangerous (“A dead ScrumMaster is a useless ScrumMaster”)

• But Now: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;Or close the wall up with our English dead!In peace there's nothing so becomes a manAs modest stillness and humility:But when the blast of war blows in our ears,Then imitate the action of the tiger.” Henry V

11


Where is change happening?

• At all levels.

• In a large corporation we could talk about 4 levels easily

1. Team level (“inside” the Team)

2. Around the Team

3. In a department (this typically would include a bunch of Teams)

4. Enterprise-wide change - Yikes!!

• Many things we will talk about will have impact at more than one level. Possibly all 4 levels.

12


Agenda

• More about the problem

• Discuss “10 Pieces of Advice”

• Some questions to you

• Closing

13


Goethe’s Advice

• “Everything’s impossible until it becomes easy.”

14


More about the problem

• It is not just about Culture

• We can fix small problems of all sorts that have minimal relationship to “culture”.

• But changing the culture is always involved. Eventually.

• Either our own culture (eg, within the Team) or the broader culture (eg, in the division or enterprise).

15


Version One - Survey 10 (2015)

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Here’s the test question I will ask later — !!!

• What one thing do you want to act on immediately?

• I think we will give you LOTS of options to choose from….

• BE READY.

17


Introductory Slides

18


About Joe Little

• An Agile Coach, a CST (Scrum Trainer) [CSM, CSPO, CSP], MBA.

• More business-oriented than most agile guys. More into Lean and Business Value Engineering. Co-trained 8 times with Jeff Sutherland.

• Find me at:

• LeanAgileTraining.com

• http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelittle

• Blog: http://www.leanagiletraining.com/blog/

• Twitter: jhlittle

• [email protected]


Less avoidable.

• YOU CAN

• …if you will.

20


“What are you prepared to do?”

[Malone and Ness talking about how to bring down Capone.]Malone: You said you wanted to know how to get Capone. [Ness nods] Do you really want to get him? [pause] You see what I'm saying? What are you prepared to do?Ness: Everything within the law.Malone: And then what are you prepared to do? If you open the ball on these people, Mr. Ness, you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they won't give up the fight until one of you is dead.Ness: I want to get Capone. I don't know how to get him.Malone: You want to get Capone? Here's how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone! Now, do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I'm making you a deal. Do you want this deal?Ness: I have sworn to put this man away with any and all legal means at my disposal, and I will do so.Malone: Well, the Lord hates a coward. [pause] Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Ness? [They are shaking hands.]Ness: Yes.Malone: Good, 'cause you just took one. 21


A ‘useful’ slide deck

• Because I don’t trust pretty slide decks. So, I made this one useful (to me at least).

• “We’re talking here!”

• What I have learned so far....

• But jam packed with friends. And resources.

• “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” H.D. Thoreau

22


Some facts & the Nutshell

23

copyright Joseph Little 2017 24


The nutshell

• Summary of key ideas

• Some basics (Kotter)

• Why is it hard?

• My suggestions

• Some friends and guides (Satir, Vodde & Hofstede, Pink, Manns & Rising, Denning, Apello, Kotter, Gat, Ohno, Drucker, Takeuchi, Nonaka, Mezick)

• Some fun quotes (useful?)

• A question. And your questions (and some responses)

• You can do it! (a pat on the back) Vaya con Dios!

25


Friends & Guides

• Virginia Satir

• Vodde & Hofstede

• Daniel Pink

• Mary Lynn Manns & Linda Rising

• Stephen Denning

• Jurgen Apello

• John Kotter

• Israel Gat

• Taiichi Ohno

• Peter Drucker

• Takeuchi & Nonaka

• Daniel Mezick

26


Section One

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My dream

• “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. ”

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Social Contract.

• “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set her free.” Michelangelo

• But: You must dream your own dream.

• Second sentence (J-J R): “Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.”

28


How much better?

• We know that most teams can become 5x better. Probably 5x to 10x.

