Agile Leadership Enabling an Agile Culture

Agile Leaders support and promote an agile mindset, by focusing on customer value, servant leadership, and lean, efficient processes.

By Robert Weidner

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The Accelerating Pace of Change

Time Magazine The Law of Accelerating Returns

The Changing Workplace

Eight trends that are shaping our future: •  Technology: 83% of all new jobs; 300% growth since 1950

•  Knowledge Work: 75% of total work is knowledge work; only 5% has been computerized

•  Globalization: Geopolitical changes have removed barriers to international trade

•  Reengineering: Companies are redesigning everything about the way work gets done, strategic partnerships

•  Restructuring: Organizations are leveling their hierarchies and making way for “fluid cross-trained teams”

•  Virtual Workplace: Enabled by collaborative technology, people can work anywhere, anytime

•  The End of the Job as We Know It: Permanent downsizing, declining relative wages, underutilization of skilled labor, rise of temporary employees, employee leasing, start-ups

•  Diversity: Changing American workforce demographics

The Agile Journey

Ad hoc Agile

Doing Agile

Thinking Agile

Being Agile

Culturally Agile

The Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

agilemanifesto.org

12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto

1.  Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

2.  Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

3.  Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference for the shorter timescale.

4.  Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

5.  Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

6.  The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto

7.  Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8.  Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

9.  Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

10.  Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.

11.  The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

12.  At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Enabling an Agile Culture

Prescriptive Adaptive

Project, Program, Portfolio Product, Product Line, Product Mix

Scope-boxing Time-boxing

Individual Accountability Model Collective Ownership

Infrequent Releases, Large Batch Sizes Continuous Delivery

Demand Management Dedicated Resources

Functional Silos Cross-Functional Teams

Component-based Feature-based

From To

Leading By Example

Command-and-Control Servant Leadership

Autocratic, Exclusive Democratic, Inclusive, Participatory

Micro-management Empowered Teams

Manager Centric Design Team Centric Design

From To

A servant leader will inspire others to become the greatest version of themselves.

Much of this depends on the type of culture the leader's actions enable.

Aspects of culture include:

´  Psychological Contract

´  Organizational Citizenship

´  Transparency

´  Personal Safety

Management By Wandering Around

Status reports should not be your only view into the work.

“Walking the shop floor” allows you to: •  See the status of the work in real-time

•  Prevent optimistic reporting based on translated or interpreted data

•  Hear how things are going directly from those who are performing the work

•  Offer a boost in morale, which has a direct correlation to productivity

•  Lets employees know the work they do has purpose

•  Lets employees know we put people first

Job Characteristics Theory

The Cynefin Framework

Complex Complicated

Chaotic Simple

Knowledge Work •  Heuristic •  Adaptive •  Organic •  Intrinsic Motivation •  Servant Leadership

Factory Work •  Algorithmic •  Predictive •  Mechanistic •  Carrot-and-stick Rewards •  Command and Control

Agile Waterfall

War Manufacturing

Learning Organization To embrace agility, we must become a learning organization, where we:

•  Facilitate the learning of our members, and provide them opportunities to refresh their skills

•  Continuously transform ourselves

•  Shift to a more interconnected way of thinking

•  Develop a sense of community

Systems Thinking Organizations are a system of inter-relationships that can be

assessed, and improved

Personal Mastery Individuals commit to continual

learning which creates a competitive advantage

Mental Models The assumptions and belief

systems held by an organization must be challenged

Shared Vision The development of a shared

vision across all levels that provides a common identity

Team Learning Individual Learning contributes to team learning – i.e. “knowledge

sharing”

Agile is Continuous Improvement

There is no pure, complacent state of existence.

Perfection occurs only in a state of perpetual adaptation. •  It is our ability to quickly respond to emerging market conditions.

•  It is our ability to identify and correct for unintended consequences.

•  It is our ability to collapse feedback loops.

•  It is achieved through empirical process control.

•  It requires inspection, adaptation, and transparency.

Like organisms, organizations either adapt, or die.

Agile Transformation

Why •  Reduce Cycle Time •  Increase Speed to Market •  Simplification

How •  Execute Agile

Transformation Roadmap •  Execute Agile Training

Roadmap •  Integrated change

management and communication plans

•  Agile coaching to support transition

•  Update processes to support agile

What •  Achieve 100% agility

utilization across entire organization

•  Increase agility of existing agile teams via coaching, community support, and self-service tools

•  Product-centric restructuring

When •  Year 1: “Doing Agile” •  Year 2: “Thinking Agile” •  Year 3: “Being Agile”

Who •  Execution Teams •  Quality, QA Automation •  DevOps, Engineering •  Design, Architecture •  Product Ownership,

Business •  PMO Organization •  Culture and Leadership •  Finance •  Human Capital •  Facilities •  Legal

Change Management •  Increase urgency •  Build the guiding team •  Get the vision right •  Communicate for buy-in •  Empower action •  Create short-term wins •  Don’t let up •  Make change stick

•  Agile transformation MBO established •  Create cross-functional teams to support transformation efforts •  Focus on a principle-based implementation •  Use the “underscore and explore” communication strategy •  Provide formal and informal training opportunities for agile and culture •  Establish pilot program(s) •  Use a simultaneous top-down and bottom-up change approach •  Correct for unintended consequences

Qualitative •  Retrospectives / Surveys

•  Every quarter for departments •  Every sprint for agile teams

•  Assessments •  Capability Assessment

Quantitative •  Metrics

•  Feature Cycle Time •  Net Promoter Score (NPS)

•  Assessments •  Maturity Model M

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