DCSUG event from 02/23/17, featuring Jeremy Webb.

1. Happiness:
A Key Component of Agile
Presented by: Organizational Engineering
JeremyWebb – Managing Partner

2. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness”
Sources:

3. Objectives
• For Agile practitioners - Connect happiness toAgile implementations
• Improve Agile implementations
• Share techniques for overcoming Agile adversity
• For everybody
• Convey benefits of happiness in the workplace
• Help people increase their happiness
• Make a positive impact on the way business is done
Sources:

4. Count to 10
Ninja!
• Circle with 10-20 people
• Choose a facilitator to start the round
• Nobody can say more than one number
• Count to 10 without repeating any numbers
• If a number is repeated, start over
• Circle with 5-10 people
• Choose facilitator to start round by saying “Bow
to your opponents”
• Hands together and bow
• Strike a “Ninja” pose with 1 hand behind back
• Game begins to left of facilitator or with last
winner
• Try to slap hand of anybody else in circle
• You can dodge slaps but must remain still
otherwise unless you are slapping
• If your hand is slapped, you are out

5. Sciency
Stuff
Sources:

6. What Drives Us
David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. says:
Everything we (people) do is driven by the pursuit of two basic emotions
“Thousands or even millions of thoughts can be replaced by a single emotion”
Sources: Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender
Loss of Capacity to Experience

7. What is Happiness?
Sources:

8. TraditionalView of Happiness
Sources: The Happiness Advantage, Photo courtesy
of 1shots at freedigitalphotos.net
Success Happiness

9. NewView of Happiness
Sources: The Happiness Advantage
SuccessHappiness

10. Sources of Happiness
• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Purpose
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=wdzHg
N7_Hs8
Sources: Drive by Daniel Pink

11. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Sources: Wikimedia

12. Positivity and Happiness
• Hot trend in research
• Happiness Advantage: Fear narrows thinking, happiness expands it
• State of the American Manager: 61% (2X avg) of employees are engaged when managers
focus on strengths
• PsychologyToday: Stress causes mental capacity to drop while mindfulness meditation
increases mental capacity
Sources:

13. Studies Have Shown…
• Doctors in a positive mood show 3X more intelligence and make accurate
diagnosis 19% faster
• Happy sales people outsell other salesman by 56%
• Judges like sandwiches!
Sources: The Happiness Advantage

14. Impact of Fear
Sources: Photos from freedigitialphotos.net courtesy of 1) dream designs 2) 9comeback 3) Naypong
1
2
3
3

15. Opposing Forces
Sources: What Every BODY is Saying, The Happiness Advantage
Freeze
Flight
Fight

16. Reinforcing Habits
Sources:

17. Broaden and BuildTheory
• Barbara Frederickson circa 1998
• Positive emotions
• Lead to building skills over time
• Provide a wider range thoughts and actions to choose from
Sources: The Happiness advantage, Wikipedia

18. Concepts
Applied
Sources:

19. Agile Manifesto
Sources: agilemanifesto.org

20. 12 Principles – Part 1
Sources: agilemanifesto.org

21. 12 Principles – Part 2
Sources:agilemanifesto.org

22. Approaches
Waterfall andTraditional Practices
Focus on Eliminating Risk - Fear Driven
Agile and Scrum
Embraces Uncertainty - Focus on the Positive
Change Control /
Resistance
MultipleGates &
Approvals
Elaborate Plans
Empowerment Minimal Planning
Responding to
Change
Elaborate
Processes
Minimal
Overhead
Specific Roles
Customer Focus
Heavy
Documentation
Cross-functional

23. Scrum Principles for Happiness and Motivation
• Work in teams and pass or fail as a whole
• Sprint Reviews and Demos
• Retrospectives
• User stories (good ones)
• It takes as long as it takes
Sources:

24. Sutherland On Happiness
• Happiness is a Leading Indicator of Success
• Happiness Metric (Next Slide)
• Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose make people happy
(and great teams)
• Connection leads to happiness (Zappos)
• Happiness comes from achievement not complacency
• The journey is more satisfying than the result

25. Happiness Metric (From SCRUM)
1. On a scale from 1 to 5, how do you feel about your role in the company?
2. On the same scale, how do you feel about the company as a whole?
3. Why do you feel that way?
4. What one thing would make you happier in the next sprint?
Sources:

26. Scenario
• A dev team is transitioning to Agile.
• Velocity has been increasing
• Large amount of technical debt
• Team meets and puts together a plan to address the issues and build out
infrastructure at the same time
• Management decides that if they product doesn’t ship in 2 months,
employment contracts will be changed or terminated
Sources:

27. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Team XVelocity Chart
Points Completed (Stories only) Avg velocity
Avg velocity from 2/17 Linear (Avg velocity)
Linear (Avg velocity from 2/17)

28. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Start Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10
Team X Data (Bug Fixing)
Bugs added Stories Added Remaining Issues:
Ideal Burn Linear (Remaining Issues:)

29. Unconventional Approaches for Happiness
• Vanderbilt University uses Aromatherapy
• Reports of being stressed often 68% down to 14%
• Major mood improvements
• Higher energy levels
• More ability to handle stressful situations
• 84% strongly agree and 10% agree (94% total) that diffusers
had a positive effect
• Volunteering programs
• 20% time
• Daily writing
• MarineCorps using meditation in a program called M-Fit
(meditation) to increase mental capacity, reduce illness
and reduce fear
Sources: Washington Times, http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/

30. MyView of Happiness
Sources:
SuccessHappiness

31. Sources:
What did you learn?
Feedback
ThankYou!
Contact info:
Website: org-eng.com
Email: jeremy@org-eng.com
Phone: 434-260-1450