• And some more. And some dysfunctional.

• How better?

• More fun

• More pride

• More velocity

• More business value

• High quality

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The Problem (practical & concrete)

Take one relatively small group

& get them to understand & do

Lean-Agile-Scrum better

30


The real problem

Can you stand to live with….

STUPID

any more?

NO!

So with patience you must teach your small part of the world to be smarter.

31


The Summary

1. It is possible to 'work hard' at changing the culture and get nowhere.

2. It is easy to change the culture a little bit.

3. Change will happen; your only job is to influence it. And you can.

4. Actions speak louder than words.

5. "Become the change you want to see in the world." (Gandhi)

6. "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you."

7. "When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends." Mark Twain

8. "Just dance." Lady Gaga. Ride the wave.

32


Just Dance

Red One Konvict

Gaga (oh, yeah)

I've had a little bit too much, much All of the people start to rush.

Start to rush by. A dizzy twister dance

Can't find my drink or man. Where are my keys, I lost my phone.

What's going on on the floor? I love this record baby, but I can't see straight anymore.

Keep it cool what's the name of this club? I can't remember but it's alright, I'm alright.

[Chorus:] Just dance. Gonna be okay.

Da-doo-doo-doo Just dance. Spin that record babe.

Da-doo-doo-doo Just dance. Gonna be okay.

Duh-duh-duh-duh Dance. Dance. Dance. Just dance.

33


For Peter

• After the TriAgile session (2014), I had a conversation with Peter. This is my summary of what I learned (not exactly what he said).

• Get over yourself.

• Accept that people are free, and that you can’t force them to change.

• Accept that change will happen. (It is not hopeless or impossible.)

• Accept that you can influence ‘them.’ (A bit scary.) And the only question is how much and how fast.

34


Is change hard?

• Well, sooner or later, you will find that change is hard.

• It may, in fact, ‘kill’ you. (You might get fired from one company.)

• But, when you are victorious, you will be the more satisfied that you have fought the right fight against tough odds. And you won.

• Nothing worth having comes easily.

• You may wish to say: “I am a wetware re-programmer.” But people are not so logical. Even Sheldon.

35


King Canute and the waves

36


Why is this culture thing so hard?

• We don’t know what we are talking about.

• We don’t know what to do.

• Our expectations for speed of success are unrealistic.

• We don’t describe success well.

• It is big. And feels amorphous.

• It’s an instinctive / emotional thing more than a rational thing.

37


There is no magic.

• Not in 1215 (Magna Carta)

• Not in 1776 (or 1781) — the Declaration of Independence (the Battle of Yorktown)

• Not on June 6, 1944 (D-Day)

• Not in 1989 (the fall of the Iron Curtain)

• But ‘impossible’ things happen daily.

• Note to self: These good events involved multiple people.

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CHANGING CULTURE

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Some basics - 1• Culture defined. “Culture consists of group norms of behavior and the

underlying shared [tacit] values that help keep those norms in place.” Ex: 9am.

• Culture starts where? “It usually comes from the founders of the group. For whatever reason, they value certain things and behave in ways that seem to help the group succeed. Success is key. So it seeps into the group’s DNA.”

• How to change? “A powerful person at the top, or a large enough group from anywhere in the organization, decides the old ways are not working…….…”

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/09/27/the-key-to-changing-organizational-culture/

• “Everything changes, nothing remains the same.” Buddha, ~2000 years ago.

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Some basics - 2

“A powerful person at the top, or a large enough group from anywhere in the organization, decides the old ways are not working, figures out a change vision, starts acting differently, and enlists others to act differently. If the new actions produce better results, if the results are communicated and celebrated, and if they are not killed off by the old culture fighting its rear-guard action, new norms will form and new shared values will grow.”

John Kotter (same article)

42


What do we want to change, really?

• Change Thinking. Why? So that they will decide and act differently on small matters.

• Change Actions (behavior). That ‘they’ will allow agile (the big parts of it) to happen?

