Cultural change? Fight Fire with Fire!

Most enterprises fail in their journey towards Agility. There are many reasons, but most fail because of the unbalanced focus on improving IT departments and changing the practices – e.g., implement Scrum, hire Scrum Masters, use Jira, create Backlogs, do Refinements, etc. In other words, we replace a traditional process by an “Agile process” without transforming the underling culture. Agility is about increasing our company’s ability to deliver high-quality business value in an ever-changing market. It is not about using Scrum, Kanban, doing pair-programming or implementing many of the other buzzwords. Let’s face it, without the cultural change: failure is guaranteed. So, stop trying! Or, join us and see how we can use processes and tools – that traditional organizations like so much - to actually drive the behavioral changes that promotes Organizational Agility.

Transcript

1. 1 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Cultural Change? Fight Fire with Fire A Path to Organizational Agility Fred Figueiredo (@fredfigueiredo) Jan 2018 @ AgileWarsaw
2. 2 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw A real story…
3. 3 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Fight the organization
4. 4 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw How I started to promote Agile? Fight the organization!
5. 5 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw To save people from processes & bureaucracy!
6. 6 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw To save people from bad management!
7. 7 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What do we fight? Where is it coming from? “All resistance comes from specific individuals
8. 8 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw An example of fighting…
9. 9 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Hiring a Scrum Master – Problem (1/2) Zero or low number of applicants, regardless of job post duration
10. 10 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Hiring a Scrum Master – Problem (2/2) Other companies often get 22 applicants in less than 10 days
11. 11 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What to do?
12. 12 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Mission Scrum Master (experiment) Within 16h to 18h From idea, to running experiment Posted in LinkedIn (anonymous) With no direct reference to X Survey with 13 questions Complementing “Apply” site
13. 13 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Results (1/2) (all images retrieved from LinkedIn) 18x improvement (vs. similar jobs - competition) Within 2 days 72 applicants
14. 14 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Results (2/2) (sample feedback from Twitter) 8/13 are potential candidates. List is prioritized based on results & feedback Using a survey eases the process and provides valid data for initial filtering Brand improvement
15. 15 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What happened? (1/2) (what we expected) (reality)
16. 16 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What happened? (2/2)
17. 17 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw How I felt afterwards?
18. 18 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Reflection: Changing HOW is not sustainable (1/3)
19. 19 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Reflection: Where resistance come from… (2/3) Does it already exist or do we create it? (thanks to my friend and mentor, Saket Bivalkar, for enabling this perspective in me)
20. 20 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Reflection: We resist what is already there! (3/3) Leadership Processes Tools
21. 21 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw
22. 22 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Hi J
23. 23 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Believe there is… A
24. 24 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Fight Fire with Fire!
25. 25 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw i.e., Use processes & tools to drive cultural change
26. 26 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Let’s get back to the beginning
27. 27 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Why we do what we do?
28. 28 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Why we need a better way?
29. 29 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: Why organizations adopt Agile? • Pair-up • Identify 2-3 reasons using a max. of 1-3 words • Time: 1 min
30. 30 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Why we need it? (customer PoV) “Poor user interface.” “Too slow to respond.” (re-write from the most common NPS comments found online) “Good qualities, but lacks basic needs.” “Customer service has no idea about their products.” “Totally unhappy with the system.”
31. 31 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Why we need it? (competition PoV) $19 Billion (in 5 years)
32. 32 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Why we need it? (market PoV) (source: 2015)
33. 33 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: How is it different from your Why’s? We tend to talk about WHAT we need Not WHY we need it Example: “Flexibility”, Why do we need it? “Because…”, Why?, … (root-cause) Why => How => What (watch this 18 min video)
34. 34 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Create a sense of urgency!
35. 35 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: How we adopt Agile? • Pair-up (different person) • Identify 2-3 ways using max. of 1-5 words • Time: 1 min
36. 36 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw How our organizations look like today…
37. 37 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: How you add value in your company? • Pair-up (different person) • Say your first name and how you add value • We will find new partners 3 times when I say “switch” • When we switch, you need to say something different • While I do not say switch, hold or talk • Note: you cannot say your role • Time: 1min x 3
38. 38 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: How is it different from your How’s? We tend to talk about how to do it Instead of talking about the value of doing it Example: “Introduce Scrum by sending everyone to a PSM”, What is the value of it?
39. 39 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Promote value-driven conversations
40. 40 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: What is Agile? • What is the essence for you, max 1-3 words • Individual answers • Time: 30 sec
