Tag Archive for: agile transformation

Webinar: Human Factors in Agile Transformations

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Are we paying attention to the important human factors of coherence, psychological safety, and trust that connect us in the virtual and physical spaces where we gather? In July, agile42 coach Michèle Twomey, alongside our special guest Sonja Blignaut from More Beyond, explored this question and some of the hybrid models we are testing that enable essential human contact during agile transitions.

Michéle kicked off our two-part series on "Human Factors in Agile Transformations". In her video interview, Michéle gave us her take on Gerald M. Weinberg's statement: “all problems are people problems”. She also delved into what human factors one needs to consider in agile transformations as well as her sources of inspiration in her own journey of understanding human factors.

Let's automate what needs to be automated and let's start thinking about where that human magic can really become valuable.

- Michéle Twomey

Next up, Sonja shared her insights on human factors within the realm of "complexity". She addressed the notion that, if we force too much change on people, we compromise their sense of coherence. Ultimately she believes we need to think about limiting the change in progress, the same way we limit work in progress within agile transformations. Listen to Sonja's video interview HERE.

Michéle and Sonja joined forces in our webinar on the 28th of July. The session raised many pressing issues we are currently facing, particularly around the expectation of always being available, always being online, and the important element of trust within the workplace. The audience had the opportunity to engage with their own questions, some of which included:

  • Given a new team who can only work remotely, what would you suggest to build trust?
  • I miss the spontaneous corridor discussions that have in the past been the space where the most impact has been made. Have you seen anything that could substitute this space in the current situation when we're all remote?
  • What do you think helps some people handle digitisation better than others?
  • How is the link between the personality type of the leaders vs the human factor taken into consideration or not?

In the same way you put in place WIP limits, you need to put in change in progress limits. It's like a dam with sleuths - if you don't think carefully about how much water you let out, you flood the downstream.

- Sonja Blignaut

If you missed out on the live session, we have the recording for you here - please feel free to share around with your network. 

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Part 2: Human Factors in Agile Transformations

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Our long-time partner, Sonja Blignaut from More Beyond, shares her insights on human factors within the realm of "complexity". She addresses the notion that, if we force too much change on people, we compromise their sense of coherence. Ultimately we need to think about limiting the change in progress, the same way we limit work in progress within agile transformations.

Watch the full interview below:

Watch the recording of Sonja's webinar on "Human Factors in Agile Transformations".

Gerald M. Weinberg said, “all problems are people problems”. What do you make of that statement?

I think the best answer I can give is my favourite answer in complexity, and that is “it depends”. I don’t think we can remove context from that question. The reality is, that both the people as well as the problems are entangled in many different ways we can’t fully understand. 

So, I will counter with another quote by W. Edwards Deming who said: “85% of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and processes rather than the employee”. He then continues to say that the role of management, therefore, is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better. I really like that because it brings together the idea of people and the context, the systems and processes they are embedded in, and how they are co-creating problems rather than just saying “it’s all about the people”.  

What human factors does one need to consider in agile transformations?

In terms of the human factors that we need to consider for agile transformations, I think there are many, however, I will highlight a few and in our webinar, we will discuss more. Firstly we need to consider the anxiety that many people experience when we force too much change on them. It’s a bit paradoxical how we relate to change. Sometimes we seek out novelty and change and other times when it is forced on us, it creates a lot of anxiety and I think sometimes we forget about that. 

One of my favourite frameworks to help me think through the human aspects of change is by Aaron Antonovsky. He created a framework called “individual sense of coherence”. There is much evidence that this has a strong relationship with the collective or organisational resilience. So he talks about three factors that make up an individual sense of coherence, which in essence means that individuals could feel that their internal &external worlds make sense. 

The first factor is “comprehensibility”:

  • Can I understand what is going on? 
  • Can I make sense of it?

The second is “manageability”:

  • Do I feel that I’ve got the internal and external resources & skills to be able to cope with what is happening?

 The third one is “meaningfulness”:

  • Does it feel meaningful?
  • Am I motivated to engage?
  • Can I find meaning in what I am doing? 

I think what happens very often is if we force too much change on people, we compromise their sense of coherence.

What is the role of decision makers in the context of an agile transformation?

From an organisational perspective and considering change in agile transformations, I think the role of an organisation and the decision-makers is to create environments and conditions where people’s sense of coherence can be maintained. 

