Culture in an Agile World

Culture in an Agile World

Brad Barton
Mark Ferraro
Si Alhir

www.CultureSync.net www.CreatingWEInstitute.com

salhir@gmail.com http://salhir.wordpress.com
1 Copyright (c) 2012 Sinan Si Alhir. All rights reserved.

Manifesto for
Agile Software Development
(http://www.agilealliance.org, 2001)

We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.


Manifesto for
Agility Agile Software Development

We are uncovering better ways of achieving results developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

People Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Results Working software over comprehensive documentation
Collaboration Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responsiveness Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in other items the items on
the right, we value these items the items on the left more.


Barriers to Further Agile Adoption

In 2006 and 2007, the annual State of Agile Survey identified "experience"
and "resistance to change" as the highest barriers to further Agile adoption

2006 2007

Source: VersionOne salhir@gmail.com http://salhir.wordpress.com

Barriers to Further Agile Adoption

In 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, the annual State of Agile Survey identified
the "ability to change organizational culture" and "resistance to change"
as the highest barriers to further Agile adoption

2008 2009

2010

2011


Leading Causes of Failed Agile Efforts

In 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, the annual State of Agile Survey identified
"experience" and "company philosophy or culture" as the leading causes of
failed Agile efforts

2008 2009

2010

2011


Agile Efforts and Agile Adoption pivot on Culture!

Why Culture?



Because…

Culture is about Value!

Stronger cultures
— founded upon shared values, aligned with a strategy, interconnected people which
emphasizes key stakeholders (customers, stockholders, employees) and leadership —
outperform weaker cultures with approximately:
4 times higher revenue (682 percent versus 166 percent increase)
7 times more expanded work force (282 percent versus 36 percent)
12 times higher stock prices (901 percent versus 74 percent)
756% higher net income (756 percent versus 1 percent)

John P. Kotter and James L. Heskett
“Corporate Culture and Performance”



Why is Culture so Challenging?



Because…

“We are all prisoners of our paradigms,
and hostages to our beliefs.”
Gary Hamel
"The world’s most influential business thinker" (Wall Street Journal)
"The world’s leading expert on business strategy" (Fortune)


Culture, Leadership, and Strategy

“Culture and leadership are two sides of the same coin.”

“In every new social situation, whether we are aware of it
or not, we function as ‘leaders’ in that we not only
reinforce and act as a part of the present culture, but
often begin to create new cultural elements.”

“Culture is the main source of the organization’s identity.”

“Culture becomes a constraint on strategy.”

Edgar Schein
World-renowned expert on Organizational Culture
“The Corporate Culture Survival Guide”


~ William Schneider
(The Reengineering Alternative: A Plan for Making Your Current
Culture Work, 1994)
~ Dimensions: Process/decision (Personal to Impersonal) &
Content/attention(Possibility to Actuality)
~ Content: Control, Competence, Cultivation, Collaboration

~ Daniel Denison
(Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness, 1997)
~ Dimensions: Flexible to Stable & Internal Focus to External Focus
~ Content: Mission, Consistency, Involvement, Adaptability

~ Kim Cameron, Robert Quinn, Jeff Degraff, and Anjan Thankor
(Competing Values Leadership, 2006)
~ Dimensions: Internal/maintenance to External/positioning &
Stability/control to Individuality/flexibility
~ Content: Create (Do things first), Compete (Do things fast),
Control (Do things right), Collaborate (Do things together)

~ Judith Glaser
(Creating We, 2005; The DNA Of Leadership, 2006)
~ Creating WE
~ Believing WE (Changing attitudes or beliefs)
~ Learning WE (Adopting new habits of mind and behaviors)
~ Being WE (Expressing WE-consciousness)
~ Leadership DNA: Community, Humanizing, Aspiring, Navigating, Generating,
Expressing, and Spirit

~ Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright
(Tribal Leadership, 2008)
~ Five Cultural Stages: “Life sucks”; “My life sucks”; “I’m great (and you’re
not)”; “We’re great (and they’re not)”; “Life is great”
~ Triads & Triading
~ Tribal Strategy (micro strategy)

