Agile Transformation using Non-verbal Language

2016-07-22-13-00-agile-transformation.md

2016-07-22 13:00 Agile Transformation using Non-verbal Language

aka Scrum roles, values, and well-formed teams By Kelly Albrecht of Last Call Media

• Awareness is most important (to Kelly Albrecht) because it enables agility
• Scrum values:
  • Committment
    • Breaking committment breaks trust, then everything falls apart
    • Most important (to Kelly Albrecht)
      • Can you commit to something you can't do?
        • If you do, it's a false committment
      • Can you commit to something that you don't understand?
        • No
      • Why would you not want to commit to something?
        • Better to be realistic and not commit than risk breaking commitment
      • Why should you make committments when you can?
        • Builds trust.
      • Why should you keep your committments?
        • Builds trust.
    • Do what you commit to
    • Don't commit if you aren't reasonably sure
    • Protect your committments against infringements
  • Focus
    • Why does focus, as a value, matter to your committments?
      • You can't keep your committment if you don't focus on it
    • What happens if your focus is interrupted?
      • You can miss your committments
    • Manager / Maker schedules
      • Manager's schedule
        • Day is cut up into hours
        • Adding a task is just finding an open slot
        • Better optimized for:
          • Dealing with client's nagging, begging, haggling
          • Client being the priority during dev time
          • Meetings, updates, change requests, complaints, brainstorms
          • Distractions involved in managing aspects involving the client
        • PO, scrummaster, project manager
      • Maker's schedule (people who produce stuff)
        • Tasks are large and abstract
        • Tasks tend to be at least a half-day
        • Adding a task or meeting (interrupting) can be a disaster
          • Hard to task-switch
        • Better optimized for:
          • interaction with the client but only for the benefit of the project
          • the project being the priority during dev time
          • Working on large, abstract systems
          • Tasks requiring a huge mental investment
        • Needs interruptions eliminated as much as possible
        • Strategist, designer, developer
    • Focus on what you're committed to
    • Escalate distractions to the ScrumMaster
    • Watch out for interruptions
    • Group needed meetings into one part of the day or week
      • "Hey, I don't want to meet right now" - trust life goals
    • If you mix managers' schedules with makers' schedules, you create a toxic environment
      • Last Call Media previously had people split 70% development, 30% support. This resulted in too many distractions. So, since they had enough people, they made 2 teams for new projects, 1 team for SLA
  • Openness
    • Helps in explaining why you can't make certain committments?
    • Be open about what you can and cannot do
    • Keep your work visible to others on the team
    • Share your struggles, sticking points, weaknesses
    • Be open to accepting other's struggles, weaknesses
  • Respect
    • As a scrum value, accpeting that someone is doing the best that they can
      • This might not be the best you want them to do, but it's the best they can do
    • How do you respect someone who fails at their committments?
      • "Is there anything that I or anyone else can do to help you do a better job?" (faster, etc.)
        • Look for ways to help them do better, work around their limitations, help them to achieve their committments
    • Examples of not doing one's best:
      • Willful ignorance = a problem on your team, which you must deal with
    • How do you keep respect when you've failed at a committment?
      • Look for places to take responsibility
        • "I was late because I could have left earlier"
  • Courage
    • Makes all other values possible
    • Courage to commit, protect your focus, be open about yourself, and earn and show respect
• Agility, scrum, and awareness
  • Scrum is about enabling ability
  • Agility is about making the best decision given a current reality
  • Reality is understood through awareness
  • Scrum enables agility by providing a framework for increasing interpersonal awareness
  • Scrum values are a big part of that framework.
• Well-formed teams
  • A well-formed team is one that is extremely efficient and hoghly productive at doing what's next to the extent of it's agility
  • A team can only be as agile as it is aware of it's reality
• Roles and values are like motor oil: they prevent friction and "protect against viscosity breakdown"