Agile Isn't Enough: Revolution Over Transformation

Agile
Revolution
Over Transformation
Isn’t Enough
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pabak/14496866427/

Todd Charron
Twitter: @toddcharron
Email: todd@toddcharron.com
Agile Coach, Improvisor
Mentor: Lean Startup Machine
Founder: Follow Your Fear Day
Who Am I?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/idUS206536+13-Feb-
2012+BW20120213
At the current churn rate, 75% of the S&P 500 will be replaced by 2027.
Year Tenure for average firm on S&P 500
(years)
1958 61
1980 25
2011 18

Of Your
Use The
WHOLE
Organization
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125992663@N02/14597738221/

Organizations Need to be
cutting edge thinkers

BUT
AGILE
Changes
How The
Organization
WORKS

IS
AGILE
Doesn’t
CHANGE
Organization
Who The

ARE
We Need To
Change
WHO
Organizations

Who Do You
Work For?
Who Are You?

Or do you
relinquish it
to leadership?
Can you bring
your full
power,
creativity,
intelligence to
work every
day?

Can we really order
people to be Agile?

Changes practices but rarely
changes the organization
Bottom Up

Are we really committed?
Pilot Team

Will we ever get there?
Do we even have a vision of
where we’re going?
Gradual Evolution

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pikawil/15243882912/
DOOMED!

Culture attracts and retains
top Talent
Culture Wins Over
Process

Dictatorships

Organizations
Operate Like
Dictatorships

This happens whether you want it to or not
Rule Through Authority,
Suppress Dissent, and Use
Fear

- Gene Sharp
The population gets
turned into a mass of
isolated individuals

Cannot do much of their
own initiative

Current Organizational
Structures May be
Removing Power from
People

- Gene Sharp
People are often too
frightened to share their
hatred of the dictatorship

You only have authority if the people
recognize it
Authority is an illusion

Authority can make
change but only winning
hearts and minds can
sustain it

We must make change on
an emotional level

Authority:
Direction
Force
Coercion

So if not
authority,
then what?

Liberty:
Freedom
Autonomy
Opportunity

How far can we go creating liberated
organizations?
Valve, Zappos, Netflix
experimenting with
increasing liberty

We can be more free,
more liberated

How do we defeat a
dictator?

Incompetent
Bureaucracy, excess
controls, ineffective
policies and operations

Institutional conflicts and
personal rivalries

People may become
apathetic, skeptical and
even hostile to the
regime

To defeat your
organizational
dictator
https://www.flickr.com/photos/birgerking/7080728397

To remove the dictator
we must remove its
legitimacy and the
rewards that sustain it

Rebellions can be put down
Warning: Revolutions
start as rebellions

1. Understand Who You Are
2. Understand Where you Are
Going
3. Messaging
4. Build Autonomy
5. Build a Cult(ure)

As a company
As a group of rebels
Who are you?

Who is the face of this change?
Who is your leader?

Be intentional.
Be polarizing.
What’s your point of view?

...and live by them
Have Values

Keep Method Weird
What would MacGyver Do?
Innovate Don’t Imitate
Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate
Care Like Crazy
Method Values:

Is there an inciting
incident?

2. Understand Where You
Are Going

How do we measure the
strength of the dictator?

We Are (Company, Rebel Group), we
believe _________
Exercise:

Our dictator is ______ it causes _______
Exercise:

The dictator gets its power from: __________
Exercise:

The dictator is vulnerable to: __________
Exercise:

We will know the dictator is losing power
when: __________
Exercise:

We will know we have succeeded when:
__________
Exercise:

Create a declaration of
independence from the
dictator

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

Build your narrative
Tell your story

While respecting what was good about it
Focus on Dissatisfaction
with the Dictator

Be factual, don’t sugar coat
Celebrate Your Victories

Autonomy requires
Clarity
and
Competence

What am I concerned
about?
From may I
to
I intend to

Or Go Against The Grain
Embrace Ideas That Seem
Uncomfortable

Trust Their Choices Even
If They Are Different
Than Your Own

If not, fix THAT rather than
remove power
Trust that they are
competent and have
clarity of vision

Why Are They There?
If you don’t believe they
can understand the vision
or pick up the skills

Create Opportunities For Them To Go
Deeper
Meet People Where They
Are

Become More Group’ish
Flip Your Hive Switch

Focus on What You Have In Common
Increase Similarity Not
Diversity

Membership Rather Than
Followership

NOT Between Individuals
Healthy Competition
Between Teams

Dancing Dissolves Hierarchy
Play Poker
Lose Yourself In The
Group

How will you keep Method weird?
Create Positive Rites Of
Passage

Tribes, Squads, Chapters, Guilds
Sprints, Scrum, Daily Scrum, Retrospectives
Create Symbols, Names,
Insider Language

Give your
members a
name
- Beliebers is taken

Provide Immediate
Recognition for those
living the values

The is an ongoing long
term effort

You need to be
intentional about who
you are

This is the thing you have
to scale

You need to lead it and own it
Outsiders Can Help

Revolution
Start a
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pabak/14496866427/
Todd Charron
Twitter: @toddcharron
todd@toddcharron.com

Agile Isn't Enough: Revolution Over Transformation

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