~ Leandro Herrero
(Viral Change, 2008)
~ “There is no change unless it is behavioral”
~ “Change behaviors; get culture; not the other way around”
~ “Viral change is neither top-down nor strictly speaking bottom-up, but multi-
centric and distributed”
~ Viral Change is “a way to create fast and sustainable change”

Don’t Oversimplify Culture …
~ Biggest danger in understanding culture is oversimplification
~ “The way we do things around here”
~ “The rites and rituals of our company”
~ “The company climate”
~ “How the organization feels”
~ “What the employee morale is”
~ “How well people are getting along”
~ “The reward system”
~ “Our basic values”

~ Strong temptation to use broad categories
~ “Command and control”
~ “Autocratic versus democratic”
~ “Sociability” and “solidarity”
~ “Internal versus external focus”
~ “Flexibility versus stability and control”

Source: Edgar Schein salhir@gmail.com http://salhir.wordpress.com

… to the Dangerously Narrow!
~ All manifestations of culture, but none at level where it matters

~ Most common view is that culture is about human relations

~ When culture change is proposed, it usualy focuses on
~ “More teamwork”
~ “Employee involvement”
~ “Reducing the layers of supervision”
~ “Creating lateral communication”
~ “Building loyalty and commitment”
~ “Empowering employees”
~ “Becoming more customer oriented”

~ These views of culture are correct but dangerously narrow


What is Culture?

“Culture is a pattern of shared
tacit assumptions Artifacts
that was learned by a group as (Visible/explicit
through Language,
it solved its problems of Behaviors, and
Relationships)
external adaptation Inconsistencie

and s
and Conflicts

internal integration,
that has worked well enough Espoused Values
to be considered valid and,
therefore, to be taught to new
members as the correct way to Underlying
perceive, think, and feel Assumptions
(Invisible/tacit
in relation to those problems.” through Beliefs,
Values, and
Assumptions)
Edgar Schein
World-renowned expert on Organizational Culture
“The Corporate Culture Survival Guide”


The Breadth and Depth of Culture

~ External Survival Issues
~ Mission, strategy, and goals
~ Means: Structure and processes
~ Measurement: Error-detection and correction

~ Internal Integration Issues
~ Common language and concepts
~ Group boundaries and identity
~ The nature of authority and relationships
~ Allocation of rewards and status


The Breadth and Depth of Culture

~ Deeper Underlying Assumptions

~ Human relationships to environment (Market)

~ The nature of reality and truth (Real/True)

~ The nature of human nature (Good or Evil)
~ The nature of human relationships (Individual or Collective)

~ The nature of time and space (Organize)
~ The unknowable and uncontrollable (Uncertainty)


Cultural Realities

~ Culture is…
~ Deep, extensive, and stable
~ The shared tacit assumptions of a group that have been
learned through coping with external and internal forces
~ A group phenomenon, the product of being social

~ You/We…
~ Cannot “create” a new culture in an organization that has
already evolved a culture
~ Can “stimulate” a new way of working together and thinking
~ Cannot use a survey to assess a culture; no survey will have
enough questions to cover all of the relevant areas


Cultural Realities
~ No absolute criterion for a “better” or a “worse” culture
~ Culture will influence all aspects of an organization’s functioning

~ Culture change is transformative because we unlearn something
before we learn something anew
~ Stage 1 (Unfreezing): Creating the motivation to change
~ Stage 2 (Learning/Changing): Learning new concepts, new
meanings for old concepts and new standards for judgment
~ Stage 3 (Refreezing): Internalizing new concepts, meanings,
and standards

~ Never start with the idea of changing a culture; always start
with the issues the organization faces and only when those
“business” issues are clear, ask yourself whether the culture will
aid or hinder resolving the issues


Tony Hsieh’s Zappos:
“Delivering Happiness:
A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,”

Zappos is a Phenomenon —
Going from $0 in 1999 to over $1 Billion in 2008!

“A big reason we hit our goal early was that we decided to invest our time,
money, and resources into three key areas:
customer service
(which would build our brand and drive word of mouth),
culture
(which would lead to the formation of our core values), and
employee training and development
(which would eventually lead to the creation of our Pipeline Team).”