• It feels:

• Impossible

• Lonely

• Endless

43


Poll - Is change happening fast enough?

44


How much better?

• We know that most teams can become 5x better. Probably 5x to 10x.

• And some teams more. And some teams dysfunctional.

• How better?

• More fun

• More pride

• More velocity

• More business value

• High quality

• Fewer hours

45


What is your dream?

• Poll

46


My dream today

• That we notably change the Charlotte area, so that it becomes one of the 3 key innovation centers in the US.

• This means Agile/Scrum teams that are 5x-10x better.

• More fun

• More BV faster

• No overtime (sustainable pace)

• Higher quality

• More innovation

• More productivity (velocity)

47


The first 5 pieces

1. Do something and learn

2. Just do Scrum (more) and learn

3. Get a (better) impediment list

4. Use the Retrospective better

5. Show up (daily)

48


#1 - Do something and Learn

1. You really do know something to do. You did before tonight.

2. Do THAT!

3. Then learn from that.

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” Gretzky

4. Learn how to be ‘good’ at change. A Change Agent. It’s a bunch of skill sets.

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#2 - Just do more Scrum and learn

1. The cycles of basic Scrum force them to see the truth.

2. You almost can’t help but have some success — success gives you more influence.

3. If you put “stupid” in the face of someone long enough, almost anyone will eventually do the right thing, and fix it.

4. Add a bit more of “real Scrum” (or other things) each time. Don’t ask for permission - just do it. This will help. Cf. article by Mark Striebeck

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#3 - Get a (better) Impediment List

1. Make sure every Team has an impediment list.

2. See ScrumPLOP: https://sites.google.com/a/scrumplop.org/published-patterns/retrospective-pattern-language/impediment-list

3. Anything that reduces the speed of success (complete success) of the Team is an impediment.

4. Prioritized (ROI)

5. Acted on by: SM, Team, people outside Team (eg, managers, vendors, etc, etc).

51


Kaizen Mind

• “The relentless pursuit of perfection.” Lexus slogan, part of Lean

• “No problem is a problem.”

• What percentage of the Team’s time should be dedicated to “Sharpening the saw”? 14%, 20%? If you get good payback….

52


More advice

• Have fun!

• Laugh at the problems — Respect the people.

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#4 - Use the Retrospective better

• Take more action

• Work together on the action

• Make a Business Case (A3)

• Then present it to a manager soon

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#5 Show up (daily)

• “Eighty percent of life is showing up.” Woody Allen

• Work on change every day. Every day.

• You will make progress. Making some progress will encourage others. They will then help you.

• Take some shots. It’s ok that many don’t go in. It’s ok to lose some.

• “I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never gonna keep me down.”

• Whistle while you work, but work.

• Keep pounding.

55


Eric Schmidt

• “Our goal is to have more at bats per unit of time and money than anyone else.”

• See: https://books.google.com/books?id=_DZ_AMDl5yUC&pg=PT109&dq=our+goal+is+to+have+more+at+bats&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifxpecrOHWAhXEQSYKHeNSCgsQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=our%20goal%20is%20to%20have%20more%20at%20bats&f=false

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Your impact through others

• See: https://youtu.be/pxBQLFLei70?t=1m7s

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Michael Jordan

• “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

• “The ceiling is the roof.”

• “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

• Michael Jordan was not accepted onto his High School Varsity Basketball Team his first year. He never forgot that.

58


Show up

• “I’m not throwing away my shot!” Hamilton.

• Take a shot each day.

59


HOW TO START

60


A couple of places to start…

1. Do Scrum (make the stupid stuff obvious)

2. Fix Impediments

3. Get manager’s to help fix impediments, as if they were rational (good ROI, benefits over costs)

4. Have fun!

5. Laugh at the stupidity. (But respect the people.)

61


Some initial ideas - 1

1. “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford

2. Show up.

3. Gather your ‘friends’.

4. Decide what culture means to you. Be as specific as possible.

5. Pull together some ideas about people. You’re going to discover a lot about people. Your new BFFs. You need ideas to help talk about individuals and groups of people.

