Applying Design Thinking and Complexity Theory in Agile Organizations

Jean Tabaka, Rally Software

@jeantabaka

Yuval and Ronen

An Agile Adoption Story

2002

5000

14

7

1

1

We  created  an  algorithm  we  could  

exploit.  

“Cookbook Agile”

Centralized  authority  

h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualeyesee/6107062655  

Lack  of    innovaEon  

Diminishing  customer  base  

EscalaEon  

Agile    “blame  game”  

Why  a  cookbook  won’t  do  

We live in a world that is complex yet craving

innovation

Our Agile adoptions must embrace vision

with hunches, exploration and

exploitation

We need to do this leveraging emergence, bringing empathy, and

inviting “the wildly unexpected”

3  thoughts  

Don’t  latch  onto  one  set  of  Agile  pracEces  

Invite  principles  and  pracEces  outside  of  Agile  as  your  organizaEon  matures  

Combine  emergence  and  resilience  for  sustained    

innovaEon  

What  you  get  

“Thrive versus merely survive

A  look  at  complexity  

4 Dots

6 Connections

? Patterns

64 Patterns

10 Dots

45 Connections

? Patterns

Patterns

35,184,372,088,832

h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualeyesee/6107062655  

We live in an unordered, complex

world

We have complexity of…

Organizations

Capabilities

Code-base

Customers

Markets

We  can’t  afford  to  latch  onto  recipes  of…  

Order

Control

Algorithm

Are you complex?

“What you predict doesn’t come true.”

“What worked yesterday, doesn’t seem to be

working today.”

“What you don’t know is unknown.”

Are  you  a  chef  or  a  recipe  follower?  

“It is not possible to prove any new thought, concept

or idea in advance.” – Charles Sanders Pierce

Analysis and induction alone cannot manage

complexity

We should must invite abductive logic

Abductive logic: multiple possible explanations for

something

We must invite mystery to allow

innovative patterns to emerge

How  do  we  make  sense  of  environments  like  this?  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution

Gaussian probability (“Bell curve) is not sufficient

We cannot see the low probability, high impact

events

Pareto plausibility seeks outliers

We  intenEonally  seek  these  low  signal  

outliers  

Complexity theory

 David

Snowden

Cynefin

Probable Plausible

Ordered Unordered

Chaotic Simple Complicated Complex

Probable Plausible

Ordered Unordered

Chaotic Simple

Complicated Complex

Probable Plausible

Ordered Unordered

Chaotic Simple

Complicated Complex

Probable Plausible

Ordered Unordered

Disorder

The relationship between cause and effect

Chaotic Simple

Complicated Complex

Probable Plausible

Ordered Unordered

obvious & repeatable

requires analysis or expertise

only coherent in retrospect, and not repeatable

not perceivable

Disorder

What practices are appropriate in each scenario/system?

Chaotic Simple

Complicated Complex

Probable Plausible

Ordered Unordered

Best practices

Good practices Emergent practices

Action

Disorder

What  is  Dave  asking    of  us?  

Resilience  vs  Robustness  

Effec6veness  vs  Efficiency  

The  goal  is  NOT  to  define  your  system  in  one  area  or  another  but  rather  create  movement  appropriately.  

Design thinking

George Kembel

d.school, Stanford

University

http://dschool.stanford.edu/our-point-of-view/

Innovation with empathy

Design thinking practices are non-linear

Design Thinking

Create space for the “wildly unexpected”

http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/#gear-up

Low fidelity prototypes

“It is not possible to prove any new thought, concept

or idea in advance.” – Charles Sanders Pierce

We should must invite abductive logic

Mystery

Heuristics

Algorithm

The balance of Exploration

with Exploitation

In business, we MUST balance searching and

shipping.

Reliability  vs  Validity    and  the  

 “predilecEon  gap”  

Combining  design  thinking  and  

complexity  theory  

Embrace  deep  intenEon  around  the  principles  that  

guide  your  pracEces.  

Probe,  Sense,  Respond  

Explore and Exploit

Emergence  and  resilience  

Empathize  and  innovate  

Apply  cogniEve  distribuEon  necessary  in  complexity  

Apply  design  thinking  non-­‐linear  empathy  

     

Vision & Empathy

Seek the wildly unexpected

Applying Design Thinking and Complexity Theory in Agile Organizations

Jean Tabaka, Rally Software

@jeantabaka