Culture highlights the type of company you are. But what type of company do you really want to be?
—Mario Moreira
People are often searching for the silver bullet to transport an enterprise toward Agile and the business benefits it can bring. For some, Agile has become little more than a superficial badge without aligning to the real cultural shift that is needed to truly become Agile. Many tend to lean toward implementing a set of mechanical practices or processes. While this is part of the equation, the most important part is having a commitment to adopt the Agile mindset.
A move to Agile implies a change to the organizational culture. It is a cultural disruption that takes effort and that is never painless. Adopting Agile is more than a matter of learning skills or understanding a process; it requires adopting a set of values and principles that require change in people’s behavior and the culture of an organization.
A culture change implies a behavioral change in people in response to a change in the values and assumptions of their organization. In other words, they need to assume a new way of thinking. It also asks them to measure different things, with a particular focus on customer value and the activities focused on obtaining customer value. This kind of culture change takes time. This is why I suggest that you think of your change to Agile as a cultural journey.
Agile Mindset
Agile is a disruptive innovation where the Agile values and principles require a significant change of mindset and behavior to the culture adopting it. I discuss the concept of this significant change as crossing the Agile chasm in my book Being Agile.1 The chasm represents a leap from the old mindset and ways of thinking to a specific cultural mindset of “being Agile” in order for the enterprise to fully realize the business benefits Agile can bring.
Agile Pit Stop
Crossing the Agile chasm means that you are always operating with a mindset that is aligned with the Agile values and principles and a focus on customer value.
Crossing the Agile chasm means your mind has achieved an Agile mindset. As illustrated in Figure 5-1, in order to achieve an Agile mindset, you must embrace the Agile values and then operate in a manner that aligns with the Agile principles with a focus of delivering customer value. The result of achieving an Agile mindset means you should see different behaviors and a change in the culture. Simply aligning with Agile values and principles should lead you to behavioral changes in responsibilities, assurances to engage customers, commitment to empower employees, an obligation to bring business and development together, and more.
Figure 5-1. Getting to an Agile mindset
To help an enterprise put the Agile values and principles into action, various Agile processes, methods, frameworks, practices, and techniques (in other words, mechanics) have been created. However, without a commitment to the Agile values and principles, you may find that you are going through the mechanical motions without grasping the benefit of uncovering better ways of working.
As an example, a retrospective can mechanically occur with no actions for improvement upon completion. Without embracing Agile principles, the objective of tuning and adjusting behaviors can be forgotten. Some Agile implementations have adopted the outer ring of Agile processes while not embracing Agile values and principles. Without embracing the values and principles, you cannot achieve the behaviors necessary for an Agile mindset.
Those companies that are “doing” Agile have not actually adopted the values and principles and not made the mindset shift to actually “being” Agile. Such companies continue to look at Agile as a set of skills, tools, and process changes, but they have not made the integrated behavioral and cultural changes. They have not made the significant change of mindset required to make the leap across the Agile chasm.
Three Dimensions of an Agile Culture
What a more holistic and healthy Agile galaxy should look like is where those playing the roles in all quadrants of the galaxy have embraced the Agile mindset of applying the Agile values and principles—a discovery and incremental mindset; they have embraced the various Agile elements of processes, practices, and techniques, and they are primarily focused on delivering customer value. As you may recall, the Agile galaxy illustrated in Figure 4-1 is two-dimensional. There is also a third dimension that factors in the cultural aspect, as shown in Figure 5-2. Have the people in your Agile galaxy embraced the Agile mindset and begun to exhibit Agile behaviors of the Agile values and principles?
Figure 5-2. Third dimension of the Agile galaxy: The culture
Because of the team-centric view of Agile in many companies, there is a likelihood that some people playing the team-level roles have adapted an Agile mindset. However, levels of management and operational roles (HR, finance, marketing, and so on) within an organization along both the vertical and horizontal axes tend to play a lesser role in Agile and, in many cases, have not evolved their roles toward an Agile mindset, which includes an incremental and customer value-driven focus.
For every practice being implemented and for every role being played, there is a view of the cultural and behavioral alignment to the Agile values and principles. Is it positive where behaviors are aligning with an Agile mindset? Is Agile still a mechanical implementation where behaviors are neutral (in other words, neither particularly positive or negative toward an Agile mindset)? Or is the attitude toward Agile more negative where people are openly disdainful of Agile and there is still an alignment to the hierarchical, traditional, and/or command-and-control mindset?