6. Decide how you would know some useful ‘change’ had happened. (EX: “They allowed us to start a 2nd Scrum Team and fix these 3 impediments.”)

7. Define the culture you want. Incremental-ize it.

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Some initial ideas - 2

1. Map the culture. Maybe: The white hats, the gray, the black hats.

2. Decide who needs changing / fixing. Prioritize.

3. Know your enemy.

4. “Q: How do you eat an elephant? A: One spoonful at a time.” Make a list of small ‘features.’ (Change backlog & roadmap!)

5. Fix a few people at a time. Maybe only one at a time.

6. Track progress.

7. Tell success stories.

8. Expect some ‘failures’. Get back in the saddle. Learn from them.

63


More quotes

64


Virginia SAFIR and Friends

65


Virginia Satir - Change curve

66


Mind games /// sympathy

• “Some people, if they don’t already know it, you can’t explain it to them.” Yogi Berra

• This means: Understand how they think. And explain things in a way that suits their thinking, their basic assumptions about....life.

• Seek first to understand, then to be understood. (Based on the prayer of St. Francis)

67


Let me be clear

• Be hard and be soft

• Be aggressive and be gentle

• Be masculine and be feminine (yin and yang)

• Easy!

• No contradictions here!

68


So, I brought you some friends...

• “Dante, here’s Virgil. Virgil, here’s my good friend Dante. He wants to go on a difficult journey. Help him to find the straight path.”

• Some guides...for your journey.

• Yes, an interesting journey.

• Look at it this way: You’ll take some interesting pictures and have lots of stories to tell!

Francesca and Paolo..., Scheffer69


Vodde & Hofstede

70


Bas Vodde & Geert Hofstede

• Bas is an Agile Coach & Trainer. Geert writes many books on culture, eg, Culture’s Consequences.

• See Bas’s presentations here: http://www.odd-e.com/index.php?page=pageIdeas

• Especially: “Scrum doesn’t work in China?”

71


Dimensions

1. Power Distance. (High is ‘bad’)

2. Individualism versus Collectivism (former is ‘bad’)

3. Masculinity versus Femininity (latter is ‘good’)

4. Uncertainty Avoidance (High is ‘bad’)

5. Long-term Orientation vs Short-term (L-T is ‘good’, since it leads one to be more adaptable)

6. Indulgence versus Restraint (seems indulgence has more fun)

72


Joe’s Conclusions

1. Cultures are complex.

2. Most people can’t explain their own culture.

3. Every culture sees agile a different way.

4. Every culture in some ways supports agile.

5. Every culture in some ways rejects agile.

6. Every culture has a paradoxical, contradictory mix of elements.

7. Your job: change the balance.73


Side Comments

74


What are we talking here?

• It probably is not brain surgery with a long sword aimed at their neck. Not a total transplant.

• More like opening the cranial lid, and putting you hands in -- and squishing around in the wet stuff a bit. A tweak here, a push there... More subtle. But soon you hear ‘em singing a new tune.

• Wear gloves. And wash afterward. Please. (It’s messy!)

75


Side Conversation

1. You can. You really can.

Lots of stories, real stories, where people just like you did.

I believe in you.

You must believe that something is worth changing. And you must have something to change toward. (Agile? Scrum? X?)

If you do....where there is a will, there is a way.

2. You are not alone.

76


The Boxing Metaphor - 7 rounds

Just a little patience baby.

77


One issue: Honesty

• Reality: “Never tell the truth!”

• Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

• CYA, the blame game, ‘performance reviews’

• The amount of dishonesty in corporations is... amazing.

• Failure? No, never happened to me!

• It’s not a lie; it’s a report!

78


One more time: where is culture?

• In each of the individuals, or in the group?

