Agile Transformation:

Practical Insights into Behavioral

Adjustments and Cultural

Changes

SESHADRI VEERARAGHAVAN

PRINCIPAL PROJECT MANAGER – AGILE TRANSFORMATION

IHS INC., - HOUSTON, TEXAS

Definitions – Common Understanding

Transformation (noun) - trans·for·ma·tion

a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.

Culture (noun) - cul·ture

the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group.

Definition versus reality: Form/appearance vs. beliefs, behaviors/attitudes,

and cultures

Levels in the Hierarchy

Team

Organization

City/State

Country

Context Switching

Switching between levels

Highly frequent/constant occurrence

Seamless transition

Bowling alley/family

Attributes of Successful Cultures

Adapt

Evolve

Contribute

Example: Culture of India

Influence of foreign cultures

Music, drama, literature, architecture, philosophy, sciences

Curry Houses

Need for Agile Transformation

Competition – faster delivery cycles (TTM)

Better quality (stronger customer retention; happy customers)

Customer focus (better feedback, better software; satisfied customers)

Predictable delivery (customer faith increases; better reputation)

Higher productivity and happiness at the team level (cost savings and

employee retention)

A total culture and behavior/attitude/mindset change emphasizing ownership,

commitment, responsibility, and transparency

So, What Are We REALLY Transforming?

Superficial factors

Methodologies

Processes

Practices

Tools

(Real) Human factors (identity)

Behaviors

Attitudes

Cultures

Beliefs

Transformations Bring Up Hidden Biases

Biases (a brief list)

Technological

Process/procedure

Methodology

Groupthink

Status quo

Availability

Proximity

Anchoring

…and Biases Lead to Resistance

Types of resistance (not an exhaustive list)

This won’t work

This hasn’t worked

Doesn’t suit our team, personality, culture, or company

Things are fine the way they are – why change!

Too disruptive

What will happen if the team fails? Who will take responsibility?

Let someone else do this first, we’ll follow if it’ll work for them

Before We Go Further, Let’s Look at Motivation

Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation

Study for an exam

Play football for fun

Scenarios

Let’s take a walk through some of the common categories of concerns, worries,

and doubts from agile adopters

Valid/exaggerated

Emotional/purely technical

Cultural/individual

Behavioral-adjustment/requires education

Unfounded concerns (e.g. “inner workings” of a developer/QA/tech writer etc. being

exposed)

Concerns regarding task estimates and accuracy thereof

Concerns about workday hours (use vs. productivity)

Common root: resistance to and being fearful of change

Cultural Roadblocks and

Behavioral Challenges

Ownership

Issue: Narrow view of ownership

Mainly concerned with what’s directly laid on their (or their team’s) plate

E.g. This is not my problem or my team’s problem

Strategies

Emphasize transcending the job description and that a given problem is everyone’s

business to help solve

Emphasize going above and beyond the call of duty and breaking down silos and

virtual walls

Talk about how the business (and thus the individual) can succeed only when they

support each other and don’t create islands

Belonging

Issue: Absolving oneself, not considering oneself as part of a team

or unit

Highly self-centric; prone to blaming others; not thinking themselves

part of the team

E.g. This is a dev issue, QA issue, PO issue. The code drops are of bad

quality; testing is inadequate; PO is usually MIA.

Strategies

Educate/inspire the team to think as a unit

Empower the team to find its own solutions to their concerns

When one fails, the team fails; when one succeeds, the team succeeds

Status Quo

Issue: Status quo with gross inefficiencies

We were told to do this process this specific way (do-as-told, no creative or

innovative thinking)

E.g. We’ve always waited 4 hours for the build to get done.

