Agile Teams vs. Rigid Management

Anton Rossouw Project Director (CPPD) Agile Management Coach

Chapter Event – Tuesday 29th May 2012Telstra Conference TheatretteLevel 1, 242 Exhibition StMelbourne, Victoria 3000

orIs Agile Management an Oxymoron ?

Overview Challenges of the Times About the Agile movement About Rigid management Exploring Complexity Thinking differently about management Where to now traditional management ? 3 Steps to “re-fresh” for Agility

The last 50 years The information age fueled the non-linear acceleration of everything!

“Humans cannot predict the future. But, if we can adequately understand the past, we can use that understanding to influence our decisions and to create a better, more sustainable and desirable future.”

Source: Robert Costanza, et all., 2007, Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature?

“In the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent twenty-first-century companion, leadership strategies have taken a great leap backward to the familiar territory of command and control”Source: Wheatley, M.J., (2005), Finding our Way – Leadership for an Uncertain, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.

“In our past three global CEO studies, CEOs consistently said that coping with change was their most pressing challenge. In 2010, our conversations identified a new primary challenge: complexity. CEOs told us they operate in a world that is substantially more volatile, uncertain and complex. Many shared the view that incremental changes are no longer sufficient in a world that is operating in fundamentally different ways.”Source: 2010 IBM CEO Study

"In the struggle for survival, the fittest Agile win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best

to their environment.”

Charles Darwin

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

"Atoning for educability through delicate beauty."

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Movie industry is a good example of Agility in action !

History of “Agile” From the emergence of “lightweight” development in 1990’s Movement was established by “Organisational Anarchists” Meeting in Snowbird Utah on February 2001 Defines a Manifesto of values for software development Principled approach culminating in practices and methods Has now become ubiquitous and a big money movement Ultimately about the “mushy stuff of values and culture” Response to corporate power in Dilbertesque organizations. Strong adoption and growth in organisations since 2006 !

www.agilemanifesto.org/history.html

But why did it emerge ? Bunch of software guys needing to network, “vent” and ski Disillusionment with “engineering”, and traditional

management approaches Rapid acceleration of Information Technology Young turks taken to thinking differently Response against traditionalist in organisations Resonance with the “New Sciences” – Uncertainty, self

organisation, emergence, CAS Strong belief that there must be a better way…

What is Agility ? Agility is about responding to complexity and messiness. A skill and mindset that we use to solve problems within

uncertain and complex contexts. The Agile Manifesto focuses on solving software problems

but we can now use it to solve organisational problems. A response against the traditional management style. A new way of solving problems, getting work done and

making decisions. “Licence” to Adapt to deliver work in complex contexts. Also lots of useful methods, processes, tools and practices.

An Agile Method

SCRUM methods, terms and tools Product Owner, Scrum Master, Diverse Team Poker Planning/Estimation User Stories Product Backlog Task Boards, Burn-down Charts Sprints and Daily Scrums Retrospectives Innovation games make it fun too !

Agile Issues Advocates constantly clashing with detractors - polarities. Misunderstanding, uncertainty and confusion. Methods blindly applied/enforced by process bureaucrats. Fundamentally incompatible with traditional management. Doing Agile vs. Being Agile – methods over mindset. Difficult to position when/where Agile “fits”. Applied as EITHER/OR thinking not AND. Conflict between traditional boss and clients needs IT centric deployment in organisations.

Traditional values clashing with Agile values Cultural adoption and merger not happening No management support – no resources

Cultural change is always problematic Change is not welcome No management support – no resources

Command and control vs. self organisation and autonomy The old ways of failing is at least familiar Bureaucracy and control rules (PMOs’ ?) Power play and politics distracts

Environment

Environment

The organisation of the past

Stability and Control

Dynamic Change

Environment

Environment

The organisation of today

Stability and

Control

Dynamic Change

Traditional Management Mindset

Agile Teams

Environment

Environment

The organisation of tomorrow

Stability and

Control

Dynamic Change

Expanded Management Mindset

Agile Teams

Management Transformation Challenge Come to terms with change, uncertainty, ambiguity and

complexity – embrace change and adapt. Evolve/supplement/change the traditional “stability”

command and control mentality and power styles. Change how managers sense, think, and enact change. Respond appropriately in Agile ways to problems that “fit”. Become Agile, not just do Agile. An Agile mindset, not only practices and processes. Apply Agility not only to software development but

organisational sustainability, development and growth.

Ukiyo-e woodblock print - “The Great Wave” by Hokusai from his subscription series, “Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji,” completed between 1826 and 1833.