Your three-dimensional Agile galaxy may have areas in the positive where people have embraced the Agile mindset, some areas that are neutral, and some areas in the negative. The 3-D view can help you understand the starting point of where your culture is today and help you understand the culture change that needs to occur.
Culture of Agile Values
Everyone in the organization should understand and embrace the Agile values and principles. Chapter 3 provides us with a section on the Agile values. Although many people are aware of them or have seen them at one time or another, few remind themselves of what it means to be Agile on a regular basis, particularly when they are buried in the mechanics of doing Agile.
It is beneficial to periodically review the Agile values and discuss them at a deeper level. Here is a deeper look at the four polar pairs of agile values declared in the Agile manifesto.
“ Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” This value helps us understand that the way we work may adapt over time. It also ensures that a predefined process or tool does not dictate how we interact.
“ Working software over comprehensive documentation.” This value helps us understand what the customer values as well as the business perspective of the product we are building. I often replace the word “software” with “product” or “service” since not everything built is software.
“ Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.” This value helps us understand the importance of the customer relationship and the collaboration that is needed to get to what the customer finds as value.
“ Responding to change over following a plan.” This value helps us respond to the changes in customer needs and market conditions, and apply an inspect-and-adapt approach with customer feedback to lead to customer value.
Ordering Agile Values Exercise: In groups of three, rank in order of importance the values and explain your ranking. Share the reasons of your rank order with other groups.
Remembering the Agile Principles
The Agile principles provide us with guidance on how to operate within an Agile galaxy. Chapter 3 provides us with the 12 Agile principles for your review. Interestingly, many involved with Agile have a hard time remembering the principles. I have hypothesized that those involved in Agile are more knowledgeable about the mechanics of “doing Agile” than they are regarding the mindset shift needed for “being Agile.” I have also hypothesized that fewer people could name three of the twelve Agile principles than could name three of the five Scrum events (Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective).
I tested my second hypothesis with an experiment that asks people to record the Agile principles and the Scrum events. For the Agile principles, I was willing to accept even a keyword or phrase of the principle (for example, “welcome change”). From two different Agile professional events, I asked participants to write down as many of the five Scrum events and as many of the twelve Agile Principles they knew. I accumulated 109 survey responses. The results were revealing and supported my hypothesis, as shown in Figure 5-3.
Figure 5-3. Percentage of respondants who could name a specific number of Agile principles
Of the 109 Agile participants, 59% knew three of the five Scrum events. This emphasized knowledge of the mechanics, or doing Agile. As illustrated in Figure 5-3, only 11% knew three of the twelve Agile principles. Could it really be true that only 11% of Agile enthusiasts could name just three Agile principles? This small percentage is particularly concerning since the Agile values and principles form the basis for what an Agile culture should look like.
Agile Pit Stop
Many people are only mechanically “doing” Agile via a process and have not yet begun to “be” Agile (that is, actually applying the values and principles of Agile).
Based on this data, I concluded with two hypotheses for such a lack of awareness of Agile principles. The first is there is very little education focused on the Agile values and principles. While many people have once visited the Agile values and principles (typically in training), they tend to not visit it again. The second is that many Agile efforts jump right into doing Agile by applying an Agile process (the mechanics) with little focus on the Agile values and principles (the culture). I contend that it is much easier to show progress for a mechanical change (for example, “Here is our backlog.” “See the daily scrum.”) than show cultural and behavioral changes, which takes longer for the changes to be felt.
Cultural Color of Your Organization
To delve a bit deeper into understanding more about what an Agile culture might look like, it is worth exploring the book Reinventing Organizations.2 In this book, Frederic Laloux discusses the past and current organizational models. He describes organization paradigms as an evolution in human consciousness. The more recent paradigms can provide insight into organization attributes that lend themselves to an Agile culture. Figure 5-4 illustrates the evolution of these paradigms.
Figure 5-4. Where the Agile paradigm aligns with Laloux’s organization paradigms
The early paradigm starts with the reactive-infrared paradigm and then the magic-magenta paradigm. Both of these embody the early stages of human kind which include smaller groups such as tribes of people. This is followed by the impulsive-red paradigm, which has the guiding metaphor of a wolf pack illustrated by tribal militia, mafia, and street gangs.