“Our Brand, our Culture, and our Pipeline are the only competitive
advantages that we will have in the long run.”


Transformation

Zappos Health Zappos
(Performance and Well-being)
External
Phase I: Context Adaptation
(Aspects: Engage and Energize)
Brand Brand
(Customer Establish a transformation team (Customer
Service) Derive a “minimal” framework Service)
Socialize and refine the framework

Tacit
Assumptions Phase II: Foundation
Culture (Dynamics : Experience and Elaborate) Culture
(Core Values) Enact and elaborate the framework (Core Values)
Renew value-creation capabilities

Internal
Integration
Phase III: Evolution
Pipeline (Wholeness : Evolve and Embody) Pipeline
(Employee Enact and evolve the framework (Employee
Training and Training and
Development) Renew oversight capabilities Development)
Foster communities

Platform for Growth The Art of War Platform for Growth
(Wholeness and Leadership)


Thank You

Brad Barton
Mark Ferraro
Si Alhir

www.CultureSync.net www.CreatingWEInstitute.com


More Information



~ William Schneider
(The Reengineering Alternative: A Plan for Making Your Current
Culture Work, 1994)

~ Dimensions
~ Process/decision: Personal to Impersonal
~ Content/attention: Possibility to Actuality

~ Content
~ Control: Certainty
~ Competence: Distinction/Professionalism
~ Cultivation: Enrichment/Growth-&-Development
~ Collaboration: Synergy


~ Daniel Denison
(Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness, 1997)

~ Dimensions
~ Flexible to Stable
~ Internal Focus to External Focus

~ Content
~ Mission: Strategic Direction & Intent, Goals & Objectives,
Vision
~ Consistency: Coordination & Integration, Agreement, Core
Values
~ Involvement: Capability Development, Team Orientation,
Empowerment
~ Adaptability: Creating Change, Customer Focus,
Organizational Learning


~ Kim Cameron, Robert Quinn, Jeff Degraff, and Anjan Thankor
(Competing Values Leadership, 2006)

~ Competing Values (Tensions) Framework

~ Dimensions
~ Internal/maintenance to External/positioning
~ Stability/control to Individuality/flexibility

~ Content
~ Create (Do things first): Adhocracy and New Change
~ Compete (Do things fast): Market and Fast Change
~ Control (Do things right): Hierarchy and Incremental Change
~ Collaborate (Do things together): Clan and Long-term
Change


~ Judith Glaser
(Creating We, 2005; The DNA Of Leadership, 2006)

~ Conversations (Language and Relationships)
~ Unhealthy or toxic cultures have an I-centric fingerprint
~ Healthy or nontoxic cultures have a WE-centric fingerprint

~ Creating WE
~ Believing WE: Changing attitudes or beliefs
— Authority, Territoriality, and Self-Interest
~ Learning WE: Adopting new habits of mind and behaviors
— Culture, Possibilities, Space, and Conversations
~ Being WE: Expressing WE-consciousness
— Working in Concert and Sustaining WE

~ Leadership DNA
~ Community, Humanizing, Aspiring, Navigating, Generating,
Expressing, and Spirit


~ Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright
(Tribal Leadership, 2008)

~ Language and Relationships

~ Five Cultural Stages
~ Stage 1: “Life sucks”
~ Stage 2: “My life sucks”
~ Stage 3: “I’m great (and you’re not)”
~ Stage 4: “We’re great (and they’re not)”
~ Stage 5: “Life is great”

~ Triads & Triading (and the Epiphany “I Am Because We Are”)

~ Tribal Strategy (micro strategy)
~ Core Values and Noble Cause
~ Outcomes, Assets, and Behaviors



~ Leandro Herrero
(Viral Change, 2008)

~ “There is no change unless it is behavioral”

~ “Change behaviors; get culture; not the other way around”

~ “Viral change is neither top-down nor strictly speaking
bottom-up, but multi-centric and distributed”

~ Viral Change is “a way to create fast and sustainable change”


Culture in an Agile World

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