7. Transforming Ways of Working
Gathering Advocates
A ReBoot Co. blog series that helps you & your teams discover a better way of working.
When I first came across Agile Software Development in the late 90s I was working as a developer in the UK, and my path came via a methodology called DSDM that we used on one of our client’s gigs. DSDM was represented by Arie van Bennekum in Snowbird in 2001 when the original authors of the Manifesto for Agile Software development gathered. (And Arie is still blogging about it! )
I worked at a consultancy. I was keen to try eXtreme Programming - XP, on a client gig. However, since we had never tried XP ourselves the company viewed it as risky. You may think ‘Agile’ is a triggering term, well ‘Extreme Programming’ the name, had much more of a stigma attached to it. Being reliable rather than ‘Extreme’ was considered a more virtuous trait in the 90s, probably because software projects failed to deliver on time, on budget or to scope more than 80% of the time.
They may have been justified not to let us loose with our level of inexperience, but at the time I was pretty annoyed, I was keen to learn by doing. DSDM was good for managing scope and stakeholders, but I thought XP would give so much more in terms of producing high quality software. So I started going to meetups hosted by members of the emerging Agile community.
Attending Meetups were and continue to be, excellent places to find people who knew more than me and could hook me up with places to visit, techniques to learn and people to network with, including ThoughtWorks people, who I joined as an employee later.
The different pockets of Agile communities are inclusive and a great resource to tap into. When I am at conferences, such as Agile Australia or LAST conference/Clubhouse, or at Meetups I feel like I’m with ‘my people’. This has expanded to Lean and Systems Thinking recently with meetups like Kanban Enthusiasts, various Lean Coffees and Systems at Play. These communities keep getting better.
But Meetups are more than just great resources. I noticed then and now that it’s more than just sharing knowledge that keeps people coming together. Social people need to belong. Although I knew that to be true, I wondered why that was, and delved a little deeper.
Social people need to belong
It seems as humans we have a deep need for social connections, it improves our happiness and emotional resilience. Here are four ways joining a group benefits us:
GROUP IDENTITY
Belonging to a group and feeling identified by that group, reduces the impact on us when we are attacked. We’ll recover more quickly if we experience negative bias towards the group. You’ve probably seen this play out when people attack Agile, Scrum or SAFe on social media. It’s a comfort to know you’re not alone in your opinions.
UNITED BY PURPOSE
Sharing a passion with a group you identify with gives a common purpose in pursuit of a goal. For example if you are forming a learning community around a particular technique or methodology, to collectively learn, you are incentivised to gather and learn together.
WE FEEL SUPPORTED
Not only are you more likely to receive support from a Group or Tribe you belong to, but you’re also more likely to value that support as meaningful.
WE ARE LESS LONELY
Belonging to a group enhances your social connection and finding a group with a common interest to you means you will naturally have more affinity to the members of the Tribe and a way of reinforcing positive relationships. This is very valuable in a world where anxiety, depression and loneliness are on the rise. Belonging improves your quality of life!
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United & Curious we Stand
Years later, around 2008 after finding Agility and ‘my people’ I was struggling trying to transform the company I was working for from the inside. I invited Richard Durnall from ThoughtWorks to come and talk to my two CEOs at the time. I wanted more people inside the company to be literate in contemporary ways of working.
Richard made a compelling case for change. They listened but it didn’t go as brilliantly as I’d hoped, and Richard could see my deflated expression when they didn’t jump at the opportunity like I wished they would. Rich said “Why don’t you form a little Agile Group from the people here that are interested?” His idea was to get the like-minded people together and see what we could do to advance knowledge and awareness.
Of course! It made perfect sense. How could I have forgotten how I got into this game in the first place!?
We formed as a small group in the beginning, with good pals Rachel Abel, Osvel Garza and Irene Chan among the first people that came together to spark Agility in that company. This went on to become one of the most enjoyable Transformations of my career, probably because of that initial group of volunteers who were united.
How Might We Gather like minded Advocates for Agile Transformation?