• Do we change one person at a time, or can we only change a ‘group’ at a time?

• Do we think of it as a virus that spreads throughout the bodies in the group? And the group sustains it, even as we think we eliminate the virus in one person?

• Joe’s bias: Often it is best to fix one person at a time. (Start with yourself.)

• Joe’s bias: Culture is like that part of the iceberg ‘beneath the water.’

79


To be successful...

• You need structures and patterns you can act on.

• But you also need to see the problem and take action within a bigger, ‘known’ context -- some meta-structure, some meta-patterns.

• We are making those visible too.

80


Another quote

• “People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.” P Senge

81


DANIEL PINK

82


Why? Knowledge Workers are different.

• Drive by Daniel Pink.

• Three Key Ideas:

• Autonomy - the ability to choose what and how tasks are completed

• Mastery - the process of becoming adept at an activity; “we’re making progress”

• Purpose - we contribute to something bigger than ourselves

• We have to ‘organize’ things a different way now. People will produce more...

83


Watch the two videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

• And also the HBR interview:

• https://hbr.org/2010/02/what-motivates-us

84


The key problems (as solutions) - Joe’s List

1. Get yourself motivated enough

2. Don’t defeat yourself

3. Show up

4. Get unconfused and make a little plan

5. Pull together a band of brothers

6. Do the basics

7. Talk to all the right people

8. Take half a loaf now.

85


Notes - 1

• “A sense of urgency” (Kotter)

• “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” H Ford

• Only do what you can’t not do.

• Get married, be a success, have a baby, love your friends

• Run a marathon

• “Eighty percent of life is just showing up.” Woody Allen

• If you want to write a novel, write a novel. (paraphrase of Woody Allen)

• “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

86


Notes - 2

• “I have always figured that a half a loaf is better than none.” R. Reagan

87


MARY LYNN MANNS & LINDA RISING

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The Patterns

• We handed out a bunch of the patterns.

• Please read them (if you did not before).

• After I give some background, YOU will discuss some of these patterns.

89


Mary Lynn Manns & Linda Rising

• Fearless Change (book), and now More Fearless Change (book)

• “Leading Fearless Change” (article)

• http://www.fearlesschangepatterns.com/

• A framework for thinking about change.

• 48 Patterns for change.

• Use one each day.

• Rinse and repeat.

• “Little things are big” (Yogi Berra)

90


Step By Step (pattern)

• Relieve your frustration at the enormous task of changing an organization by taking one small step at a time toward your goal.

• You wonder what your plan should be for introducing the new idea into your organization.

• Use an incremental approach in the change initiative, with short-term goals, while keeping your long-term vision

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-tzu

91


Fearless Change (book)

• Overview

• Experiences (real stories)

• Patterns

• Appendix

92


Twelve Patterns in the article

• Evangelist

• Ask for Help

• Innovators

• Just Do It

• Personal Touch

• Hometown Story

93

• Step by Step

• Fear Less

• Bridge-Builder

• Champion Skeptic

• Corridor Politics

• Whisper in the General’s Ear


List of Patterns

• See “Fearless Change Patterns” here… http://www.leanagiletraining.com/lean-agile-scrum-resources/articles-we-recommend/

• You will see, roughly in the middle, “Appendix February 2011.doc” and…. there are 48 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 61 patterns now.

94


Now let’s discuss

• Who has a pattern that you like?

• For later: Fearless Journey - a game. http://fearlessjourney.info/

95


Stephen Denning

• Part of the Stoos group also.

• The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management (book)

• http://www.stevedenning.com/site/Default.aspx

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/09/17/shift-index-2013-key-innovation-ingredient-absent-worker-passion/

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/ the blog

96


The Principles of Radical Management

• A shift in goal from making money for shareholders to delighting customers through continuous innovation.

• A shift in the role of managers from controlling individuals to enabling self-organizing teams.

• A shift in the way work is coordinated from bureaucracy to dynamic linking.