The conformist-amber paradigm has the guiding metaphor of an army illustrated by the hierarchy of a church, the military, and most government agencies. Next is the achievement-orange paradigm, which has the guiding metaphor of the machine illustrated by multinational companies and charter schools. A majority of the organizations today tend to reflect a red, amber, or orange paradigm.
A general alignment can be made to two of the latter paradigms that may be considered as behaviors you would hope to see in an Agile enterprise. These are the pluralistic-green and the evolutionary-teal paradigms.
While these two stages are not meant to be Agile-specific, in understanding what an Agile culture might look like, they help shed light as to where you may want to explore. Since Agile may be considered the next step in the evolution of product development, it should come as no surprise that the green and teal paradigms are the latest in organizational evolution.
Where Pluralistic-Green Supports Agile
The pluralistic-green organization strives to bring equality where all viewpoints are treated equality, irrespective of position and power. It uses the family as the guiding metaphor where all members are in it together and help each other out. This is highly reflective of the expectation of an Agile team.
One of the breakthroughs of a green organization is empowerment. Empowerment is focused on pushing a majority of decisions down to the frontline (in other words, where the work is). This is directly aligned with Agile thinking where there is a focus on pushing down decision making to the lowest possible level where the most information resides regarding the topic. This leads to decentralized authority where employees are trusted to come up with the answers and think of better ways to solve problems.
Another breakthrough of a green organization is that it is a values-driven culture. There is an understanding that culture drives how an organization will live and breathe. The green organization understands that a shared culture where leaders play by shared values is the glue that makes those in organizations feel appreciated and empowered. There is a focus on culture and empowerment to achieve extraordinary employee motivation. This values-driven culture described in the green paradigm is very much aligned with the importance of leading with Agile values and principles.
Leaders in a green organization are servant leaders. Servant leadership is common in Agile literature. Leaders need to listen to their employees, motivate them, empower them, and help them develop their own skills. When hiring for leadership within a green organization, look for the right mindset and behavior and ask if the candidates are ready to share power and lead with humility.
Agile Pit Stop
The Pluralistic-Green and the Evolutionary-Teal Paradigms include the level of human consciousness and the manifest behaviors you hope to see in an Agile enterprise.
Where Evolutionary-Teal Supports Agile
The evolutionary-teal paradigm emphasizes that the organization moves beyond providing a vehicle to achieve objectives for others. Instead, it moves to provide what is best for the organization that adapts as circumstances change. Its metaphor is one where the organization is a separate living organism.
In a teal paradigm, titles and positions are replaced with roles where one worker can fill multiple roles. This is very much like the concept of the cross-functional team within an Agile team structure. It is also emphasized by the notion of lightning-bolt-shaped teams where every team member has a primary, secondary, and tertiary skill or role so that they can adapt to the need of the organization. The emphasis is on getting the work done and not on specific titles or positions and the constraints one skill will have.
The evolutionary-teal paradigm emphasizes the capability to self-organize around the organizational purpose. The hierarchical structures are replaced with self-organization focusing on the smaller teams. This is aligned with the Agile principle of self-organizing teams. (In other words, the best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams). In fact, one of the breakthroughs of moving to the teal paradigm is self-management where an organization operates as if there are no managers.
It is in the teal paradigm where we evolve beyond and become separated from our ego in order to better understand the wisdom of others. We have to learn to see our own world from the outside. The analogy that Laloux uses is “like a fish that can see water for the first time when it jumps above the surface.” Once we can separate from our ego, we begin to understand how our ego has separated us from others. To a great extent, this is where the Agile retrospective helps team members see the views of others in order to improve and evolve into a more effective team.
Much like a move to an Agile culture is a leap across a chasm to a wholly different mindset, a move to the evolutionary-team paradigm. It is akin to crossing a chasm to operate in a self-managed way where mistakes are an opportunity to learn and grow, and where we strive for a wholeness within ourselves and with others.
Readying the Culture
Most Agile transformations start with implementing the Agile mechanics of processes, practices, and techniques. These types of transformations tend to ignore the cultural aspects of Agile. Since Agile is a cultural change, consider starting your Agile transformation from a cultural perspective.
Agile Pit Stop
Readiness activities are akin to conditioning the soil prior to planting the seeds. Understanding Agile values and principles improves the ability to adopt Agile.
