Learning is key to agile success

building a learning culture on your agile team

Declan Whelan

Overview

Agile ManifestoWe are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew

Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland. Dave Thomas

© 2001, the above authors this declaration may be freely copied in any form, but only in its entirety through this notice.

Satir Change Model

Learning

Source: http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-articles/article/the-satir-change-model.html

Continuous Learning

Learning

Value

Learning study

accumulateknowledge

child indoorway

bird leavingnest

youth

practice continuously

“ … where people continually expand their

capacity to create the results they truly desire,

where new and expansive patterns of thinking are

nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and

where people are continually

learning to learn together”

Learning Culture

Peter SengeThe Fifth Discipline

What do We Need to Learn?

People

•Self•Team•Organization

Environment

•Domain•Product•Customers•StakeholdersMet

hods

•Technology•Process & Tools•Skills•Learning

How do We Learn?Auditory

Kinesthetic

Visual

L Brain R Brain

LogicalSequential RationalAnalyticalObjectiveLooks at parts

Random IntuitiveHolistic

SynthesizingSubjective

Looks at wholes

When Do We Learn?

Planning Meetings

Standups

Demos

RetrospectivesDailyWork

Project Chartering

Dreyfus Skill’s Acquisition

Novice

AdvancedBeginner

Competent

Proficient

Expert

Source: Andy Hunt (2008), Pragmatic Thinking & Learning: Refactor Your Wetware

Skills Distribution

Novice

Advanced Beginner

Competent

Proficient

Expert

Shu Ha Ri

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari

Following Breaking Away Fluent

Beginner’s Mind

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared VisionTeam Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

• Competence & skills• Personal growth & learning• Commitment to truth• Commitment to the whole• Compassion• Continually:

– Clarifying what is important– Learning how to see reality

more clearly

Personal Mastery

The Cave

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared VisionTeam Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared VisionTeam Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared VisionTeam Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Team Learning

Team Learning

Discussion Dialog

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared VisionTeam Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Defensiveness

Defensiveroutine Learning gap

Current understandingand behaviour

ThreatNeed for inquiry

and change

Perceived needfor new understanding

and behaviour

Delay

Domain of Action

Organizational structure Theory,

methods & tools

Innovations in infrastructure

Guiding ideas

Deep learning

cycle

Domain of Enduring Change

Skills & capabilities

Awareness &

sensibilities

Attitudes & beliefs

Implicit order

Organizational structure

Theory, methods &

toolsInnovations in infrastructure

Guiding ideas

Results

Deep learning

cycle

Skills & capabilities

Awareness & sensibilities

Attitudes & beliefs

Curiosity

Wonder

Experimentalism

Learning Culture Map

accumulateknowledge

child indoorway

bird leavingnest

youth

Intentional

Infrastructure

Incremental

Individual Safety

Learning Culture Map

Intentional

Retrospectives

Retrospective Format

Set the stageGather dataGenerate insightsDecide what to doClose

Exercise the R BrainClan

Control

Compete

Create

CompetingValues

Framework

Inspired by Mike Russell @ Agile2009 "Face Culture or Face Failure"

Coach

Source: (2009) Rachel Davies, Liz Sedley

Teach

Source: Phil Geldhart, “In Your Hands”

Phil Geldart, Eagles Flight

“Teachers are architects building concepts and ideas into the minds of their listeners”

Infrastructure

Integrate Learning and Working

• Pairing• Planning Sessions• Standups• Demos

Create Practice Fields

• Initial training• Simulations• Games

Create Learning Sessions

• Brown bags• Study groups• Etudes• Road trips

Create Learning Workspace

• Big Visible Charts• Information Radiators• In Your Space• e-Forum

Accommodate Learning StylesAuditory

Kinesthetic

Visual

Incremental

Individual Safety

“Gleeful calamity”"Success is in the doing and failures are celebrated and

analyzed. Problems become puzzles and obstacles

disappear“"Nothing ever turns out as

planned ... ever“"Decoration of the unfinished project is a kind of conceptual

incubation. From these interludes come deep insights and amazing new approaches"

Gever Tulley video on tinkering school:

Chaordic Learning: Tinkering

http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

Individual Safety

Virginia Satir“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.”

Building Safety and Trust

Source: George Dinwiddie: http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2008/12/03/aye-2008-the-magic-chemistry-of-teams

context sensitive

competence, reliability,

forthrightness, mutual regard

timeself-disclosure

Personal History Exercise

Summary

“Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself.

But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Declan Whelandpwhelan@dpwhelan.com

Twitter: dwhelanhttp://www.dpwhelan.com/blog

1. What did you like best?2. What suggestions do you have?3. What questions do you have?

Thanks!