Managing Resistance: How the Kanban Method Supports Lasting Change

excella.com
@excellaco
Managing Resistance:
How the Kanban Method
Supports Lasting Change
Julie Wyman and
Sarah K. Park

excella.com | @excellaco
Julie Wyman
• Agile Coach with Excella
Consulting
• Experience coaching teams on a
variety of Agile frameworks
• Certified Scrum Professional, IC-
Agile Certified Agile Coach

Sarah K. Park
• Change Management Lead with
Excella Consulting
• She helps her clients discover the
power of strategic communications,
engagement, and the value of
implementing repeatable processes in
order to help reduce the impact that
change has on an organization, its
culture, its people, and its ability to fulfill
its vision and mission.

1. Challenges with Agile
Adoptions
2. The Case for Change
Management
3. The Kanban Method as an
Alternative Approach
Agenda

If Agile’s so great,
what’s the issue?

”We implemented Agile at the team-level…”
“We tried Agile –
it didn’t work
here.”
“Oh, we did that for awhile, but we
stopped when our CTO left…”
”We’re thinking about a reset –
doesn’t feel like we’re getting value right now.”

Why
do Agile adoptions fail so often?

Company philosophy or culture at odds with core
agile values
69%
VersionOne, 11th Annual State of Agile Report (2016)

Lack of experience with agile methods
47%

Lack of management support
45%

General organization resistance to change
43%

Change management initiatives fail long term.
75%
New Study Explores Why Change Management Fails - And How To (Perhaps) Succeed (2013)

A Scrum Example

Defined roles, artifacts & ceremonies
Roles
 Product Owner
 Scrum Master
 Developer
Events
 The Sprint
 Sprint Planning
 Daily Scrum
 Sprint Review
 Sprint Retrospective
Artifacts
 Product Backlog
 Sprint Backlog
 Increment
If you don’t have all of these, it’s not Scrum!

I tried…
A
•Awareness
D
•Desire
K
•Knowledge
A
•Action
R
•Reinforcement
ADKAR Change Management Model: https://www.prosci.com/adkar/adkar-model
Kotter image: https://www.kotterinternational.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/
ADKAR Kotter Change Model Mindset

• Imposed
• Too much change
• Slowed down for too
long
But still…
resistanc
e

Managing Resistance: How the Kanban Method Supports Lasting Change

J-Curve Effect
Based on image from: David Anderson’s March 2017 Kanban Coaching Professional Masterclass

J-Curve Effect
If pain of
change >
executive
tolerance
-> then the
change agent
gets fired

• Individual
• Group
• Organization
Underestimate
d the threat to
identity

Scrum Alliance, 2016 The State of Scrum Report

• Use roles, artifacts, &
ceremonies as a check
list
• Adoption stays at the
team level
• Easy to fall back into old
habits
Too easy to
believe you’re
“Done”

So, how might we better align the pace of
change to the appetite for it?

The Case for Change
Management

Build and Promote Buy-in
Clear and Consistent Communication: Communicating the WWWH
Why is the change happening?
What is the value and importance of each individuals’ contributions and how
will they lead to a greater opportunity for successful implementation?
When will the change initiative begin and what is the projected timeline?
How will the change impact the organization and stakeholders (including
employees)?
Creating a Flexible and Resilient Organizational Culture
Promoting and Maintaining Trust

Kanban Method as an
Alternate Path to Agility

Kanban Method
Visual approach to work
that emphasizes
flow, collaboration,
and continual improvement

1. Visualize
2. Limit work-in-progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively,
evolve experimentally
General
Practices
(similar)

…”how could I
successfully scale
adoption of an Agile
approach across an
enterprise and
overcome the
inevitable resistance
to change?”
Anderson, David J. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change in Your Technology
Business. Sequim, WA: Blue Hole, 2010.

• Start with what you do now
• Understand current processes, as actually
practiced
• Respect existing roles, responsibilities, and job
titles
• Gain agreement to pursue improvement
through evolutionary change
• Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
Change
Management
Principles
(different)

• Start with what you do now
• Understand current processes, as actually
practiced
• Respect existing roles, responsibilities, and
job titles (Identify the value of individual
contributions)
• Gain agreement to pursue improvement
through evolutionary change (Communicating
early and often and engaging stakeholders
throughout the process)
• Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
(Create a safe space where individuals can
communicate questions, concerns, and ideas)
Change
Management
Principles

• Easier to get started
• More role safety
• Limit the disruption
• Increase ownership
• Evolving solution
Potential
Benefits

Easier to get started
Start with what you do now
Understand current processes, as actually practiced
• Visualize current process
• Less up-front pre-requisites
• Feels more doable

More role safety
Respect existing roles, responsibilities, and job titles
Gain agreement to pursue improvement through
evolutionary change
• Current identities (individual and group) less threatened

Limit the disruption
Gain agreement to pursue improvement through evolutionary
change

Increase ownership
Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
• Part of creating the solution – less imposed
• Harder to direct blame if not working as expected
• Change becomes more embedded & longer lasting

Evolving solution
Gain agreement to pursue improvement through
evolutionary change
• Don’t pretend to know exactly what’s needed up front
• Solution will emerge over time
• Understand that system may change as needs change

• Less defined –
less direction provided
• More responsibility to
drive the needed change
• Never feel “Done” –
constantly evolving
Challenges
still exist

VersionOne,
11th Annual State of Agile Report (2016)

While change initiatives can create uncertainty
within an organization, the implementation of the
four outlined practices of preparing for and
managing resistance will better position your
organization for success. Success in the
implementation of change will result in a more
dynamic organization better equipped for an
ever changing environment.

1. Regardless of Agile framework,
appreciate the amount of
change an Agile adoption brings
2. Consider Kanban as an
alternate path to agility
3. Build a change management
plan into whatever approach
you take
Takeaways

Discussion

Managing Resistance: How the Kanban Method Supports Lasting Change

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