Strategies

Challenge and encourage the team to experiment

Motivate them to aim for incremental yet meaningful improvements

Celebrate victories and recognize key talent

Guarantee “protection” from implications of failed experiments (there are

no failures, only attempts)

Leadership

Issue: Inability to take a leadership position

We can do well only with external support and explicit guidance

E.g. Our lead is in another location; we won’t make any decisions

without his approval even though this is a critical issue and we’re losing

money every minute that we don’t do something about it

Strategies

Provide soft-skills training (leadership and business skills)

Strongly drive home the idea that they’re the masters of their own

destiny; recognize leadership talent in the team and motivate them

Recognize any roadblocks (politics) and guide the team through

obstacles

Let them test the waters with smaller projects to gain confidence

Execution & Commitment

Issue: Very narrow idea of execution and commitment

This is outside the scope of our responsibility and duties

E.g. this defect is another team’s headache (although we know how to fix

it)

Strategies

Educate the team that personal and professional growth comes by

standing out, not by being average

Elaborate on how the organization grows by contributions that come from

everyone and at all levels

Think horizontal(ly) – grow networks across team structures to find pain points

and see how one can help (and how another team may have already

solved our current vexing problem) – NETWORK!

Responsibility

Issue: Passing the buck

This is above my pay grade

E.g. This decision is definitely my lead’s – or my manager’s (even though I

have the power to decide)

Strategies

Empower members to “pull the chain/stop the train”

Good-faith “interruptions” and “hold your horses” debates are welcome

and necessary

Demonstrate your commitment to talking about the ‘elephant(s) in the

room’

Teams learn and evolve only when they are able to question questionable

practices and take charge of the situation

Communication

Issue: Perceived or real problems stemming from communication issues

Information flow is restricted or exclusive to some personnel; active sharing is

discouraged

E.g. I never hear about these things. Or, I’m always the last to know

Strategies

Humans are social creatures; investigate and remove any real communication blocks

Support and drive open and honest feedback and communication

Be clear: being rude is NOT being frank or honest (there’s a difference!)

Ensure all relevant email/messages are indeed percolating to the right levels

Address bureaucratic and red-tape problems at the appropriate management levels

Perceived Helplessness

Issue: Perceived helplessness or being over-cautious

Can address the problem, but won’t due to not wanting to step on others’ toes

E.g. I really want to fix this problem, but am concerned what others may think

Strategies

Pull together and relate (true!) anecdotes of people crossing boundaries and being

recognized/promoted

Show them you value their ability to be altruistic

Banish the idea of fearless and possible recriminations merely for helping others

Demonstrate you stand behind the team every step of the way

Rocking the Boat

Issue: Avoid “rocking the boat” [or, it is OK to say no!]

We suffer from many issues but we're afraid to speak up

E.g. Don’t want to be seen as a complainer and bring it up even though our technical practices are weak and I want to resolve this problem

Strategies

Have weekly 1:1 conversations to really dig into what’s bothering the team

Mark incremental improvements and changes as gateways to team success

Delegate responsibilities for technical issues and recognize each success story

Draw together leads and architects from varied teams to discuss common concerns and instill a sense of support and security into the team

Drive home the point that everyone has right (and the duty/responsibility) to bring up issues without fear or favor – and that they’ll be listened to and addressed by everyone working together as a single unit

Infrastructure

Issue: Infrastructure problems and concerns

We don’t have the necessary resources (servers, facilities, phones, network etc.)

E.g. I can’t work on that issue because the VM is always going down or the network is choppy or the telephone keeps disconnecting

Strategies

Work with IT to resolve these issues on an urgent basis – this makes you look like you mean business, and also voids any similar excuses in future

Be prepared to escalate as high as needed to get your team the resources it needs – you’re the champion/cheerleader of the team – act like it!

Earn the team’s respect and gratitude by being responsive and attentive to such disruptions and by being proactive (use charts/trends as needed for resource consumption to forecast what’s needed)

Denial

Issue: No problem!

