creating agile tribes: the secret to succeeding with agile @ scale
DESCRIPTION
Program teams and departments will naturally form tribes, its human nature. It is the culture of the tribe that dictates its effectiveness. So, how do you move beyond a positive culture within a specific agile team to creating an entire program or department that people want to be a part of? When we launch agile programs, we tend to teach our teams about the methodology, how their roles will change and how we expect them to be collaborative. What is often forgotten is the need to help these large program teams bond, foster their sense of belonging, shape their values and instil respect for one another. Successful Agile at Scale requires explicitly creating and sustaining these attributes, building a culture beyond team’s individual identity to create a sense of tribal unity. Presented at RallyON in Washington, D.C, June 2014.TRANSCRIPT
Em Campbell-Pretty Partner, Context Matters @PrettyAgile www.prettyagile.com au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/ [email protected]
CREATING AGILE TRIBES: The secret to succeeding with Agile @ Scale RallyON, 9th June 2014
“Birds flock, fish school, people tribe.”
- David Logan
DUNBAR’S NUMBER
SCALING AGILE
From an agile team…..
…..to an agile team of teams
“Teams create their own realities and control their own destinies to a far greater extent, and far sooner in their lives, than we generally recognize”
- J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams
Stage 1: Life sucks!
Stage 2: My life sucks!
Stage 3: I’m great!
Stage 4: We’re great!
Stage 5: Life’s great!
5 STAGES OF TRIBAL CULTURE
Source: Tribal Leadership by David Logan
“Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't deliver good service from unhappy employees.“
– Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
3 YEARS LATER….
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin
CONTINUOUS “HUMAN” INTEGRATION
9:00am 9:15am 930am
9:45am
When people share rhythms with others they develop stronger emotional bonds and are more likely to pitch in for the common good
- Bob Sutton, Scaling Excellence
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/03/communication-cadence-heartbeat-of.html
CHAPTERS ARE THE GLUE
If each squad was fully autonomous and had no communication with other squads, then what is the point of having a company? Spotify might as well be chopped into 30 different small companies.
- Kniberg & Ivarsson Source: Scaling Agile @ Spotify
SHARED EXPERIENCE
13 13
“…vulnerability-based trust cannot be achieved overnight. It requires shared experiences over time…”
- Patrick Lencioni
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/01/unity-day-creating-one-team-culture.html
GO TO THE GEMBA
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're 1,000 miles from the corn field."
— Dwight Eisenhower
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/07/leading-through-vulnerability.html
AGILE TEAM OF AGILE LEADERS
“the only way to systematically ensure that you have great people at every level is to ensure that you have great leaders at every level – leaders who make the people around them better"
- James Parker CEO Southwest Airlines
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/04/being-agile-team-of-agile-leaders.html
LEADING THROUGH VULNERABILITY
“Vulnerability is the last thing I want you to see in me, and the first thing I look for in you.”
- Brene Brown
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/07/leading-through-vulnerability.html
VISION
Having a compelling direction is a key condition for team effectiveness… - J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams
IDENTITY
As people begin to act differently, and as their identity evolves, it will reinforce the new way of doing things.
- Chip & Dan Heath, Switch
CELEBRATE AS A TRIBE NOT A TEAM
When you’ve celebrated moving from 1 to 2, and then from 2 to 3, you gain confidence that you can make the next advance
- Chip & Dan Heath, Switch
Employee NPS data makes the people side of the business far more transparent and subject to learning and experimentation.
Fred Reichheld, The Ultimate Question 2.0 On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend working in ______ to a friend or colleague? Why?
QUANTIFYING CULTURE
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/11/measuring-team-happiness.html
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin
We made it safe for what were already an exceptional group of people to be their exceptional selves at work.”
- Em Campbell-Pretty
IT’S NOT JUST FORCED FUN
Em Campbell-Pretty Partner, Context Matters @PrettyAgile www.prettyagile.com au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/ [email protected]
QUESTIONS?