Improving Agile coaching with amazing insights from Indian Mythology

Anand Murthy Raj

Dedication

Sep 20162

This presentation has been greatly influenced by the work of Mr. Devdutt Pattanaik in the form of these three books and his multiple videos in youtube

Who am I?

Sep 20163

1. 20+ years of experience , 18+ in IT and 2 years in

Manufacturing

2. 9 years of experience in Agile Transformation

3. First Asian to be nominated for the SPCT program

4. Have trained close to 700 participants in SAFe

5. Work for Blinklane Consulting NV (http://www.blinklane.com/)

6. Clients worked - HP Product Division, Symantec, SKF, Healtyhways and Philips

7. Currently part of the Global Agile Transformation Program -

Coach @ Philips

8. Part of a NGO Nisvartha.org helping 500 rural talented students

to see and realize their dreams by providing them “Education

support”

What is Mythology?

Sep 20164

1. Old Indian scriptures written thousands of years ago

2. Written in the form of stories and these stories shared us by our ancestors

3. Communication of ideas through forms, stories and scriptures

4. Ideas that people respected are shared from generations to generations

5. How you interpret is left to individual– its indicative not descriptive

Why Mythology?

Sep 20165

Peter Senge, whose greatest work is the Fifth Discipline. He talks about learning

organisations and organisational development .

In reference to India and China he said “My intuition is they (India and China)

will move somewhat together but in very distinctive ways. But I think the thing

that will be really common to both of them will be the fact that they won’t be

able to do this without connecting to their heritage. They will have to develop a

confidence that they can do this as Indians and they can do this as Chinese. They

have learnt a lot from the West but they don’t have to copy, they cannot create

a Chinese or Indian version of a Western model. “

“The Western model itself is basically bankrupt. It does not give enough

attention to the human side of development.”

What is Lean -Agile Leadership?

Sep 20166

Rana Bhoomi Ranga Bhoomi

My hunger matters most I have outgrown hunger Your hunger matters most.

Business and Action model

Sep 20167

Leadership/Business

Employees

Organizational Transformation

Organization

Employees

Leadership

Agile Transformation

Process and Tools

Sep 20167

Transformation focus - People

Sep 20169

Tara = Stars= Talent

whose individual

personalities does not

impact the organization

Graha = Planets= Talent

whose individual personalities

impact the organization

Rashi/Nakshatra = Teams or groups or departments where collective

performance matters most than individual performance

Transformation focus - People

Sep 201610

Graha Behavior

Ravi Sun, radiant and attract attention everywhere

Soma Moon, emotional and moody

Mangal Mars, aggressive go getter

Budha Mercury, excellent communicator, silver tongued

Guru Jupiter, Bruhaspathi, rational relies on data

Shukra Venus, intuitive, relies on gut feeling

Shani Saturn, Procrastinates and obstructs

Rahu Eclipse causer, secretive, hates being transparent

Kethu Comet, resettles and spreads anxiety

Coaching needs hindsight and foresight

Sep 201611

• Values case study

• Focuses on the past

• Learning and Improving

• Looking past for the future

• Values creative visualization

• Focuses on the future

• Takes risk and moves forward

• Looking ahead of the future

Force Counter Force

Strategy Tactic

Creativity Process

Ambition Contentment

Hindsight Force sight

Leadership Coaching - People creation – Kartha vs Karya Kartha

Sep 201612

Leadership Coaching - People creation – Kartha vs Karya Kartha

Sep 201613

People can grow only when they are 1. Empowered to think of solutions

2. Give autonomy to decide the right things for the customer

3. Give the time and space to think out of the box

4. Give the platform to decide and come prepared

Vishnu (Leader) has four hands1. Eyes are always open – Constant Engagement

2. Conch Shell – Communication

3. Sudarshana Chakra – Understand and control the business

4. Club – To induce discipline

5. Lotus – Rewards and Recognition

6. Vision – Sarpha Dhristi and Garuda Dhristi

Coaching needs to value people separately

Sep 201614

• Collaborative skills and reward in public

• Differentiate the contribution and recognize in private

• Build the character, focus on the process and results will follow

• The reverse order of focus will lead to disaster

• Always focus on the effort of acquired skills

• Focus and appreciate on 100% of what individual gives rather than the individual’s

contribution in the overall stakes

• Environment matters a lot to define the behavior of the teams and individuals

Coaching the Leadership in Transformation

Sep 201615

• Coaching the Leadership to punish (take hard decisions)

• Coaching the Leadership to liberate people

• Bend the rules to liberate and protect the people

• Teach, Mentor, Coach and watch

• Enable leaders to make mistakes and if the mistake is costly, alert them

• Allow the teams/Leaders to take their decisions (Yagna and Yagman)

Golden rule of Agile Transformation

Sep 201616

ExploitationEmpathy

Dharma – Right directionAdharma – Wrong direction

1. Rules/Policies are made to have harmonious system

2. Rules are valid in a context

3. Rules are valid only if they benefit people and customers

4. Bend the rules to upload the spirit of Agile Principles

Select the real coach

Sep 201617

• Imposters know to walk the walk and talk the talk but

they simply don’t know what the talk is all about.

• They know how to dress, how to carry their laptops and

their BlackBerrys, what cars to drive, which clubs to join,

where to be seen and with whom.

• They use words like ‘value enhancement’ and ‘on the

same page’ and ‘synergy’ and ‘win-win’.

• In other words, they know the behavior that projects

them as ‘Coaches’, but they have no clue as to what

coaching actually means.

Develop the coaching competency

Sep 201618

• Be ready to take orthodox forms

• Expect that the transformation will pose

huge challenges

• Think out of the box

• Hypothesis based approach

• Take different forms with different

customers

Agile Coach Evolution – Our behavior

Sep 201619

Parashurama- Discipline

Rama –Rules and Principles

Krishna –Bend rules

Budda –Detach

Kalki -Destroy

Coach’s challenges in Transformation

Sep 201620

Letter of Dharma

Sp

irit

of

Dh

arm

a

Ravan Duryodhana

RamKrishna

Letter of Transformation,

Practices

Sp

irit

of

Tra

nsf

orm

ati

on

,

Pri

nci

ple

s

Q&A

Sep 201621