I was inspired by this after reading a comment on that Dark Agile article. Thoughts?
Agile Reformation
kschlabach
#2
VERY well written, and I whole-heartedly agree with this.
To be honest, the frequency at which I get up in morning and reconsider whether to walk the agile walk has shifted from 1/quarter to 1/week. This coalition is part of the reason Iām still hopeful, but Iām exhausted by trying to explain agile to people who only want different sticks to discipline engineering staff with and Scrum (and SAFE) is their go to answer.
Donāt be surprised if someday soon I put down the banner and just work hard to become ājustā a product owner (which would evolve into a different role Iād enjoy in the post-agile world) as I think that is one of the responsibilities that can have the greatest change impact on a teamās ability to succeed.
If @johannarothman loses her tenacity, all hope is lost and I exit stage right. (āwhy would you scale something that you havenāt gotten working yet?ā)
andycleff
#3
Following up on the the articleās mention of vaccinationā¦
Iām diving into a body of work by Leandro Herrero which at first glance appears to be a powerful way to think about changeā¦
in particular: https://www.amazon.com/Homo-Imitans-Social-Infection-Change/dp/1905776071
Behaviours change culture, not the other way around. The spread of behaviours is the real source of social change. Behavioural imitation explains how social change happens, how epidemics of ideas are formed, how social fashions appear and how company cultures shape and reshape themselves. The spread of behaviours is also viral in nature. In his pioneering book, āViral Changeā¢ā, Leandro Herrero addressed how a relatively small number of highly connected individuals could orchestrate change in an organisation through a small set of non-negotiable behaviours. In his new book, the author now addresses Viral Changeā¢ in action, showing that the more primal āHomo Imitansā is still a powerful force. Understanding how social, behavioural infection works is the basis for the orchestration of any āepidemic of successā, be it a successful change inside a firm or a counter-social epidemic to tackle negative socio-macro phenomena. Academia, business consulting and business literature have long differentiated themselves from the macro-social reality. For many years, and still today, it feels as if āthe nine-to-fiveā business life has little to do with āthe external worldā of social changes. āHomo Imitansā bridges these two artificially separated worlds by explaining how Viral Changeā¢ mechanisms work everywhere: in the spread of violence in streets (and also in how to reverse it), in employee engagement inside the organisation, in the adoption of new behaviours and new company culture - and in how it can go wrong. āHomo Imitansā will appeal to anybody interested in social change, with particular emphasis on how Viral Changeā¢ works inside an organisation. As such, this is a key practitionerās book for any manager and leader of any organisation, written by the creator of Viral Changeā¢ in the same successful style as his previous books.
more by Herrero:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=leandro+herrero&i=stripbooks
how a relatively small number of highly connected individuals could orchestrate change in an organisation through a small set of non-negotiable behaviours.
hdietrich
#4
One thing I learned: people want to see decisions.
This makes a relation to the Agile Manifest so difficult. It uses a word, which never got acknowledged by any of the methodologies and frameworks, which followed up on it.
It is the word āoverā.
The Agile Manifest does not say āinsteadā. It does not embrace change. It just says, be mindful.
Anyhow, almost two decades later, we need to acknowledge, that the Agile Manifest has been used to drive change. But this has not been a change, which has been created together. It is a change driven by enthusiasts and ideologists. It did not just leave it with a change of behavior and mindset. It also blamed people for bad behavior.
At a sudden, team managers and project managers found themselves being the bad guys - without being involved at all. What has been working for them for ages, at a sudden is declared as wrong. Their whole reason for being is put on doubt.
Letās acknowledge, that many of them did a quite good job - until they have been asked to change radically.
From my point of view, Agile would benefit from a top-down approach. It requires decisions, as people are looking for them. Well-balanced decisions, creating simple rules to follow while leaving space for execution.
andycleff
#5
Another approach that I am exploring: organic agility
While I have difficulty with the word choice āresilienceā - maybe āadverse reactionsā might be better - the approach is intriguing meā¦ so much so that I just finished up a two day class w Andrea Tomasini.
It was an amazing experienceā¦ and thereās so much to explore.
It doesnāt not call thing wrong or right - just āas they areā
And then provides a humanistic approach that embraces and addresses situation, behavior, and culture.
Helps organizations envision a future state, aspirational perhaps, and the provides a scaffolding for evolution.
Iām fascinated by how Andrea and others have brought in Cynefin, sensemaking, biology, organization dynamics, leadership thinking,
Just a thought- how about we exchange the word ābehaviourā with āattitudeā? Behaviour can be a superficial adjustment to actions based on what is expected whereas attitudes are driven by underlying valuesā¦in my experience
cmwistrom
#7
Speaking of behavior and where they come fromā¦ https://hbr.org/2019/12/getting-to-the-bottom-of-destructive-behaviors