41. 41 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What is Agile? Not a process or a tool (& not just for software) Agile is a cultural mind-set Agility is an organizational property
42. 42 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What creates a culture? People (values, beliefs, behaviors, …) Leadership Environment Tools, Frameworks
43. 43 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: What is Business Agility? • Pair-up (different person) • Describe it using a max of 8 words • Time: 1 min
44. 44 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw High-performance organizations (aka., Business Agility) Our ability to rapidly adapt to external and internal changes while delivering high-value & quality to our customers
45. 45 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Are we creating an high-performance organization? “All local optimizations lead to a sub-optimization of the global system.” Marketing Sales Product Mgmt. Prod Dev Imp. & Delivery Customer Service Planning Analysis Design Dev Test & Integrate UAT Operations
46. 46 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Business Agility Culture (behaviors & environment) Operational Excellence (faster, cheaper & high-quality) Business Competiveness (innovation & competitive) Sweet spot (aka, flow)
47. 47 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw How to do it?
48. 48 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw We are Agile!?! There are the benefits of pursuing Agile? • High employee satisfaction (due to autonomy and self-organization) • Delivery of business value (aligned with needs) • Iterative (progress through successive refinement) • Incremental (built and delivered in pieces – subsets) • Short feedback loops (validate if we headed in the right direction) • Visibility (transparency of the work-in-progress) • Adaptability (to changing requirements, market, etc.) • Predictability (from visibility and adaptability) • Control risk (due to the all of the above) • …
49. 49 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Ask, where are we? Consider this “success criteria” for high-performance organization (10): • Our people are happy and retention rate is above average in the industry • Hiring and onboarding new employees takes 1 month, in average • Our customers are happy with our products • We continually deliver product value and reduce all types of wastes • Quickly making decisions and executing our strategy • We are known for our ability to innovate and disrupt the market • We have effective & efficient communication & collaboration across functions • Reduce lead time and increasing customer satisfaction • We deliver to production several times a day (and all testing is automated) • Our products are known for their high-quality (e.g., low # of defects) • Our client acquisition, retention and revenue surpasses forecasts Time: 30 sec 10 1 5
50. 50 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Improvement backlogs
51. 51 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Improvement backlogs (examples) Team Improvement Backlog (sample) • Review working agreements • Add peer-review to our Definition of Done • Add a fast-lane to our visual board • Celebrate hard at the end of the sprint Program Improvement Backlog items (sample) • Product Owner Training • Identify minimum documentation for X project • Train Marketing team on Agile values • Look for external Agile Coaches providers Portfolio Improvement Backlog • Pilot program self-assessment in Y and Z programs • Review budget for each program at the end of the quarter • Get training on Business Value and Decision Models
52. 52 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Self-assessments at all levels
53. 53 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Self-assessments (behavior-driven)
54. 54 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Self-assessment (example) Product Ownership Health • To maximize the delivery of value, PO facilitates PBI dev, prioritization and negotiation • To ease planning, review, and acceptance of PBIs, PO facilitates the dev of AC Iteration Health • To get a common understanding, we plan our iterations together with stakeholders • To mitigate risk, we proactively address inter-dependencies and impediments Increment Health • To accelerate value creation , we use explicit and transparent AC and DoD • To maximize customer satisfaction, we regularly show done, integrated, and tested work Team Health • To boost engagement and productivity, we work in a happy, fun and fail-safe environment Technical Health • To reduce cost of rework, we actively remove technical debt (code that slow us down)
55. 55 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Tool: Knowledge networks
56. 56 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw What we get?
57. 57 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Happiness at work, wouldn’t you like that?
58. 58 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw How to get there?
59. 59 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Closing
60. 60 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: One take-away, one action • Write down, somewhere: • Your biggest take-away / learning? • What improvement / experiment will you introduce tomorrow? • Time: 2 min
61. 61 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Exercise: Share take-away • Pair-up one last time and share (only): • Your biggest take-away / learning and WHY • Time: 1 min
62. 62 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Be crazy!
63. 63 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Don’t fear failure, embrace it!
64. 64 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Have fun!
65. 65 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw But always as a team!
66. 66 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Call for action! Unhappy customers, aggressive competition and market disruption is real. Change is a choice. What will you change tomorrow?
67. 67 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Thank you Google! (for all the images used, except my drawings)
68. 68 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw 15+ years, 20+ orgs, from 4 - 60k workers ~6 years Traditional Product Development ~9 years Agile Product Development
69. 69 Fight Fire with Fire / @fredfigueiredo / AgileWarsaw Thank You & Questions Twitter: @fredfigueiredo Email: fredfigueiredo@gmail.com Currently: Passionate contributor at…