Re-Energizing Agile Teams

Have you found that your agile teams have reached an improvement ceiling they don't seem to be able to break through, or that their retros keep exposing lingering frustrations that don't seem to go away? Continuous improvement is an important principle in Agile, yet it's not uncommon to find teams that find themselves in that predicament. It can be easy (even tempting?) to find reasons connected to "motivation" (or "caring"), or insufficient training, etc. But I've found that, as much as that may be the case, it often leads a change agent or coach down roads that may not have enough pragmatism to actually break the stagnation cycle. I have also found that an approach based on deep understanding of how the work actually flows (or doesn't) can serve as the missing catalyst to reenergize those teams.

In this session, I will be covering what I mean by all that, how you can help teams understand where their frustrations are coming from, and how to spot actionable improvement opportunities, and more importantly, who is in the position to implement them (spoiler alert: often, this person is not seating in the workshop).

Transcript

1. On illuminating plateaus and Breaking glass ceilings… SquirrelNorth FERNANDO CUENCA fernando@squirrelnorth.com R e - e n e r g i z i n g a g i l e T e a m s Sept 27th, 2023
2. SquirrelNorth CONSULTING | TRAINING | COACHING MARTIN AZIZ FERNANDO CUENCA JAMES STEELE ALEXEI ZHEGLOV
3. “This team needs some help…”
4. TL;DR
6. 3 revelations from this exercise
8. Improvement work is still work… … it will compete with all the other “work”
9. … it will compete with all the other “work” How did that happen??? How is work “allowed to enter”? How does “commitment” work around here?
10. How does “commitment” work around here?
11. How does “commitment” work around here? What’s our “inventory” of promises? What kind of promises are these? How does work cross the line? Who decides? How? When? With what information? No *shared* conceptual model to reason about the system of work
12. Modeling our System of work
13. How we *really* do it, not how we *imagine* we should Use concrete example, generalize later
15. ”we’re going to do it” (Decision to ”DO”) “now we’re starting to work on it” (Decision to "Start”)
17. Look for *systemic* contributing factors to dissatisfaction
18. Typical Systemic Factors to watch out for
20. Watch for “orphans”
21. OK, and then? Illuminate the plateau first… … use the clarity to break through the Glass ceiling. Help them regain situational awareness Refocus the conversation on solving real (practical?) problems. “But…” (I hear you say…)
22. But what about spheres of influence?
23. Turns out, the strategy is the same… Main tool to re-engage and influence external decision makers (and to renegotiate around the commitment lines) This can be made part of “normal” work
24. From this… To this… Watch for “orphans”
25. Probably you don’t have much control here…. … but most likely you can get agreement on what happens here
26. The name of this game is “fight delays”
27. Some Relevant tangents… https://www.squirrelnorth.com/articles
28. SquirrelNorth s q u i r r e l n o r t h . c o m On illuminating plateaus and Breaking glass ceilings… R e - e n e r g i z i n g A g i l e T e a m s + THANK YOU! Q & A FERNANDO CUENCA fernando@squirrelnorth.com September 27th, 2023