NEGOTIATING AGILE Tools to negotiate support for your Agile initiatives With overview of: - Active listening - Never Split The Difference - Start with NO - Crucial Conversations

About me • Scrum Professional, Agile Coach, Consultant • Helping companies with • Quality engineering practices • Organizational performance • Innovation • Wells Fargo, Optum, US Bank, Pearson • Founder of the Negotiation Practice Community • Crucial Conversations trainer COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Problem:Often, Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches report to traditional managers. It poses an inherent problem. The traditional manager lead in the traditional way. When we start talking about Agile, we face resistance from our superiors. We can’t move the Agile transformation forward without support from the above. Solution:Negotiate and influence your superiors so they want to support the change. COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Exercise: How do we “normally” do it? • Mural exercise – the URL in the chat, 5 minutes • Add your ideas: how do people usually influence others to make a decision? • What approaches do we take? • What persuasive techniques do we use? • What do we leverage in our negotiations? COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We are dealing with a “black box” Our typical approach: • Supply data • Share our logic (how it should be) • Pose limits • Hammer them with emotions • Watch for reaction • Judge the output COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Exercise: The view from the inside Questions to the audience: • Question: What happens in the mind of the opponent? • Question: What can go wrong with our usual tactics? • Question: Is this behavior rational? COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The view from the inside the box • How do they think about it? • They supply data – if it doesn’t fit, I’ll throw it • They share their logic - it’s wrong • They pose limits on me - screw that! I’ll find my way • They “hammer” me with emotions - I’m out of this! • They judge the output - they’re stupid, they don’t understand • I’m under attack. I protect my safety and my Ego. • What do I lose if I agree? • I’m anxious, I can’t think clearly (cognitive load). COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Quote: “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.” – Henry Ford COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Focus on discovering their way Discover their thinking to understand how they came to this conclusion and why they are making this decision Active listening skill is the key for each and every conversational tool: negotiation, influence, coaching, hotline. Active listening Tools: Labels/Priming, Mirrors, Questions, Silence, Memory The skill: COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Exercise: Vacation plan • Breakout exercise – 5 minutes • Start with: What is your plan for the next vacation? • Tools: Labeling / Priming – statement about their experience • To sound tentative, add: • It seems like… • It looks like… • It sounds like… • It feels like… COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Summary • When we don’t know their motivation and logic, we tend to make assumptions and persuade with our logic and use our system of values. • Unfamiliar data and contradictive purposes trigger the guard to go up. Negotiation becomes a struggle. • To change the game, learn about their logic, motivation and values first. • Use active listening to understand their world. This is the territory where negotiation works. COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

NEGOTIATION SCHOOLS AND SYSTEMS COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Vital Smarts: Crucial Conversations • Creating a dialogue is the central idea • Confronting issues respectfully is a skill • Definition of a Crucial Conversation: • High stakes • Opinions vary • Emotions are strong • Ways to achieve agreement: • Mutual respect • Mutual purpose COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chris Voss: Never Split The Difference • FBI hostage negotiation and negotiation with kidnappers • Main idea – negotiation is a discovery process • Focuses on empathy, safety and creating an illusion of control • Managing emotional dynamics – your own and theirs • Ways to achieve results: • Uncovering information by exploring their way of thinking • Reciprocity, loss aversion, bending reality, tapping into emotions • Letting them feel in control and solve the problem for you • Tools: • Labels, Mirrors, Calibrated Questions, No-oriented questions, Accusations Audit, Summary, Why questions, Loss aversion, other COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Jim Camp: Start with “NO” • Corporate and procurement negotiation in the center • No is a decision, hearing No is better than Yes • Recognize their need and eliminate your need. • Encourage the other side to speak, ask good questions • Don’t speak too much yourself • Discover stakeholders and decision makers. Tools: Mission & Purpose, the Columbo effect, nurturing, reversing, rule of 3, negative and positive stripe, interrogative questions, encouraging NO, other COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

HOW CAN YOU NEGOTIATE AT WORK? COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Exercise: The biggest challenge Question to the Audience (type in the chat or speak): • What is your biggest challenge in negotiating Agile? • What is your most frustrating experience about it? • What worked for you? • Why did it work? COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Negotiating Agile • Goals – what do we aim to get • Their interest and curiosity • Their understanding • Their openness and support • Strategy – how do we win in the long run • Network with influential people and establish conversations • Learn about their values, needs and pains • Position yourself as an expert and a visionary • Find other Agilists in the company, learn what they do, use their success stories • Educate people to get them on your side • Tactics – ways to achieve results • Apply the negotiation tools and active listening • Navigate, don’t focus on one person • Quantify things, describe problems in numbers and costs • Commit to resolve problems COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Thank you! • Vladimir Bushin: • Ask me a question via email: vb@bushinconsulting.com • Read my blog at my website: https://bushinconsulting.com/ • Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirbushin/ • Join my meetup: https://www.meetup.com/successful-agilist/ • Text me or call me if you have work for me: 612-644-6065 • Negotiation Practice Community: • Join LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13873133/ • Visit website: http://www.negotiationpracticecommunity.com/ • Read blog: http://www.humblenegotiator.com/ COPYRIGHT © 2021 VLADIMIR BUSHIN | BUSHIN CONSULTING, LLC | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED