Agile Influencer Mantra

(& Becoming a Coach)

Facilitator: Siraj Sirajuddin
(and Robin Kargoll)

Saturday, 2:15 pm

Summary

Understanding the Forces around you in your environment will help you become the best you can be. Many forces affect people's behavior and if you are able to understand those forces you will be able to help them succeed.
Mantra = MAN (concept of being) TRA (liberated)

Session goal

For each of us to become a better human being! Not a better coach or programmer or tester or any other title, but the best person we can be, which in turn will help others to be the best they can be as well.

Participants (Please add your name if you attended and your name is not listed)

Kari Day
Aimme Keener
John Goodsen
Ken Pugh
Dennis Britton
Denise
Ellen Grove
Don Gray
Katie
Manish Nandy
Alan Hensel
Lila Rosa
Glenn Waters
...
...
...

Discussion of Deming's System of Profound Knowledge

Four components:

• Appreciation for a system
• Knowledge about variation
• Theory of knowledge
• Psychology

Philosophy - why are they undertaking the change?

• to gain respect
• to gain work/life balance

Forces at work:

SYSTEM

• things around you
• context
• shareholder, competitors
• safety
• contradiction

Dynamics

• craft

Clean Slate Idea: leave every week with a clean slate, resolve any outstanding issues (retrospectives do this). Don't bring work issues home or home issues to work.

Learning through mistakes - 5th Discipline, be a learning organization

TRUST - key to building safety

"the limit of your ability to coach is the ceiling of team safety"

Qualities that build trust... HUMILITY, MEMORY, PREDICTABILITY

• Humility — not assuming you have all the answers, listening to others
• Memory — remembering what was said by yourself and others (especially what was agreed to, understood, etc)
• Predictability — following through on commitments, delivering as promised

Typical experience:
Manager - being coached, but not improving

• When you see resistance, it is because the new way (what you are coaching) is working against that individual's previous success. They are doing what has made them successful in the past. So, what you are saying goes against their mantra.
• WIFM - What's in it For Me (radio station playing in people's heads)

BALANCE

System seeks balance, changes are a disruption which will either be accepted and absorbed or rejected. Does the coach want to be part of and contribute to the balance of the system? If not - the system will kick you out.
Example from Dennis — Aikido (is often translated as "the Way of unifying (with) life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Wikipedia)

DYNAMICS

1. Pioneers - experimenters, always wanting to try something new
2. Nomads - where ever they go, they are at home by modelling comfort and building trust
3. Anomaly - unique, different, not afraid to go against status quo, craftsmanship - pursuit of the mantra, desire to be expert
4. Supplication - reaching out to a higher energy to solve a problem for the greater good
5. Trust but verify - "In God we trust, all others bring data. Choose metrics that are easy to manage
6. Emphasis profile - Team has an emphasis profile, coach needs to understand what it is, why and work with it (use a company's mission statement to help them understand how changing something will help them achieve that mission)

• AMDG - Ad Maiorem, Dei Gloriam - For the greater glory of God
• Having Courage and Grace

ATROPHY

A coaches ability to influence decreases with each day that passes (and starts immediately). Requires continuous learning to maintain influence.

Tips for Becoming a Good Coach

• Increase the level of Safety so people are more open to change.

Some ideas to help people feel safer:
— transfer knowledge
— test coverage/high quality
— build trust
— meet expectations
— create consistency/deliver regularly
— make it okay to fail/"Fail Fast!"

Resources

-- The Deming System of Profound Knowledge, http://deming.org/index.cfm?content=66
-- The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge

Notes from Siraj (4/7/2010)

Thanks to Robin, Alan and Ellen for the notes above. Here are my notes:

The Agile Influencer's Mantra

Introduction & Agenda:

Mantra (n): A word or group of words, an act or a series of acts - all considered capable of creating “transformation”. (“man” - mind + “tra” - liberation).

Adopting Agile in any organizations presents a unique challenge to The Influencer (aka Change Agent). This presentation is about the unique challenge and provides a “Mantra” for The Influencer/s to influence the adoption process.

The Agile Influencer's Mantra looks at the philosophy of Agile process improvement and then deep dives into the forces around Agile adoption. We discuss the team dynamics that enable adoption of Agile. Finally, we summarize The “Mantra” that would help Change Agent’s to influence the Agile adoption process.

I have been found a lot of similarity between these ideas and those proposed by Deming in his "System of Profound Knowledge". Specifically, I find that the concept of Forces relates a lot of his concept of "Systems", "Variability" and "Knowledge". Whereas, his concept of "Psychology" has a lot of similarities with the concept of "Dynamics" that I share here. Deming felt that no change is possible without "Personal Transformation" and this transformation is what I wish to explore in the "The Influencer's Mantra".


Philosophy:

Respect for Humanity, the Forces and the Dynamics around the unique context of the organization.

If I could summarize my experience with all process improvement styles to one phrase it would be this “Respect for Humanity”. The current level of respect in a team or organization drives everything for them - sales, costs, customer satisfaction and even Agile process adoption.

I look at Respect for Humanity as “the Policy about all Policies”.

I have seen the team’s respect for each other within the team and outside the team increase tremendously as a result of Agile adoption and this brings about success for the team which in turn fuels more respect. A virtuous cycle! In another case, I made the goal of a team very simple “Give Respect to and Get Respect from Everyone in this organization” and the results have been phenomenal for the team and company. This team has now created the process blueprint for every project that will be funded by the company’s board of directors.

Other examples that inspire me-

Toyota Way defines its philosophy as Respect for Humanity and Continuous Improvement.

Kyocera Corporation’s corporate motto is Respect for the Divine and Love People
http://global.kyocera.com/company/philosophy/

(A) The Forces:



The desire to adopt deep respect drives awareness of Forces that exist within the context of the organization. Here is brief look at these forces.

1. Uniqueness -

Every leader and team and their Agile opportunity is unique. The challenge is to recognize this uniqueness. I would stop and enjoy this unique moment before starting the process of Agile adoption. The Influencer will never be the same again.

The Force of Uniqueness requires The Influencer to reinvent

2. Context -

The context of the organization or team is relevant to every policy created. Factors like history, economy, sales, costs provide the foundation for all elements of the present context of the organization.

3. Mystery -

Not everything about the context is known. In fact very little is really known and a large part remains a mystery.

4. Contradictions -

One of the forces that emerge with better understanding of the unique context of the organization are the contradictions that exist within this living organism. Contradictions are neither good nor bad. They simply exist.

The forces of contradiction provide leverage for Agile Influencers to take advantage of.

5. Balance -

The forces of Balance seek to maintain a balance in the context.

6. Safety -

Safety provides the net for leaders, followers and their teams to explore Agile adoption. The forces of safety in an organization dictate the ceiling level for Agile adoption.


7. Feedback -

8. Delay

9. Heartbeat

The living organism that is the organization has a hearbeat and a pulse. Many processes recognize this as flow or cadence. The forces of heartbeat provide The Influencer the ability to create the right pace of work.

10. Learning

The forces of Learning allow an organization to absorb Agile in its own unique way.


(B) The Dynamics:

1. Pioneers,
2. Nomads,
3. Anomalies,
4. Continuous,
5. Craftsmanship,
6. Supplication,
7. Courage,
8. Grace,
9. Flexibility,
10. Visibility,
11. Trust,
12. Emphasis,
13. Swarming,
14. Celebration,
15. Answers,
16. Recognition,
17. Reality,
18. Atrophy,
19. Clean Slate.


Thanks everyone for your great participation and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Best wishes
Siraj
siraj at sirajuddin.com