10 Practical steps for Agile transformation

Nikola Bogdanov, Agile Coach

08/01/2018

Today only: 5 bonus!

Interesting about me

Important about me

• 10+ years Experience in Agility & IT

• Practiced most Agile and Dev Roles

• Agile Coach, Co-founder of AgilePool

• www.agilepool.com

• Agile enthusiast, Thinker & Practitioner

• Meetups, Conferences, Blogging

• PhD; 5 yrs. Own University Master Class

• Trainings, Courses, Coaching and Consulting

What about you?

More of a True -> Get Up More of a False -> Stay Down

I wish I’d stay in my chair and don’t move right now

My Company does Agile practices, but is not Agile

My Manager* cannot be convinced to really try Agile

I believe People can change

I don’t believe Agile works

Always start with Why!

“The Golden Cycle” by Simon Sinek

Fake Agility. Start with What and How

• Our Agile / Cosmetic scrum

• ScrumBut

• Nonban

• Agile/Scrum/SAFe Terrorism

Why is Agile?

• Big Fish eats the Small Fish?

• Or Fast Fish eats the Slow Fish

• Or the Lean Fish eats the Fat Fish

• Or the Moving Fish eats the Stuck Fish

What:

1) High-performing teams

2) Continuously learning

3) Amazing culture

https://pixabay.com

Transformation is a game of two halves

1) Convince Management

2) Actually change something

How the story starts

• Cool videos, meetups and chats with people

• A GREAT IDEA!

• Go excited in the office

• “Let’s try this, it’ll solve it all!”

• Facts, proofs, explaining and explaining

• And suddenly…

… and somebody destroys it all

“That’s never gonna work here!”

“Our process does not allow us”

“That’s not the way we do things here!”

“It’s not the time”

“That’s not the most important thing right now”

Simple explanations

It explains everything!

“I’m surrounded by idiots”

“The manager doesn’t want”

“People can’t change”

4 minutes pair exercise

• How have you personally changed?

• What was the trigger?

• How did you started?

• Who helped you?

• What effect had it in you? In others?

The problem is you don’t know how change works!

• There are tons of studies

• Many patterns

The problem is you don’t know how change works!

• There are tons of studies

• Many patterns

We are Emotional Beasts

• Facts are not enough

• Emotional not logical

• It’s biology

• People don’t buy in what you give

• They buy in why you do it!

We are Emotional Beasts

• Facts are not enough

• Emotional not logical

• It’s biology

• People don’t buy in what you give,

• They buy in why you do it!

25% better feedback – guaranteed!

We are Emotional Beasts

• Facts are not enough

• Emotional not logical

• It’s biology

• People don’t buy in what you give,

• They buy in why you do it!

10 patterns how to convince your Boss*

Today only: 5 bonus!

1. Do your homework. Don’t rush!

• Understand the other part at first

• Design it as a product:• Focus on the client

• User Persona, User Journey, Empathy map

• Intrinsic motivators

• Think reversed

https://pixabay.com

2. Show them their pain, not yours

• We follow leaders only if they believe in what we believe

• We do it for us, not for the leaders

• Find the cracks

• Sell the problem, not the solution

• Avoid areas which are fine

https://pixabay.com

3. Empathize with them

• Show you understand them

• Build Rapport (watch Antony Robbins)

• Be authentic

• We follow others because:• “They believe in what we believe”

• “They are like us or someone we want to be”

https://www.gettyimages.com

4. Learn the language of Mordor!

• Explain in their terms. Avoid areas they don’t understand

• Be careful for dangerous words

• They would more likely pay attention to: • “Time to market”

• “ROI”

• “Customer satisfaction”

https://pixabay.com

5. Think process

• Change does not happen in a day

• Agile is not a binary state

• It’s a big Mountain more to climb

• Where are you now?

• Your goal is the next state

• Don’t stop there!https://pixabay.com/

6. Find Early adopters

• Maybe your manager is not the first to talk to

• Engage innovators and early adopters

• Sceptics. Listen and build impediment backlog

• Laggards. Be companioned, don’t debate

https://pixabay.com/

7. Create a vision

• What’s Agile?

• Recuse it to a small set

• Script it

• Don’t do a checklist with practices

• Find metrics

• Be available, facilitate sharing the vision

“The Heart of Agile”

by Alistair Cockburn

8. Look for Quick wins

• “Hey, look the cool thing we do…”

• Show frequent progress & results

• Become ultra transparent, make some noise

• Celebrate your wins publicly

• Find and show the Agility around

• Use internal/external eventshttps://pixabay.com/

9. Storytelling

• People love stories!

• Find stories about successful companies

• Associate us with the stories

• Tell your success stories

• Use videos, sessions, KT initiatives

https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_12671

10. From Push to Pull

• Build awareness

• Become popular and reliable

• Offer your services (for free)

• Make it publicly accessible

• Be visiblehttps://pixabay.com/

11. Look elsewhere

• Visit conferences

• Other companies

• Agile Safari

• Partner companies

• Clients

• Guru on your side

12. Piggyback

• Existing programs / strategies

• Learning / Certification

• Available budget

• Find something which is already working and attach Agility to it

13. Choose your fights

• There are many other things to do

• Don’t take it too personal

• Maybe now is not the time

• Will try it later

• It’s not the next step in the evolution

• Spend time and effort elsewhere

14. Wait for your moment

• Be patient

• Try but don’t insist

• Create impediment backlog

• Sometimes it’s just too early

• Make it Pull

Few words about the Second Part

https://goo.gl/images/3A3ySG

• Structure, Tools, Culture

• Agile Agile Transformation

• Innovation adoption curve

• Personal contact with everyone

• The middle management!

• 守破離 (shu-ha-ri)

Recap

1. Do your homework

2. Show them their pain, not yours

3. Empathize

4. Mind your language

5. Think process

6. Engage early Adopters

7. Create Vision

8. Quick wins

9. Storytelling

10. Pull, not Push

11. Look elsewhere

12. Piggyback

13. Choose your fights

14. Wait for your moments

15. Awake Holger!

https://da.wikipedia.org/

Q & A

Thank you!Контакти: www.agilepool.com/events/

linkedin.com/in/nikola-bogdanov-370175b

facebook.com/agilepool/

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