where do agile leaders come from

1 © Nokia Siemens Networks 2012

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Agile 2012 / Kati Vilkki

Where do agile leaders come from?

Kati Vilkki

[email protected]


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Nokia Siemens Networks

• Joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, acquired Motorola’s wireless networks infrastructure business in 2011

• Started operations on April 1, 2007

• €14 bn net sales in 2011

• 120+ years of telecom experience

• c. 63,000 employees*

• Strong focus on mobile broadband and customer experience management

• > 80 out of the top 100 operators worldwide

• 150+ countries

• 6 billion mobile subscriptions around the world with 1.2 billion subscriptions for mobile broadband services

* As reported on 30.6.2012


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All models are wrong, but some are useful

George E.P. Box


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Contents

• Servant leadership

• Why self-organization?

• What impacts self-organization?

• Power

• Empowerment – personal relationship to power

• Impact of leadership style

• Some tools

• How to make this real? Experiences of changing leadership culture


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Servant leadership


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Leadership as a service

• Leadership as a service to help us to reach our goals, to be successful

• Any act, which helps us to move forward towards our goal

• Anything that helps us to make sense or take action

• Any one can act!

• Shared leadership – from hierarchical relationships to networks of equals and working together

– Agreeing to lead and to be lead


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Important leadership tasks

• Ensuring business profitability / success

• Creating an engaging vision of what we do

• Mentoring and coaching

• Leading the culture

• Creating an environment for people to thrive and succeed in


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Why self-organization?


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Energy

• Think back to a situation where you felt full of energy at work

– What was the situation? What happened?

– What did you do?

– Who else was involved?

– What contributed to you having high energy?

• In pairs

– Tell your story to your pair

– Listen to you pair’s story

• Discuss your experiences together; are there any common things?


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What motivates us?

• Autonomy

• Mastery

• Purpose

• Basic factors which are needed

– Adequate rewarding

– Job security

– lack of these can destroy motivation but these will not increase motivation

Daniel H. Pink: Drive – the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us


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What impacts self-organization?


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Components of self-organization

Skills,

competence

Motivation

Opportunity

Team understands the

purpose (goals, targets), the

whole (how we link to others),

the domain (product) and

product development. Team

knows how to work together.

People in the team want to

work in the team, take the

power and the responsibility

Organization gives the team

the opportunity to make

decisions, to exercise power

and take responsibility.

Management and the

organizational culture have

key role in creating the

opportunity


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Organizational and leadership culture

Increasing self-organization

Team practices

Management and

organizational support

Individual skills and choices


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Power


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Exercise

• Discuss in your group

– What is power?

– Where does power come from?

– What determines whether some one has power or not?


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One definition of power

Power is the ability to take the needed actions to fulfill own needs

Requires • Empowerment,

inner feeling of freedom and choice

• Self-awareness, understanding of own needs and feelings

• Emotional intelligence


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Related concepts

• Status

– Position within a group

– Based on vague things, which differ from group to group (e.g. wealth, title, prestige, physical strength, education, skills …)

• Status hierarchy (= pecking order)

• Power difference – power distance

– Are people expected to behave differently depending on their position in the status hierarchy? Are they expected to behave differently towards people who are “lower” compared to people who are “higher”?

• Dominance

– “I can make you obey”. The desire to dominate and dominating behavior

• Authority, authorization

– Agreement to decide about or control some resources


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Who has power?

• Power arises in need: in a relationship the one who is needed more, has more power

– rapidly changing, seldom equal

• Enabling / empowering use of power: try to get as many needs of different stakeholders met as possible

• Restricting use of power: only the needs of few (“the powerful”) matter


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Power bases - why do we give power to others?

