What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? - Ed Wong - Agile SG 2013

Presented in Agile Singapore 2013 Conference

This is a presentation about the search for understanding...in many forms. It asks the following questions:

- What do people get from work?
- How do people learn?
- What motivates them?
- People hate change...right?
- How can “agile” help with (shared) understanding within companies?
- How can “agile” help with understanding your customers?

It is intended to inspire those working in agile ways, or who are thinking of adopting agile principles. It will draw from several sources from a variety of disciplines, including organisational psychology, user experience, and change management.

The presentation is inspired by the lyrics in the Nick Lowe song, made famous by Elvis Costello.

Transcript

1. WHAT’S SO FUNNY ‘BOUT PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING? Ed Wong Agile Singapore 2013 ed.wong@tabar.com.au @littlehelper
2. FIRSTLY, THANKS! To Agile Singapore …and to you for coming to my session. :)
3. MY FAVOURITE AGILE SG STICKER
4. THIS IS ABOUT… • A Song • Some questions • Stories about some people • Some games
5. SOME QUESTIONS • What motivates our work? • Do people hate change? • How can “agile” help with (shared) understanding within groups? • How can “agile” help with understanding your customers?
6. THE SONG “So where are the strong? 
 And who are the trusted? 
 And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.”
7. THE SONG “So where are the strong? 
 And who are the trusted? 
 And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.” — Elvis Costello
8. THE SONG “So where are the strong? 
 And who are the trusted? 
 And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.” — Nick Lowe — Elvis Costello
9. THE SONG “So where are the strong? 
 And who are the trusted? 
 And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.” — Nick Lowe — Elvis Costello
10. UNDERSTANDING :)
11. “If something isn’t going right, it’s because the right people aren’t talking to each other” — David Marques
12. MOTIVATION Port Meadow, Oxford, by Ed
13. DAN PINK'S — DRIVE • RSA Animate. 11 million Youtube views
14. MOTIVATION • Autonomy. The desire to be self-directed. • Mastery. The urge to do something well. e.g Linux, Apache, Wikipedia. • Purpose. A higher purpose rather than only a “profit motive”
15. MOTIVATION • Treat people like people not like horses • Build projects around motivated individuals. • Give them the environment and support they need • Trust them to get the job done.
16. WORK AS A CO-OPERATIVE GAME Pandemic by Ed
17. BUSINESS IS… …a cooperative… game of invention and communication. So are law, journalism, conference organization, entertainment… More surprising to me…was discovering that engineering is also … a cooperative game of invention and communication — Alistair Cockburn
18. PEOPLE HATE CHANGE? by spcbrass on Flickr
19. CHANGE / INNOVATION — Scott Berkun “All stressful events…combine fear of suffering with forced change.”
20. “TOP DOWN” OR…
21. …”BOTTOM UP”? Melbourne laneway, by Ed
22. INVOLVE PEOPLE Holding a pen by Ed
23. INVOLVE PEOPLE Holding a pen by Ed
24. HOW ABOUT… Grass roots change BUT with management support? • Get people interested and intrigued. • Help people to see what’s in it for them. • Help them want to be involved.
25. THE BAD NEWS • It will take time • It’s not always a smooth ride… • Collaboration vs competitiveness by quinn.anya on Flickr
26. THE GOOD NEWS • Help is out there • It can be very fulfilling to achieve
27. DO PEOPLE HATE CHANGE? Not necessarily…but they sometimes need some help… it takes thought and effort.
28. !25 Text If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameshandlon/5893022361/
 Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living (2000) edited by John Little. p121
29. • by globalite on Flickr UNDERSTANDING WITHIN ORGANISATIONS
30. GAME CHEMISTRY
