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CREATING ALIGNMENT FOR AGILE CHANGE

Jason Little, April Jefferson, Carlos Oliveira

@jasonlittle @_apriljefferson

@userprofile Toronto Agile and Software 2014 #tas14

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Lean Entrepreneur and Startup Advisor, with a passion for

strategic innovation, experience design, and building radically

successful teams.

@userprofile

Carlos OliveiraJason Little April Jefferson

@_apriljefferson@jasonlittle

Agile Coach, Energetic Servant, Curious and Loving Human

Author, international speaker, college professor, agile coach, haver of fun, drummer and dad

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GOOGLE: “WHY AGILE FAILS” RESULTS: 4,230,000

@jasonlittle

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METHODOLOGISTS SAY: “YOU DIDN’T USE THE TOOL RIGHT!”

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CULTURE PEOPLE SAY: “YOU DIDN’T CHANGE YOUR CULTURE!”

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MINDSET PEOPLE SAY: “YOU DIDN’T CHANGE YOUR MINDSET”

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MANAGEMENT GURUS SAY: “LACK OF MANAGEMENT SUPPORT”

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AGILE ZEALOTS SAY: “YOU TRIED TO DO AGILE INSTEAD OF BE

AGILE!”

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THE CONSULTANT YOU DIDN’T HIRE WILL SAY:

“THAT OTHER CONSULTANT SHOULD HAVE…”

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SYSTEM THINKERS SAY: “ONLY IN RETROSPECT CAN YOU UNDERSTAND…COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS THEORY SAYS….”

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THE TRUTH IS…

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THEY’RE ALL RIGHT… …AND THEY’RE ALL WRONG!

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HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20but looking back, it’s still a bit fuzzy

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NOBODY GIVES A SH*T ABOUT YOUR MODELS!Well, us consultants do, but normal people don’t!

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SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

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CHANGE != TRANSFORMATION

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CHANGE IS PAST-THINKINGcompare future state to current state, root-cause, 5

why’s, problem exploration

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TRANSFORMATION IS FUTURE-THINKINGleaves the past behind, focuses on what ‘could be’,

today’s actions influence tomorrow’s results

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BUT LET’S IGNORE THE DIFFERENCES…for now…

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DIVERGENCE IN UNDERSTANDING

the objective

BELIEFS

“RESI

STANC

E”

INNOVATORS AND EARLY ADOPTERS EARLY/LATE MAJORITY “LAGGARDS AND RESISTERS”

@jasonlittle

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HOW CAN WE CREATE ALIGNMENT? 1) CO-CREATE CHANGE

2) FREQUENTLY INSPECT AND ADAPT 3) THINK OF CHANGES AS TIME-BOUND “EXPERIMENTS”

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CREATE A STRATEGIC CHANGE CANVAS

VALIDATE WITH THE PEOPLE AFFECTED

J

L

FEED TEAM FEEDBACK INTO YOUR STRATEGIC CHANGE

CANVAS

@jasonlittle

CREATE A TACTIAL CHANGE CANVAS THE TEAMS OWN

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STRATEGIC CHANGE CANVAS

@jasonlittle

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TEAM VISION

STRONG SUPPORT

WHAT IS WORKING AGAINST THE CHANGE?WHAT IS SUPPORTING THE CHANGE?

SEVERE BLOCK

OPTIONS

PREPARE INTRODUCE REVIEW

CO

ST

VALUE

Where does the team want to be in 6 months? A year?

what help does the team need to contribute to this vision?

WHAT’S OUR PLAN?

WHAT HELP DO WE NEED?

Experiments we can do to contribute to the overall

change strategyExperiments

being plannedExperiments in

progress

Experiments being reviewed

against expected outcomes

TEAM/DEPARTMENT TACTICAL EXECUTION CANVAS

@jasonlittle

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AND NOW…a story from April!

@_apriljefferson

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BLAME

@_apriljefferson

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SOCIALIZATION & INCLUSION

@_apriljefferson

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DISCOVERY & TRANSPARENCY

@_apriljefferson

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ALIGNMENT & OWNERSHIP

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ORGNANIC

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REVIEW

@_apriljefferson

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NOT CONVINCED?Here’s another story from Carlos!