• Rewarding power

– I give power to you, if I belief that you can do something good to me

• Coercive power

– I give power to you, if I belief that you can do some harm to me

• Legitimate power

– I give power to you based on either implicit or explicit social contract

• Expert power

– I give power to you because I belief you know better than I

• Referent power

– Is based on personal integrity, being perceived as a role model

– I give power to you, because I respect you

John R.P. French & Bertram Raven


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Illusions and mental models related to power

• Illusion of control – “By deciding something we can make others do it”

– Often manifested in organizational planning and reporting practices, steering groups and committees

– Means to avoid helplessness, uncertainty and anxiety

• Power is at the top of the hierarchy – “We have to wait until they decide”

– Often manifested in people waiting, complaining but not taking action

– Means to avoid risk-taking and related anxiety


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Reality

• Every one’s power is limited to the amount of people we can influence (circle of influence)

• In organizations people usually have a lot more power than they think they have


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Empowered people

working together in

self-organized teams

for a purpose


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Empowerment – personal relationship to power


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Thinking tools


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I have to …

or

I choose to … because …


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The rule of three


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Empowerment – mmmm?? Accountability - yes


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Accountability – what does it mean?

• How is being / feeling accountable visible in a person’s behavior?

• How can you see whether I feel accountable or not?

• Accountability and responsibility - how are they connected?


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Accountability – where does it come from?

• Think back to a situation when you felt really accountable for doing something

– What contributed to you feeling accountable?

Discuss:

• What promotes accountability?

• What prevents accountability?


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Organizational practices

• Very often the very practices, which are intended to increase a accountability, actually destroy it

• We can’t make anyone feel accountable but we can create an environment, which fosters accountability – or kills it

• Being accountable requires self-discipline

• Accountability and power go hand in hand


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Empowering leadership style


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Exercise

• The leadership style has a high impact on people’s level of empowerment

• Think back in your experience of being lead by others

• Collect examples of leadership actions which have

Increased empowerment

Decreased empowerment


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Getting aligned

• People do things to satisfy their needs – and we all have many different kinds of needs.

• To be able to influence others, we need to understand what they need

– Win – win

• How can we find out what others need? Ask What is important to you?

What do you want to accomplish?

What is your motivation of …?

How can I help? What can I do for you?

– Guess and check

– Do an experiment and observe


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Compliance vs. engagement

• Command and control type of management results in compliance

– Main tools for “motivating” are target setting & rewarding

– Carrots and sticks

• Engagement and commitment requires leadership based on increasing autonomy

– People have control over what, when, how and with whom they do the work

Task, time, technique, team

– Autonomous and interdependent at the same time


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Influencing others

• We can’t change other people, we can’t “make anyone do anything they don’t want to do” – and be happy about it

– We can't make anyone do willingly and enthusiastically anything they don't want to do

• When people are coerced or feel pushed, they fight, fake, ignore or in best case comply

– There is no commitment or ownership

– Very low energy and engagement

• As a leader, ask yourself: is this enough or do I need people to be committed and engaged (to get what I need)?

• Unfortunately, managers are often not aware of the impact of their actions on others.


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Ways of influencing others

• Expose people to new information

– Ask questions

Provoke new thought processes

– Educate, train

– Show new ways

– Give feedback

• Ask people to do things, make requests and proposals

– “Do this” vs. “I need this because …Could you help me?”

– People are often very willing to help (if they can) if they know why what you ask is important to you

– Ask people to do an experiment

• Change your own behavior

– Changing one part of the systems gives room / pressure for other parts to change, too

– Show example


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Exercise

• Whom would you like to influence in order to change the leadership culture in your organization?

• Think of at least three things to do

1. Expose people to new information

Ask questions

Train, introduce new concepts

Show new ways

Give feedback

2. Make a request

Be specific & concrete

3. Change your own behavior


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Emerging leaders


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Leadership

• How do you recognize a leader? Look behind

• True leaders emerge, they do not come by appointment

• Leadership is about influencing others in an empowering way

– Expose people to new information, ask people to do things, change your own behavior

– Create the will to follow

– Create engagement and enthusiasm

• Communicate direction

– Engaging vision

– Compelling reason to change

– Clear enough, sufficiently fuzzy

• Facilitate harvesting collective intelligence


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Why is it that …

• Most managers are smart people

• Most managers have the best interest of the company at heart

• So why does so much bad management happen?