31. BARÇA ACHIEVEMENTS • 64 Domestic trophies and 17 international trophies • 4 x European Cup winners • 10 x League winners 1929-1990 • 12 x League winners since 1990-91 • 15 trophies in the last 5 seasons
32. TIKI-TAKA “a systems approach to football founded upon team unity and a comprehensive understanding in the geometry of space on a football field.” – Wikipedia
33. TICQUI-TACA
34. LA MASÌA by XiscoNL on Wikimedia Commons
35. by Jordiferrer on Wikimedia Commons
36. UNDERSTANDING “…it’s really simple to find him on the pitch, I have a really good understanding with him…he did the right thing at the right moment…I like a lot my understanding on the pitch with him” — Olivier Giroud
37. A “KNOWN” GAME!? But, Ed…The rules of soccer are known!
38. • Ebenezer Cobb Morley, Football Association • There are only 17 laws <50 A5 pages
 (or 140 with pictures) THE LAWS OF THE GAME
39. by Adrian Roebuck on Wikimedia Commons
40. COMPARED TO… • Rugby Union: 20 laws. 200+ pages (with pics) • Cricket: 42 laws, 50 pages (no pics) • MLB Baseball: 10 rules, 130 pages (no pics)
41. PRINCIPLES "They embrace the true principles of the game, with the greatest simplicity" — (E. C. Morley, F.A. Hon. Sec. 1863)
42. …A FRAMEWORK Guidelines goals and principles that have been clarified through practice and adaptation since 1863
43. WHAT ABOUT AGILE? The Scrum Guide • 16 pages (no pics) • Subtitled “The rules of the game”: • 3 roles, 5 events, 3 artifacts.
44. WHAT ABOUT AGILE? The agile manifesto • 4 items • 12 principles
45. COCKBURN’S SWAMP GAME “a competition in which each team must build something somewhere in a swamp” They don’t: • know what they have to build • know where they have to build it • have a map of the swamp
46. UNDERSTANDING YOUR USERS
47. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR? “Customer collaboration” over contract negotiation”
48. KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER “only 21% (of companies) agreed with the statement, “Employees across the company share a vivid image of target customers.” Bruce Temkin Mapping The Customer Journey For Forrester Research
49. MORE “SAD TROMBONE” “That leaves nearly eight out of 10 companies making decisions based on something other than customer needs.”
50. WHAT CAN BE DONE? “User Experience” techniques are great. • Personas • Customer Journey Mapping • Collaborative “Design Studios” • Going to visit your customers!!!
51. USER STORY MAPPING
52. Text “Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameshandlon/5893022361/
 As quoted in Bruce Lee : Fighting Spirit (1994) by Bruce Thomas (1994), p.44
53. THE OATH OF NON-ALLEGIANCE “I promise not to exclude from consideration any idea based on its source, but to consider ideas across schools and heritages in order to find the ones that best suit the current situation.”
54. DESIGN THINKING and Service Design Conducting user research.
 Erin Sanders - Frog Design In Smashing Magazine
55. LEAN Toyota • Healthcare • Education • Construction • Startups • UX • Change
56. SO…WHAT’S ALL THIS ACHIEVE? • We make something that our customers need • We are fulfilled in our professional lives • Our company fulfils its mandate
57. ALL THE KITTENS ARE HAPPY by masochismtango on flickr
58. THE VACATION GAME Vis, Croatia by Ed
59. THE VACATION GAME GOALS: • To give you a better understanding of the other people in the room. • To give you a chance to talk to each other • To get you moving
60. THE VACATION GAME • Mechanics 1: • Find someone you don’t know. • Have a discussion about where you are both going to go on holiday together. • You must mutually agree on a destination within 2 minutes.
61. THE VACATION GAME • Mechanics 2: • Find another group and discuss your choice and the reasons why. • All four of you must agree on a destination within 2 minutes where all of you are going to go together.
62. THE VACATION GAME • Mechanics 3: • Repeat until…
63. THANK YOU :) ed.wong@tabar.com.au tabar.com.au @littlehelper
 projectslittlehelper.com