Who we are…

# of employees

40,000% of Projects running Agile

very few

A Very Large Enterprise Company Looking to Adopt Agile Methods

Large portion of the employee base works remotely

When do we change?

Good  Time  to  Evolve

Growth Phase

This  is  going  to  be  more  challenging

Time

Gro

wth

When is it a good time to evolve?

What does Agile change look like?

It can appear like a Big Scary Monster!

http://www.goldflakepaint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/bsm.jpg

It can appear like a scary monster…

Objects in the mirror appear larger than they really are…

The Original Change CanvasIt doesn’t need to be scary!

Have a Conversation: “Why…?”

What is the riskiest assumption?

Riskiest assumption

http://gamemoir.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/spongebob.jpeg

Does the business even care?

Tip: Identify your early adoptersThere is a good chance you’ll find folks that care…

Someone out there in your organization is tired of the “old” traditional way and is looking to try something new!

How do we set them up for success?

Using a canvas…

Business Product

? Team

Customizing team change canvas…

What is supporting this vision? What is working against this vision?

What’s on our plan? Experiments we can do to contribute to the overall change strategy?

Prepare Experiments being planned

Introduce Experiments in progress

Review Experiments being reviewed against expected outcomes

Our team vision as it relates to the strategic outcomes…

value

cost

strong leadership

high engagement structure stable teams

adopt scrum

more appropriate solutions

TDD daily standups

kanban board

What we started to notice…

96%

% of team members that would recommend

Agile methods to other teams

Agile Adoption Increased

900%

What do we do with major impediments?

Outcomes

What is the top outcome we’re looking to achieve?

Barrier to Success

What are the top 3 problems we face in reaching our outcome?

Importance

Why is this important to overcome as an organization, what is the cost of delay?

Who & What?

Who and what is impacted the most by these problems?

Assumptions

Customizing the change strategy canvas…

Key Assumption Options? How we measure? Key Learnings?

1

2

3

Vision Where are we going as an organization, and why are we doing this? What are we trying to achieve?

faster delivery better quality customer satisfaction employee satisfaction

Who?

faster cycle time long testing

cycles competitive advantage

dev & support teams

policies

structure

reward systems

What we learned

Partnerships are key

Be clear on what you’re learning and measuring

No sacred cows (executive support)

Keep it visible

Keep it iterative

Keep It Big and Visible!

Keep experimenting & learning!

Thank you!

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THREE FINAL THOUGHTSThe “canvas” doesn’t matter Face-to-face communication

Tactical execution tips

@jasonlittle

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THE “CANVAS” DOESN’T MATTERBUT THE CONVERSATIONS DO!

@jasonlittle

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT SAFARI!Make your canvases visible, stop using status reports

and GO TALK TO PEOPLE!

@jasonlittle

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BUT HOW?!?!?• Refresh canvases quarterly

via existing team meetings • Weekly lean coffee sessions

sponsored by executives • monthly all-team

retrospectives • Management 3.0 Work Expo

@jasonlittle

More tools at: leanchange.org/resources

“I LOVE THE CANVAS, IT’S MORE OF A CONVERSATION TOOL, LESS ABOUT CREATING HEAVY DUTY CHANGE PLANS, AND IT STILL DOCUMENTS THINGS AND KEEPS PEOPLE ALIGNED.

“BARB HELLER, ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS CONSULTANT

IF PEOPLE IN A 50,000+, FORTUNE 100 COMPANY THINKS IT’LL WORK, IT CAN WORK FOR YOU TOO.

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LEAN CHANGE MANAGEMENTlearn more about these

ideas in this book

leanchange.orguse taas2014 at checkout

@jasonlittle

@jasonlittle @_apriljefferson

@userprofile

April’s Blog: http://curiousagility.blogspot.ca/ Jason’s Blog: http://leanchange.org or http://agilecoach.ca

Please nag Carlos to start a blog!