Steps to Becoming an Agile Individual
- 1. Steps to Becoming an Agile Individual Performing well in an Agile environment
- 2. Agile is here. The only question now is, how do I become Agile? 1 LEARN AGILE, 2 DEFINE SUCCESS, 3 ACCEPT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 2
- 3. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility A quick review of Agile: Now that Agile is fresh on our minds, let’s try to What is Agile? remember WHY we are A highly-collaborative, adopting Agile? incremental and iterative new approach to testing How does Agile work? • Early and regular delivery of tasks • Focus on team communications • Centered around close interaction with the users 3
- 4. To reduce time to boost and to deliver and costs spent, performance, better results. 4
- 5. Agile sounds great, but is Agile adoption always successful? WELL, IT DEPENDS ON HOW WE DEFINE SUCCESS 5
- 6. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility What is successful Agile adoption? Success is measured by asking whether or not we are more productive at providing increased value through Agile practices. Be careful not to confuse the “practicing of Agile practices” with successful Agile adoption. 6
- 7. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility Success is defined by asking: Are we more productive at creating better results that provide increased value to our organization? 7
- 8. What do all successful agile teams have in common? TEAM MEMBERS TAKE OWNERSHIP 8
- 9. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility No one thinks about personal responsibility when things go well When something goes wrong large or small (for example, lost keys or a lost retirement account), the Responsibility Process kicks in. The mind offers Lay Blame as a reason. If you accept blame as a sufficient reason, then you will act on that blame. If you don't accept it, then your mind offers you an excuse (Justify). And so on. Taking personal responsibility is a step-wise process of refusing to act on a series of irresponsible thoughts that your mind offers up. 9
- 10. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility The Responsibility Process (TRP) shows us the mental process we, as human beings, go through when Responsibility we avoid responsibility and destroy the ownership behavior Obligation Justify essential to self-organizing teams. Quit Denial Shame Lay Blame The Responsibility Process Model (Chris Avery) 10
- 11. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility Owning your ability and power to create, choose, and attract Responsibility Doing what you have to Obligation Justify Using excuses for things instead of what you want to being the way they are Quit Denial Giving up to avoid the Ignoring the pain of Shame and existence of Obligation something Laying blame onto oneself Shame Lay Blame Holding others at fault (often felt as guilt) for causing something The Responsibility Process Model (Chris Avery) 11
- 12. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility Imagine you're leaving home for a critical meeting. You're not late yet but you have Responsibility no time to lose. You grab your laptop bag, reach for your keys, and... they aren't there! What's the first thing that Obligation Justify crosses your mind? Who moved my keys? Or, honey - did you take my keys? Quit Denial Regardless of the exact words, most of us instinctively look for someone else to blame when something goes wrong. This Shame Lay Blame behavior is a strategy we use unconsciously to avoid taking The Responsibility Process responsibility for our situation. (In the Model (Chris Avery) diagram, you are on the bottom behavior - laying blame.) 12
- 13. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility Now, imagine you arrived at the meeting. Responsibility You're five minutes late. As you walk in the door, what do you say? "Sorry I'm late, I Justify lost my keys?" Or perhaps, "Sorry I'm late, Obligation traffic was bad?" Why not stop at "Sorry I'm late?" Why continue with an Quit Denial explanation? According to Avery's research, the next instinctive response we Shame Lay Blame have once we escape blame, is to justify. It's not my problem - the universe is at fault. The Responsibility Process Model (Chris Avery) 13
- 14. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility When we get past blame and justification, the next natural response is Responsibility shame. When coming from blame or justification we externalized the problem - we believed we had no responsibility Obligation Justify for it. When we get to shame, we now acknowledge that we're part of the Quit Denial problem - but instead of taking constructive action, we beat ourselves up. Regardless of the words out of our Shame Lay Blame mouth, we're flogging ourselves for blowing it again. This is not a resourceful The Responsibility Process state of mind; this is another detour Model (Chris Avery) keeping us from responsibility. 14
- 15. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility When we get past shame, we have one Responsibility more way to avoid responsibility - obligation. An example: "Honey, I'm sorry I Justify won't be home for dinner tonight. I have Obligation to join the boss for dinner with a client." No you don't have to go to dinner with the Quit Denial boss - you choose to. You own your life. You make your choices. Obligation is rule Shame Lay Blame following behavior - using explicit or implicit rules to relinquish your ownership of your life. This doesn't mean you should The Responsibility Process go home for dinner. It means you should Model (Chris Avery) be conscious of your choice. 15
- 16. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility Assuming we get past each of these potholes, we find ourselves at responsibility. This is a state of mind where we take ownership for our situation. If things aren't as we prefer, we take action to change them. This state is the starting point for personal agility. 16
- 17. Accept personal Learn Agile Define Success responsibility Responsibility is not just a character Responsibility trait/flaw. It's a mental process operating identically in everyone Justify Obligation The process can be observed, learned, taught, studied, developed, modeled, Quit Denial and practiced Shame Lay Blame Any willing individual, team, or organization can practice responsibility at ever higher levels The Responsibility Process Model (Chris Avery) The Responsibility Process is most useful when self-applied. It backfires when used to Lay Blame on others 17
- 18. Individuals and Interactions over Process and Tools Personal Agility brings back the focus on individuals. Individual responsibility is the bedrock of Personal Agility. Self-directed teams aligned to a clear goal are the essence of agile behavior and the engine behind stunning results teams claim for Agile. Individual responsibility is a prerequisite to such agile interactions. Without team members being responsible, there is little chance for Agile practices (or any practices) to have a significant positive effect upon a teams effectiveness. 18
- 19. Unlock and master your own personal responsibility within the Agile environment with a three-step process CONFRONT Face yourself to see what is true that you can learn, AWARENESS correct, or improve Catch yourself in the mental states of Denial, Lay Blame, Justify, Shame, Obligation, and Quit INTENTION Intend to respond from Responsibility when things go wrong 19