Location of the knowledge

Source: Snowden, D. and Stanbridge, P. (2004) The Landscape of Management: Creating the context for understanding social complexity, Emergence, Vol 6 1-2, pp. 140-148

Mechanical

Organic

Complexity Theory A shift away from the predictability of classical science. A fundamental world-view shift, new integrated

multidisciplinary science, still emerging, with various origins, interpretations and definitions.

Time driven dynamical systems; that are “living”, learning, evolving and spontaneously self-organising.

Open to environmental interaction, nonlinear behaviors, unpredictable emergent phenomena.

The behavior of agents in Complex Adaptive Systems. Emergence at the “edge of chaos”.

Source: Brian Castellani - Complexity Science Map : http://www.art-sciencefactory.com/complexity-map_feb09.html

Complexity in action

http://www.e-ir.info Publication “The Arab Spring of Discontent”http://m3financialsense.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/tahir-square-is-back.html

“If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves… There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.”

Robert Pirzig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Source: Sole, R., Goodwin, B., (2000) Signs of Life – How complexity pervades Biology, Basic Books, New York.

In Control Un-Control Out of Control

Stability Evolution/Revolution Catastrophe

Constrictive Principled Conflicted

Regimented Dynamic Chaotic

Everything is not Complex

Source: Cilliers, P. (1998) Complexity and postmodernism: Understanding complex systems, London and New York, Routledge

Complicated System Interrelated parts. Linear behaviour, Predictable. Equal to the sum of its parts.

Complex System Connected elements. Non-Linear responses, unpredictable behaviour. Positive and Negative feedback, spontaneous emergence. Cannot be described by analysing the components alone.

Wicked Problems

“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,” General McChrystal

Complex Adaptive System

Source (22 June 2009) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system

Complexity view of an Organisations

AB

C

F

DE

L M

N

P

O

QR

Project 1

Organisation A

Shadow Network

Legitimate Network

XAgent

GHJ

IK

Organisation B

Environment / Landscape

ST

U

Project 2

Adapted from : Stacey, R.(1996) Complexity and creativity in organizations, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.

Cynefin Model

Source: Snowden, D.J. Boone, M., (2007) A Leader's Framework for Decision Making. Harvard Business Review, November 2007, pp. 69-76.

BestPractice

SpecialistPractice

Probe-Sense-Respond Sense-Analyse-Respond

Sense-Categorise-RespondAct-Sense-Respond

Known- UnknownsUnknown - Unknowns

Unknowables Known - Knowns

Ord

er

Un-

Ord

er

Dis-Order

ComplexComplicated

ChaoticSimple

EmergentPractice

NovelPractice

Traditional Managem

ent A

gile

Tea

ms

Are we at the extremes ?

Warm and FuzzyDistractions

True Catastrophe

Constraints on system and agents appear

Agent interactions breaking down

Issue requiring expert intervention appear

High uncertain

risk of catastrophe

Obvious solutions and opportunities

to crises appear

Increasing predictability,

agent interactions stabilizing

Expert knowledge

breaks down, increasing

agent interactions

Tyranny of the Experts

Mind-Numbing Bureaucracy

Knowledge diffused, system increasingly well understood

Source: www.cognitive-edge.com

ComplexComplicated

ChaoticSimple

Three steps to Agility

1 2 3

Step 1 - Management 3.0

1.0 - Hierarchical Control 2.0 - Management Fads 3.0 - Complexity

www.management30.com

Jurgen Appelo in Melbourne 11-12 Oct 2012 – Management 3.0 Training www.management30.com/course-schedule/

Step 2 - Radical ManagementWhy?

Work has shifted from semi-skilled to knowledge work

The organisation needs the commitment of the workforce

The customer takes charge

The system has stopped delivering

www.stevedenning.com/Radical-Management/

Step 3 - Leadership Agility 5 Levels Expert – Solve key problems Achiever – Accomplish desired outcomes Catalyst – Mobilise breakout endeavors Co-Creator – Realise shared purpose Synergist – Evoke unexpected possibilities

http://leadershipagility.com/

Reflecting on leadership in organizations today, we find ourselves in a bit of a mess. We see reliance on linear, mechanistic thinking, companies focusing more on stock price than delighting customers, and knowledge workers whose voices are ignored by the bosses who direct them. All these factors are reflected in the current economic crisis, increased inequity, bankruptcies and widespread disillusionment.

There has to be a better way…..www.stoosnetwork.org

Complexity resources for the curious…

http://www.plexusinstitute.com http://www.santafe.edu http://www.emergentpublications.com

http://www.chaosforum.com http://www.iq.harvard.edu/blog/netgov/complexity/

http://www.complexitydigest.com http://www.necsi.edu

E-mail: anton.rossouw@tabar.com.auMobile: +61 (0) 439 802 017