Friday, February 5, 2016

Agile Transformations: Are They Agile?

Host: Linda Fane
Friday, February 5, 2016, 10 am

1 comment:

  1. Here are the notes I typed up.

    This was a spontaneous, free flowing conversation attended by about 15 participants and facilitated by Linda Fane.

    Approach to transformations
    • View as planting seeds
    • As an agile coach, always do an assessment even if you are not paid to do one.
    • Pilot team of volunteers take them through the whole cycle end to end. Demonstrate success.
    • Craig Larman - proposes "flipping the system" by starting with an intact business unit of 50 people or so over a 2 month period.
    • Deeper resistance is found in HR systems, policies titles
    • Transform business by focusing on business problems. Are they a cost control organization or an innovation organization
    • Arlo does a Performance chain analysis using sixboxes.com
    • Listen for Fail Terms "We want to do more faster"….perform 5 whys analysis to get at the root. "We want to be more efficient." Our competitors are doing it"
    • At microsoft, they did a business unit by business unit approach that worked.
    • Model the following: Problem/Execute and change/We improved! Not just successes but share challenges too. Don't just tout successes but the steps there. e.g. a before and after diet photo is not as helpful as leading people along the way.

    How do you communicate the transformation
    • Set expectations. "In the beginning you will have challenges. Dissonance with other teams and with management. And this is what is needed to overcome it and get
    • Remind them of the benefits. Have them tell you the benefits that they are seeking and remind them along the way
    • Effect micro transformations, one team transaction at a time.
    • Remember what they do that has worked well enough.
    • Show empathy - "what do you need to maintain for team happiness and productivity?"
    • "The process will be iterative" State a real problem. We are working on no one approach or solution. We will need to discover our way there. We will have some success and some failure and will share and learn. Not providing a fixed structure. These are characteristics of an agile organization. We will not solve problems tomorrow." Open people up to the process. The transformation is not linear but cycles of adaptation
    • Identity…"We are an agile/learning culture" then provide the supporting structure and mechanism.
    • If you have to convey a road map communicate some of the predictable series of events that they will go through. This helps to reduce the feeling of uncertainty.
    • One coach conveys 3 types of future
    1. Immediate term - predictable
    2. Near term - vaguer idea of the solution
    3. Longer term - We have a point of view. We believe we know but will delay decisions until the last responsible moment.

    We talked about the needs of coaches in a transformation.
    Ask yourself what do I need? What do I want to get out of the transformation? We discussed how the coaches personal needs could come in conflict with the clients so you need to know what those are. Then we did a round robin to express our individual needs or drivers
    A - Find the best people and empower them to change the world. Don't want to waste time on those who aren't interested
    LF - Catalyze transformational thinking. If a group wants to go agile but has no intention of changing their mindset then that is a problem.
    L - Engaging volunteers (in non-profit)
    J - Foster autonomy and freedom
    J - Value relationships over outcomes
    L - Make businesses better and improve economy
    C - Stay true to work ethics

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