• A shift in values from a preoccupation with efficiency to a broader set of values that will foster continuous innovation.

• A shift in communications from top-down commands to horizontal communications.

97


Jurgen Apello

• http://www.jurgenappelo.com/

• How To Change the World (book)

• Management 3.0 (book)

• Another guy from the Stoos group.

98


ADKAR

• Awareness (of the need to change)

• Desire (to participate and support)

• Knowledge (of how to change and what change looks like)

• Ability (to implement change on a day-to-day basis)

• Reinforcement (to keep the change in place)

99



Systems Thinking...

• Disturb the system (it will react in some way)

• Watch the ripples and learn

• If you change yourself, you change the system

• If you change several people, you have changed the system more

• Related: Use their own energy against them. You can find a leverage point to flip them.

• Complex Adaptive Systems.

101


“How do I deal with my crappy organization?”

You have 3 choices (Jurgen says):

1. Ignore it

2. Quit your job

3. Learn about change management

Joe: I like choice #3, but it’s got some issues. But you wanted a little challenge, didn’t you?

102


You are in a marathon

• ...and that’s the good news

• Be patient, and you will win (if you deserve to)

103


John Kotter

• http://www.kotterinternational.com/

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/

• A Sense of Urgency (book)

• Leading Change (book)

• Buy-In: Saving your good ideas from getting shot down (book)

104


John Kotter’s 8 Steps

• https://www.kotterinternational.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/

105


The 8 Steps (Kotter)

1. Create a sense of urgency (70% fail)

2. Build a Guiding Coalition

3. Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives

4. Enlist a Volunteer Army

5. Enable Action by Removing Barriers

6. Generate Short-Term Wins

7. Sustain Acceleration

8. Institute Change

Note: It is more subtle than you may think.106


A Sense of Urgency (Kotter book)

• “Aim for the heart” (an experience)

• “Underlying a true sense of urgency isa set of feelings:a compulsive determination to move, and win, now.”

107


A Sense of Urgency

108


Admiral McRaven

• “What starts here changes the world.” Univ. of Texas slogan.

• “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Adm. McRaven

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The short video

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The two versions & the book

• The short version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sK3wJAxGfs

• The longer version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70

• The book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Bed-Little-Things/dp/1455570249

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Israel Gat

• http://blog.cutter.com/author/israelgat/

• The Concise Executive Guide to Agile (book)

• Key lesson: Speak their language

• A rational presentation.

• Idea: Sometimes all you need is for some naysayers to shut up.

• Related: There are lots of articles that also explain the benefits of agile.

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Chapter 3: How to fit Agile into the fabric of your company

• 3 sections:

• Heterogeneous Development Environments

• Performance Measures

• Linking Agile to Planning and Budgeting Processes

Very rational. No discussion of changing ‘culture.’ We are just rationally changing processes.

It might work some places. Certainly his issues often must be addressed.

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Taiichi Ohno

• He is the key person behind "Lean" (the Toyota Way)

• He changed Toyota from the late 1940's until well into the 1980's.

• He was not finished when he retired.

• Be patient.

• Read his books!

• He is subtle.

• He offers nothing to attack.

• He speaks common sense (usually not very common).

• He attacks them where they are weakest.

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Taiichi Ohno

• Toyota Production System (book)

• Workplace Management (book)

• “All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”

• “Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat? The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’, they go there to ‘think’.”

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Lessons

• Key idea:

• Argue for a while.

• Usually the other person won't agree. (‘People don't resist change, they resist being changed.’)

• So, agree to try an experiment (his idea or yours). And let the experiment prove that an idea is better (in some way).

• Understand how Agile is like Lean.

• It is hard for any business person to resist Lean.

• If Lean ideas are in your culture, use that.

• Explain Agile in Lean terms.

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Peter Drucker

• He invented the term “knowledge worker”

• Why do you care?

• Because it changed the game.

• He wrote LOTS of books . And articles.