Readying the mind is akin to conditioning the soil prior to growing the seeds. It is worth taking a long hard look at the conditions of the fields, equipment, and people—an analogy for your Agile galaxy. Strengthening the soil helps improve its physical qualities. This is similar to educating people about Agile values and principles and a customer-value-driven enterprise prior to any mechanical implementation. It provides employees with a cultural understanding of what they are trying to achieve.
What are some readiness activities you can do to begin activating the Agile culture? Begin by readying the minds or your employees with education on Agile values and principles and customer value. Ask employees what an enterprise would look like that puts the values and principles into action. Highlight what more advanced organizations can look like by discussing the pluralistic-green and evolutionary-teal paradigms. Ask what an engaged employee looks like in an Agile culture. Ask what an engaged customer looks like in an Agile culture. Also, start to examine levels of willingness and capability among the employee base so you understand the current level of commitment. You can learn more about readiness activities in the book Being Agile. 3
Assessing the Culture You Have
As you begin your readiness activities, consider understanding the culture that you have. There is a saying in the culture change circles that you should “meet them where they are.” By understanding your Agile culture, you gain the benefit of having a baseline by understanding the pros and the cons of the culture, which helps you prioritize your Agile readiness activities ahead. It can be used in the future to see where you’ve made progress.
Below is an Agile cultural assessment survey based on desired Agile behaviors. It helps you understand where you are from a customer-value-driven, employee-engagement, customer-engagement, Agile-values-and-principles, and pluralistic-green-paradigm, and evolutionary-teal-paradigm perspective. For each statement, the participants choose an option that best aligns with their view. They may also rate how they think their leaders view the statement. Or they can answer for both themselves and their leaders to recognize differences. Consider applying using a Likert-scale framework as seen in Figure 5-5.
Figure 5-5. Likert scale
You may also adapt the statements into questions that can be used in a discussion setting if this works better for your audience.
Agile Cultural Assessment Survey
We believe having flexibility to collaborate and communicate with each other helps us be more productive.
We believe working product is seen as more important than internal documentation.
We believe customer collaboration should be promoted along the way.
We are allowed to move beyond the plan and toward the direction of value.
We are focused more on satisfying (external) customers than on satisfying (internal) management.
We welcome change to requirements throughout the product development life cycle.
We believe in frequent delivery in smaller increments.
We believe in business and development working together along the way.
We believe in trusting individuals and valuing employees’ opinions.
We believe in face-to-face communication and keeping teams collocated.
We believe that working product is the primary measure of progress.
We believe in allowing teams to establish their own sustainable pace.
We believe in promoting attention to technical and business excellence on teams.
We believe in maximizing the amount of work not done.
We believe in the importance of self-organizing teams who have ownership and decision-making rights of their work.
We believe in regularly reflecting and committing to improvements.
We believe in simplified project management (lean plans, backlogs, no status reports).
We believe in cross-functional teams with lightning-bolt-shaped skills able to perform most of their work.
We believe in moving work to the team instead of teams to the work.
We believe that team members should interview future team colleagues.
We believe performance appraisals are done at the team level by team colleagues.
We believe organizational space should primarily be designed to make the team more productive, including quiet spaces.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive statement list and you may adapt it to fit your needs. You may find additional questions that can help you gauge whether you are aligning with an Agile culture in the books Being Agile (Chapters 8 and 9) and Reinventing Organizations (Appendix 4).
“What Culture Do You Have?” Exercise: Arrange to have a group of leaders together. Share the statements with them and ask them to choose their level of belief for each statement (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). Tally up the results and find the average score. Also capture the range of scores (3 at Strongly Agree, 2 at Agree, 4 at Somewhat Agree, and so on). Identify an area of improvement.
What Culture Do You Have?
There is a recognition that it is time to get serious about adapting to an Agile mindset and the behaviors and culture change it brings instead of a having a mechanical approach. A strong Agile culture must focus on how individuals and organizations behave and operate at all levels of an enterprise.
Consider understanding the culture that you have by establishing the 3-D version of your Agile galaxy. Also consider completing the Agile cultural assessment survey initially with some of your trusted colleagues and then branching out to other teams.
For additional material, I suggest the following:
Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux, Chapter 1 and Appendix 4, Nelson Parker, February 20, 2014
Being Agile: Your Roadmap to Successful Adoption of Agile by Mario Moreira, Chapters 8 and 9, Apress, October 1, 2013