Gathering Advocates can be one of the most powerful and most enjoyable patterns to apply in boosting your Transformation Success. As usual some things work better than others and I’ve digested a few in a listicle here.
VOLUNTEERS
Working groups that are voluntary tend to get more traction. Centrally controlling your Agile movement may attract some scepticism from the workers in an organisation, it can be viewed as ‘pushing’ Agile onto people. Making it volunteer led maximises the chances of people coming to Agile curious and eager to get something positive for themselves out of it, rather than having to bend to the will of others and accommodate a big change.
Cycling the organising burden through different people can also work well, a group should share the load and even if there is minimal administration required, it’s good to distribute that throughout the group.
2. BACKLOGS WORK
Working from a backlog that can be prioritised will work for your advocacy group just as it does for any Agile team. Use a low friction tool like Trello to store topics that can form themes for when the group meets.
3. REGULAR ON A CADENCE
Having a regular get together can work wonders. For example a group who wants to support a very rapid move to Agility may want to have a weekly session to ensure teams are supported. A company that is Transforming over many months may enjoy a monthly meet-up as more of a slow burn. Having a regular cadence means you always have an upcoming opportunity to meet and learn from each other. Learning itself becomes continuous.
4. LOW FRICTION
I’ve learned that the more formal and prepared you have to be, the less likely you are to meet regularly and the more others resist helping run a group. Keep it low friction with a commitment that you’ll always meet, you’ll work from the backlog, and if preparation time has not been found then the group can work with a simple technique like a Lean Coffee or an Unconference to facilitate discussion.
5. FUN, FOOD, GAMES
Let’s keep it engaging, a myriad of games and activities exist to help learn about Lean and Agile ways of working, whether in person or remote. If you can gather together physically then some simple snacks or pizza will keep people coming back again and again. In the early days of meetups in London they were held after hours at an office with pizza provided, or at a bar with snacks and drinks afterwards. I think it made a difference to have that social element included - breaking bread together makes us feel more connected!
6. STUDY EXPEDITIONS
There’s a great tradition of people touring factories in Japan to view Lean systems of work in action. I have it on my career bucket list too! If Japan is a little over budget see if you can use contacts in the Agile and Lean meetup community and tour other local workplaces. I mentioned touring your CEO in the last blog , it also applies to your advocates, they will benefit from learning by visiting places too.
7. AN ACTIVE CHANNEL
For the time in-between meetups keep the conversation alive by sharing links, techniques, book recommendations, curiosity and organising your next catch up via a lively chat channel. Whatever is the norm at your workplace will work well. In the early days it was Yammer and Chatter, now MS Teams and Slack are the default. The tools change but the conversations are the same, just with greater emoji! An active channel is a good place to send new employees if they are looking for ‘their people’ to join.
8. INCLUSIVE
Keeping your group inclusive will ensure it grows and becomes a great resource for people to come, learn and spread advocacy. Avoid cliquish behaviour, or very expert topics that may deter beginners. Or at least make an effort to make advanced topics easy to digest and learn via the group. Encouraging diverse genders, ethnicities, age groups and skills will also make your group stronger, consider a charter for team values to make this explicit.
9. EXTERNAL GUEST PRESENTERS
When you know that you can get a decent sized crowd on a regular basis you can invite guest speakers to come and present at gatherings. This might be someone who wants to promote a book, or some expert that’s in town speaking at a conference. You may be able to trade a tour of the company or introduction to your executive team as a quid pro quo. If not, food and drink and organising the event might be enough of a draw card.
At ReBoot Co. we have an objective that is to “Foster a Vibrant Learning and Knowledge culture”. Since we’ve made it a focus we intentionally create opportunities to gather and share knowledge as a team. It’s one of my favourite things that we’ve ever made formal about our company. When we were fishing around to see if people wanted to engage in this, the best response came from Pablo, who I will quote here. “We are always better when we learn together”
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Next in this series - A Rising Tide lifts all boats. Making Everyone Smarter