• “People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

• “Culture eats strategy for Breakfast” -- Peter Drucker (attributed)

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Some ideas

• “The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly (50x) to increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers.”

• “The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution (whether business or nonbusiness) will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.”

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Six major factors determine knowledge-worker productivity

1. Knowledge-worker productivity demands that we ask the question: “What is the task?”

2. Knowledge Workers have to manage themselves. They have to have autonomy.

3. Continuing innovation has to be part of the work.

4. Knowledge work requires continuous learning.

5. Productivity: Quality is at least as important.

6. Knowledge-worker productivity requires that the knowledge worker is both seen and treated as an “asset” rather than a ”cost.” (6a)

7. Requires that knowledge workers want to work for the organization (6b)

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Takeuchi & Nonaka

• They wrote The New New Product Development Game (HBR-1986) - they are the godfathers of Scrum.

• They explain the mysteries of knowledge work well.

• Use their ideas.

• Use their many books and articles.

• “The Knowledge Creating Company”. Article, also book. (hbr.com)

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6 Key Ideas from NNPDG

1. Built-in Instability

2. Self-organizing project teams

3. Overlapping development phases

4. “Multi-learning”

5. Subtle control

6. Organizational transfer of learning

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Dan Mezick

• Wrote: The Culture Game.

• The OpenSpace Agility Handbook (Oct 2015)

• Some insights:

• Culture can be hacked

• We want learning organizations

• Game your meetings (clarify the ‘rules of the game’ re meetings)

• Use a whole bunch of agile ideas to manage the culture change

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Two Key Ideas

• Management Scrum Team

• aka: Executive Action Team (by Jeff Sutherland)

• Using Open Space to bring incremental cultural change

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What is culture hacking?

• “Culture hacking is the active, intentional and iterative modification of existing cultural norms...”

• “...with the intent to create a stronger culture of learning.”

• “Culture hackers are...refactoring existing cultural code...so that the overall system displays more robust performance.”

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Agile Ideas to use in Change

1. Improve the meetings

2. Examine your norms (retrospective / feedback)

3. Be punctual

4. Structure your interactions

5. Announce your intent

6. Conduct frequent experiments

7. Manage visually

8. Inspect frequently (eg, do one ‘sprint’s’ worth of change)

9. Get coached

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Other key insights

• Don’t just ask for ‘change’; define the change you want.

• He places… ‘high value on continuous organizational learning’

• Some similarity to “The Knowledge Creating Company”

• It is not just ‘change’ or ‘stop doing that’, but positive and clear.

• The future is not a new plateau!

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Management Scrum Team

• Jeff Sutherland has: Executive Action Team. See scruminc.com

• Get the top managers to do Scrum in front of the Tribe.

• They know it when they do it….

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“OpenSpace Agility”

• First: Two Open Space events that time-box a ‘rite of passage’ and a time-box toward ‘adoption.'

• Second: Multiple 'rites of passage', each to a new level of adoption, productivity, success.

• Purpose: A more rapid and lasting agile adoption. Leading to better overall business results.

• Key: Invite, Engage, Collaborate.

• Adoption ‘sprints’ within the larger rite of passage.

• See: OpenAgileAdoption.com

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The ideas behind: Goals

• More success for everyone.

• But we think one key cause is: Better adoption of agile by the culture.

• We think that is driven by…. (all these other things we are talking about…)

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OpenSpace Agility — Your opinions…

• What do you think so far?

• What sounds good?

• What puzzles or worries you?

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What has to happen first?

• Can you just start doing OpenSpace Agility on the very first day?

• Probably not. So, what has to happen first?

• Short answer: Not sure.

• Longer answer: Maybe the pilot team has been trained and started, and had a bit of success. Say, 3 sprints in. Maybe at least an executive has shown some interest. And someone ‘in authority’ is willing to sponsor the first ‘open space’.

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My recent learning

• It works! Or so I think so far.

