Your Agile Transformation is doomed. You might be working on all sorts of great things. You have training, coaching, cross functional teams, continuous delivery, you’re scaling Agile, all the buzz words. You’re still doomed. Why? Because Agile is just one part of a much larger picture. A picture that requires people to not only change their processes and software, but how they see themselves and their place in your organization. This change requires more than transformational thinking. It requires revolutionary thinking. It can be done, but it won’t happen by accident. It's time to start a revolution.

1. Agile
Revolution
Over Transformation
Isn’t Enough
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pabak/14496866427/

2. 8’s
Warm Up

3. Agile
Revolution
Over Transformation
Isn’t Enough
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pabak/14496866427/

4. Todd Charron
Twitter: @toddcharron
Email: todd@toddcharron.com
Agile Coach, Improvisor
Mentor: Lean Startup Machine
Founder: Follow Your Fear Day
Who Am I?

5. do I do this?
Why

6. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/idUS206536+13-Feb-
2012+BW20120213
At the current churn rate, 75% of the S&P 500 will be replaced by 2027.
Year Tenure for average firm on S&P 500
(years)
1958 61
1980 25
2011 18

7. Of Your
Use The
WHOLE
Organization
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125992663@N02/14597738221/

8. Organizations Need to be
cutting edge thinkers

9. Leaders Not Followers

10. BUT
AGILE
Changes
How The
Organization
WORKS

11. IS
AGILE
Doesn’t
CHANGE
Organization
Who The

12. ARE
We Need To
Change
WHO
Organizations

13. Who Do You
Work For?
Who Are You?

14. Or do you
relinquish it
to leadership?
Can you bring
your full
power,
creativity,
intelligence to
work every
day?

15. Why Revolutions?

16. Agile Transformation
Styles

17. Thou Shalt Be Agile!
Top Down

18. Can we really order
people to be Agile?

19. Changes practices but rarely
changes the organization
Bottom Up

20. Are we really committed?
Pilot Team

21. Will we ever get there?
Do we even have a vision of
where we’re going?
Gradual Evolution

22. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pikawil/15243882912/
DOOMED!

23. Culture attracts and retains
top Talent
Culture Wins Over
Process

24. Need to
bake it
into your
DNA

25. Marketing!

26. Marketing = Bad!

28. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pikawil/15243882912/
Dictatorships

29. Organizations
Operate Like
Dictatorships

30. This happens whether you want it to or not
Rule Through Authority,
Suppress Dissent, and Use
Fear

31. - Gene Sharp
The population gets
turned into a mass of
isolated individuals

32. Cannot do much of their
own initiative

33. Current Organizational
Structures May be
Removing Power from
People

34. - Gene Sharp
People are often too
frightened to share their
hatred of the dictatorship

35. You only have authority if the people
recognize it
Authority is an illusion

36. Authority can make
change but only winning
hearts and minds can
sustain it

37. We must make change on
an emotional level

38. Authority:
Direction
Force
Coercion

39. So if not
authority,
then what?

40. Liberty

41. Liberty:
Freedom
Autonomy
Opportunity

42. How far can we go creating liberated
organizations?
Valve, Zappos, Netflix
experimenting with
increasing liberty

43. We can be more free,
more liberated

44. We will get better

45. We will be better

46. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pikawil/15243882912/
How do we defeat a
dictator?

47. Attack where it is weak

48. Incompetent
Bureaucracy, excess
controls, ineffective
policies and operations

49. Institutional conflicts and
personal rivalries

50. People may become
apathetic, skeptical and
even hostile to the
regime

51. To defeat your
organizational
dictator
https://www.flickr.com/photos/birgerking/7080728397

52. To remove the dictator
we must remove its
legitimacy and the
rewards that sustain it

53. Rebellions can be put down
Warning: Revolutions
start as rebellions

54. 5 Steps To Revolution

55. 1. Understand Who You Are
2. Understand Where you Are
Going
3. Messaging
4. Build Autonomy
5. Build a Cult(ure)

56. 1. Understand who you are

57. As a company
As a group of rebels
Who are you?

58. Who is the face of this change?
Who is your leader?

59. Be intentional.
Be polarizing.
What’s your point of view?

60. ...and live by them
Have Values

61. Keep Method Weird
What would MacGyver Do?
Innovate Don’t Imitate
Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate
Care Like Crazy
Method Values:

62. Leaders Change First

63. You Won’t Please
Everyone

64. What Is Your Shared Pain?

65. What Is Your Dictator?

66. Is there an inciting
incident?

67. 2. Understand Where You
Are Going

68. What does success look
like?

69. How do we measure the
strength of the dictator?

70. We Are (Company, Rebel Group), we
believe _________
Exercise:

71. Our dictator is ______ it causes _______
Exercise:

72. The dictator gets its power from: __________
Exercise:

73. The dictator is vulnerable to: __________
Exercise:

74. We will know the dictator is losing power
when: __________
Exercise:

75. We will know we have succeeded when:
__________
Exercise:

76. 3. Messaging

77. Create a declaration of
independence from the
dictator

78. What is
vs.
What could be

79. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

80. Build your narrative
Tell your story

81. While respecting what was good about it
Focus on Dissatisfaction
with the Dictator

82. Be factual, don’t sugar coat
Celebrate Your Victories

83. 4. Build Autonomy

84. Empowerment

85. Autonomy requires
Clarity
and
Competence

86. What am I concerned
about?
From may I
to
I intend to

87. Or Go Against The Grain
Embrace Ideas That Seem
Uncomfortable

88. Trust Their Choices Even
If They Are Different
Than Your Own

89. If not, fix THAT rather than
remove power
Trust that they are
competent and have
clarity of vision

90. Why Are They There?
If you don’t believe they
can understand the vision
or pick up the skills

91. Focus on the bright spots

92. Create Opportunities For Them To Go
Deeper
Meet People Where They
Are

93. 5. Build a Cult(ure)

94. Working Towards
A Common Goal

95. Warm Ups and Other
Rituals

96. Become More Group’ish
Flip Your Hive Switch

97. Synchrony Builds Trust

98. Focus on What You Have In Common
Increase Similarity Not
Diversity

99. Membership Rather Than
Followership

100. NOT Between Individuals
Healthy Competition
Between Teams

101. Dancing Dissolves Hierarchy
Play Poker
Lose Yourself In The
Group

102. How will you keep Method weird?
Create Positive Rites Of
Passage

103. Tribes, Squads, Chapters, Guilds
Sprints, Scrum, Daily Scrum, Retrospectives
Create Symbols, Names,
Insider Language

104. Give your
members a
name
- Beliebers is taken

105. Provide Immediate
Recognition for those
living the values

106. Wrapping Up

107. The is THE top priority

108. The is an ongoing long
term effort

109. You need to be
intentional about who
you are

110. This is the thing you have
to scale

111. You need to lead it and own it
Outsiders Can Help

112. BUT
AGILE
Changes
How The
Organization
WORKS

113. IS
AGILE
Doesn’t
CHANGE
Organization
Who The

114. ARE
We Need To
Change
WHO
Organizations

115. Revolution
Start a
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pabak/14496866427/
Todd Charron
Twitter: @toddcharron
todd@toddcharron.com