• Low self-awareness

• False assumptions

• Long feedback cycles


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Working with

• Creating Win-Win situations

– Getting my needs met while meeting others’ needs

– Acknowledging needs and working for a new solution where more needs get met

– Increasing the amount of empowering power in relationships

• Communicate with compassion and clarity

• Listen with empathy and respect

• Building relationships based on trust and integrity

– Honor your agreements


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Making conscious choices

Telling the way to find solution

Plan how you could use pair-programming

Let’s discuss the pro’s and con’s of these design solutions

Let’s discuss the values and working agreements for our team

Open questions

What would help you forward now?

What other options there might be?

What is happening?

Telling the solution

Use pair-programming

Design solution A is the right one

These are the values and working agreements for our team

“Loaded” questions, proposals

Do you think pair-programming would help here?

Does solution A meet the criteria?

Some teams have found team values and working agreements useful. What do you think?

Focus on

process (“how” the

team finds the

solution)

Focus on

content (“what” the

team does, the

solution)

Directive (Telling what or how to do)

Supportive (Helping the team to find the

solution on what or how to do)

Increases dependency

and resistance, reduces

some times anxiety

Increases self-

organization and often

causes some anxiety

Supports

self-

organization

Increases

dependency


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Should I interfere?

Observe

Not present

Ask open

questions

Make proposals

Tell the team

what to do

What are the

consequences if I

interfere?

• To me

• To the team

• To the task at hand

• To the customer and

the company

What are the

consequences of not

interfering?

Tell your

observation to

the team

Ask loaded

questions


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Learning new ways


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Learning process

Action, work

Result

(experience,

consequence)

Reflection

• Conceptual

analysis

• Forming new

working theory

Act

differently

New theory, concepts, ideas, training, reading

Learn with others, discuss, read, share experiences

Making sense, finding

meaning, explain why

Reflect, get

feedback,

understand deeply

what happened

Work with others

Learning process

consists of several cycles


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Different levels of the learning process

• Individual level

• Learning (reading, training, reflection)

• Team level – build a leadership team

• Joint reflection, creating concepts – close the learning loop

• Agreeing on actions

• Working together as a team

• Organizational level

• Organizational practices and culture

• Feedback loops

• Cross-organizational and cross-level dialogue and cooperation


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Changing old habits (changing the culture)

• Talk together about the new values and principles and what should change

– Why do we need to change? How do we know we have been successful?

• Think together about concrete behaviors which would reflect the values

• Make agreements that support behaving in the new way

• Be consistent, do not give up

– Unlearning old habits and learning new ones takes time

– Truly understanding the consequences and what a value means in practice, in every day actions takes time

• Reflect together

– Have we followed the new ways of working? What has happened? Why?

– Make new agreements, take second round of learning


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Different levels and cycles in sync

Values, basic assumptions

Mind-set, attitudes, principles

Practices

Daily actions and choices Actions

reflect values

Values

become real

in actions

Principles

bridge

between

practices and

values


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Examples


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Department Leadership Teams

Improving team work, leadership and organizational learning

• Training and coaching combined with doing actual work

• Both group level and individual consultations

• Align development activities of different levels of organisation

Unit Leadership Team

Teams

Cross-organizational project team arraigns coaching and other

support, creates materials, analyses progress

Coaching

groups Manager

forums


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Coaching program for team coaches, part I

Start 1.

Session

2. Session

1. Consultation

2. Consult

ation

• Purpose

• Objectives

and

motivation

• Commitment

to coaching

• How to get

started?