• The Sponsor (person of authority) is important. Often 'the people' feel powerless until the sponsor authorizes them to 'self-organize.'

• Self-organization can feel scary to some Sponsors. But usually less than you expect.

• There is lots of work to 'set it up.' And you only want to influence.

• They will self-organize. They won't do it perfectly. Expect 'good things', but nothing specific.

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Key Ideas

1. Invitation

2. By doing it together, they influence each other.

3. By doing Open Space, they become actors in the change. They are no longer ‘being changed.’

4. Watch out for influencing that is felt as ‘forcing.’

5. Tell stories (before and after). Fill the story ‘field.’

6. Fix impediments! Fix impediments! Fix impediments!

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More key ideas

1. They (the group) do not really understand Agile well enough. This is a problem. (Their proposed changes could be ‘incompetent.”)

2. Also: They will never, as a group, all understand Agile well-enough. (It is really rather complex, IMO.)

3. So: I think it is enough if the group includes a fair proportion of ‘agile experts’. Bring Agile coaches, bring outside experts, bring trained ScrumMasters, be sure your best agile people attend (can attend), etc. Open the possibility for enough good agile seeds to be there, and to be planted. And to grow.

4. My saying: “If you wait for perfection, you might wait too long.”

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Recent learnings - 2

• Are you surprised that ‘a complete change’ will take more than one Open Space event?

• It takes time for the group to change! Frustrating. But, do we think Culture is important?

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How do you know the cultural change is happening?

• Let’s discuss.

• With Open Space, if you walk around the sessions and pay attention at the end-of-day wrap-up, you will ‘see’ that the culture has changed. Some, not completely.

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Talking to Managers & Executives

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Talk to the Executives and Managers

• They need to change too.

• They need information about what Agile is.

• You need to influence the way they think.

• You need them to change their behavior!

• So, what do you say to them?

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Some first ideas

• What you need to say can vary a lot…

• Depends who they are, and the company situation

• Depends on their biggest problems…

• It is not one conversation.

• Example: What I said recently at one company: (a) reduce WIP, (b) allow real Teams, (c) help remove impediments! (Things they could ACT on.)

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Two notes

• A culture change that is only ‘by the people’ is not a real culture change.

• A culture change only by ‘the Executives and managers’ is not a real culture change.

• Maybe Executives could come to the Open Space??

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Harrison Owen

• Very interesting guy. Google him.

• Invented “Open Space Technology” 20+ years ago.

• Key concept is “self-organizing”.

• Everyone influences everyone. Chaos and creation in the backyard.

• Chaos and order dance.

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Dancing with Shiva

• A god, the creator and the destroyer.

• https://youtu.be/APD7oQ3xrSA?t=11s

• https://youtu.be/APD7oQ3xrSA?t=4m43s

• https://youtu.be/APD7oQ3xrSA?t=13m20s

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#10 - “With a little help from my friends…”

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Key: Do it together…

• Work with a key group at work (Kotter calls it a “guiding coalition”)

• Get help from many experts…

• Get comfort and support here at Agile Carolinas

• Elsewhere…

• There is much to learn before we all become expert “Change Agents”

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CONCLUSION

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You can!

• Yes, it will be hard and frustrating some days. All good work is.

• You can do it! Even you. And you can get help.

• How do I know this?

• With a sense of humor, honesty, love, patience, perseverance, boldness (and some intelligence) -- you can change the whole world. But for now, your job is simpler.

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“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

“The game isn’t over ‘til it’s over.”

“Take it with a grin of salt.”

Yogi Berra149

You are in ‘the show’ now.


Closing

• Thank you. You have inspired me.

• I will make this slide deck available.

• Some Questions for you:

• Which part was the most useful?

• What one thing do you want to act on tomorrow?

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Joe Little

• Agile coach and trainer (CST).

• [email protected]

• LeanAgileTraining.com

• 704-376-8881

• Contact me if I can help.

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