There are actually TONS of problems, from bad code to terrible quality to nonexistent review processes

E.g. Sure, it’ll get done (but there are so many hurdles it’ll be impossible to get it done right)

Strategies

Talk to everyone 1:1 in complete confidence, to understand the reality

Reaffirm you’re there to support and help the team succeed and not to find scapegoats or punish anyone

Bring in outside experts and internal, successful teams’ leaders/architects to demonstrate easy wins and small changes that can go a long way

Develop roadmap to improvements; assign responsibilities – ensure complete transparency and accountability for each assignment. Project roadmap should be CLEAR and known to ALL

Train/educate the team on solid technical practices – and WHY they’re critical to succeeding as a team (and why without them, the team WILL fail)

Understand the “Why-s”

Issue: Team doesn’t understand the need to know WHY something is being done

Typically the team follows a given task blindly with no consideration of the ultimate goal

E.g. Team breaks work into tasks and executes it without knowing the implication of the

implementation or the impact of the work that’s being done

Strategies

Explain the why-s to the teams at the beginning of the project, then send occasional reminders (this

should stop at some point when the team has started getting the picture)

Encourage the team to delve into details of how this particular work will affect future deliverables,

or deliverables being done in parallel

Recognize team members that make key breakthroughs in understanding and sharing of important

knowledge

Stress upon the value of knowing WHY we do what we do; WHY is the most important question there

is

Lack of Transparency

Issue: Nothing’s blocking me at all

Person has no idea what they’re supposed to do, but afraid to speak up

E.g. I’ve never really worked on this technology, but if I say something I’ll look clueless

Strategies

Take the time to know each member’s understand of their role/duties and clarify matters ASAP

Provide technical training as required; ensure talent and skills match what’s being asked of the team

Be gentle and compassionate – being harsh will get you nowhere. Demonstrate sincere concern and address deep-rooted worries about “speaking up,” “making noise,” or “being disruptive” – make it amply clear that you can’t fix what you don’t know needs fixing.

Emphasize your team are your eyes and ears – show them you rely on them to make the proper decisions

Lack of Transparency, Contd.

Issue: Nothing’s blocking me at all

Well, my colleague/friend is the one blocking me, but I don’t want him getting in trouble

E.g. My module can’t be tested as I have to do full integration test with my friend’s code here, but his code has problems. By reporting this I’ll lose a good friend!

Strategies

Establish working agreements in the team and ensure everyone understands (e.g. everyone owns all problems; swarming is greatly encouraged; reporting problems will get nobody in any trouble; the team is empowered to come up with solutions to each problem described)

Accentuate the need to get things right – and to do the right thing

Stand behind the team – no ifs or buts – demonstrate your commitment to them as they do to you

Stress the importance that a team succeeds only when each member succeeds – no exceptions!

Nobody Told Me to…

Issue: Nobody told me to do X, Y, Z

Nobody said being a professional software engineer meant I had to decide a lot of things on

my own and be fully and completely responsible for ALL aspects of my code

E.g. Nobody told me I had to write unit tests; nobody told me I had to get my code integration-

tested first; nobody told me I had to verify with QA if they understood the Story

Strategies

Lay down CLEAR expectations that you have of each member (skill/maturity/experience-

specific). Communication is vital – ambiguity/vagueness WILL cause major problems later

Lay down CLEAR expectations that you have of each member (universal – e.g. all dev MUST

write unit tests; must do TDD; QA must write automation scripts etc.)

May not be always necessary, but critical when dealing with immature teams

Educate the team on the usual and customary technical practices that are expected of them;

get them training if need be; organize cross-team training sessions on good practices

Recommendations

Conduct workshops on cultural differences and sensitivities around dealing with other cultures

Leadership should encourage more meaningful exchanges between teams in varied global locations (lead by example as much as possible to foster positive behaviors)

Use Enterprise Social Media (e.g. Jive) to further encourage cross-domain and pan-company interactions and collaboration

Leadership should understand and drive home the point that all cultures may not value all things the same (priorities and values differ among cultures – e.g. vacation, family)

Spread news widely about any successful cross-cultural collaboration activities that demonstrate solid, relevant results (e.g. success projects involving teams in multiple locations)

Identify local champions and leaders and encourage them to talk to their teams on a set basis about respecting and valuing other cultures (this way the results of any workshops/training persist and don’t dissipate quickly)

Q&A and Contact

Q&A

Contact:

Seshadri.Veeraraghavan@ihs.com