• 1 day

• Role of a team

coach

• Resistance

• Leadership

• Empowerment

• How to define

success criteria

• 2 days

• Organizational

culture

• Own role as a coach

• Analyzing need for

change /

development

• Change in thinking

and leadership

• Systematic

improvement

• Development plan

for own project

• 2 days

Self-study and reflection of own learning Practical development work

Participation in team coach meetings

Modeling operational environment

Development plan

Report / study of results

End

• How to end

coaching

assignments,

projects or

teams

• Self-evaluation

• Final

evaluations of

the coaching

process

• ½ -1day

Changing module

Different topics:

• Change

management

in teams

• Managing

own work

load

• Facilitation

• Conflict

resolution

• ½ day

Duration 6-8 months


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Example # 2

Introduction

to self-

organizing

agile teams

(2 h)

Self-organizing

agile teams (1 d) Ways of working

workshops for

teams

Self-organizing

agile teams

and line

manager role

(2 d)

Ways of

working

workshops for

LT’s

Becoming a coach (2 d+2 d)

Boot-camp on coaching self-organizing teams (3 d)


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Self-organizing Scrum teams and line manager role

Start

Getting oriented

Concepts

Empowerment, self-

organization, power

Coach’s role

Direction and boundaries for

the team

Ways of working

Team working skills

Leadership tasks in lean

Aspects of line manager role

Using observations

Feedback

Influencing others

Decision making

Healthy conflicts

What do teams need from

their environment?

Line manager role in agile

and lean

Start

Lunch

Finish

Day 1 Day 2


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Example # 3

Call for all

All hands sessions

SW craftsmanship workshops in teams

Change agent workshops

What does this mean for us? What do we want to do?

Leadership workshops

Kick-offs: how do we work together

Reflect

Improve

Work

Continuous

improvement

Discussions in teams

Coaching sessions for leaders

Coaching on engineering skills


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THANK YOU!

Dept. / Author / Date


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Recommended books on lean and management

• Lean Software Development - Poppendieck

• From Concept to Cash: Implementing Lean Software Development - Poppendieck

• Leading Lean SW development: Results are not the point by Mary and Tom Poppendieck

• Lean Product and Process Development - Allen C. Ward – Distills what might be termed "cornerstones" from the practices of lean product developers, most

notably Toyota and its partners, which differ remarkably from conventional practice

• Managing the design factory by Donald G. Reinertsen

• The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald G. Reinertsen

• The Machine that changed the world - Womack – Book introduce the word "Lean" to the world. Comparison of companies in the car industry

• Lean Thinking - Womack – Summary of the lean thinking concepts.

• The Toyota way – Jeffrey K. Liker

• Durward K. Sobek II., Art Smalley: Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota's PDCA Management System

• Toyota Kata by Mike Rother • Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations

– Classic MUST-READ on metrics, measurement and incentive systems

• Gary Hammel: The Future of Management

• Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton: Hard facts, Dangerous Half-truths & Total Nonsense

Agile and lean mgmt / KV


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Leading teams • Christopher M. Avery: Teamwork Is an Individual Skill

– For anyone who want to improve their team experience by understanding better their own impact – helps to make concious choices

• J. Richard Hackman: Leading Teams. Setting the Stage for Great Performances – What do teams need from their environment & how to lead teams

• Kimball Fisher: Leading self-directed work teams, a guide for developing new team leadership skills – How does the role of a team leader change from the role of a supervisor. Examples are from

manufacturing, but are general.

• Patrick Lencioni: The 5 dysfunctions of a team and Overcoming the 5 dysfunctions of a team – Two books on how to improve the way your team works. Eventhough the examples are mostly from

leadership teams, findings apply to other teams, too.

• Marshall B. Rosenberg: Non-violent Communication – For anyone who wants to learn to communicate better

• Sam Kaner: Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making – Facilitation techniques and tools for many kinds of situations

• Jean Tabaka: Collaboration Explained. Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders – Facilitation techniques and tools for Scrum and other agile events

• Eshter Derby & Diana Larsen: Agile Retrospectives, Making good teams Great – Some ideas on how to improve your retrospectives

Agile and lean mgmt / KV ©

where do agile leaders come from

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