One of the things that I’ve noticed in many of the companies I have worked with, is that we don’t consider from an upstream perspective the impact of our decisions and the amount of change we put into the system, downstream. Very often an executive would say: “but I’m only driving one project”. But that one project, with all of the various silos that are involved, comprises a huge amount of change downstream, for the people who are at the receiving end of this. So I feel we need to think about limiting the change in progress, the same way we limit work in progress. 

What have been your sources of inspiration in your own journey of understanding human factors?

I am naturally a curious person, so I draw inspiration from multiple places. However, in general, my main source of inspiration is the various theorists and thinkers who work in the field of complexity. So I tend to see everything through the lens of complexity. 

Then also anthropologists like Gillian Tett and Aaron Antonovsky, and the field of systems psychodynamics and how social-technical systems work and all the various unconscious processes that happen there. And finally, my latest area of interest comes from biologists and how they are starting to look at flow and then also from the world of sports coaches.

So as you can see I’m drawing from multiple places and I look forward to seeing you at our webinar.  

Watch the recording of Sonja's webinar on "Human Factors in Agile Transformations".

*Click here to read Part 1 blog post* 

Part 1: Human Factors in Agile Transformations

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agile42 coach, Michéle Twomey, kicks off this two-part series on "Human Factors in Agile Transformations". In this video interview, Michéle gives us her take on Gerald M. Weinberg's statement: “all problems are people problems”. She also delves into what human factors one needs to consider in agile transformations as well as her sources of inspiration in her own journey of understanding human factors.

Watch the full interview below:

Watch the recording of Michéle's webinar on "Human Factors in Agile Transformations".

Gerald M. Weinberg said, “all problems are people problems”. What do you make of that statement?

Just last week in a call someone mentioned: “We the people are the greatest obstacle to our change journey”. And yes, the problems seem to appear or become visible between people. This “between people” is how we connect and relate to each other; how we engage and collaborate with each other; how we think and communicate our thoughts with each other. So the space between what’s communicated both verbally and non-verbally and what is heard, perceived, understood, and interpreted on the other side, is what’s interesting. 

The quality of this in-between space strongly depends on the connection to self. My self-awareness of what am I bringing into this space is tremendously important. So I believe that the space in between is where the potential lies and all possibilities are people possibilities. 

What human factors does one need to consider in agile transformations?

Well, humans have different needs and values, but fundamentally people thrive when they belong and are part of a greater shared purpose, are given autonomy and an opportunity for mastery. So in an agile transition, an interesting question to explore is: “how are we intentionally creating and holding spaces for people to connect and relate to the why of an agile transition, to engage and collaborate towards a shared purpose through an agile transition”.

Now more than ever, we should be paying attention to how digital processes and electronic communication tools are reducing the shared experience of the “in-between spaces” where possibilities are born. See when I connect with you remotely through a screen or as an avatar, I no longer share an experience with you in a physical space. I am not able to shake your hand - not just to physically shake your hand but to be able to sense energetically who’s inside that hand. All of this information I believe - all of this auditory, tactile, energetic information is what contributes to the psychological safety and trust between people. 

What have been your sources of inspiration in your own journey of understanding human factors?

My greatest inspiration has been the “gestalt” approach. “Gestalt” meaning “form” or “shape” and “gestalt” sees humans as more than brain and intellect, so connecting mind, body, and spirit energy and also an awareness of energy between people and the possibility of what forms and shapes might emerge in that energy space between people. 

This relates to another inspiration from Dr. Gabor Maté and his work. Where he speaks of people as an embodiment of creative adaptations from past biographical experiences. So knowing self, being connected to self, and being very aware of what are my defenses, what are my triggers, and what am I bringing into this space between people is an important factor when connecting with others around me. 

There are some key themes between “gestalt” and agile transitions that speak to me and one of them is taking personal responsibility as well as the here and now and focusing on how we show up and the quality of how we show up in a space between people.

Watch the recording of Michéle's webinar on "Human Factors in Agile Transformations".

*Click here to read Part 2 blog post*

An agile leadership mindset

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Executive Agile Coach, Andrea Tomasini, was invited by “The Product Bakery Podcast” to do a podcast on leadership mindset development.

Empirical process control and understanding people are Andrea’s biggest passions. In this episode, Andrea shares his deep experience and best practices on Agile transitions, the challenges one faces and what companies and leaders can do to better manage uncertainty. Understand what agile is really all about and how to develop and implement an agile mindset in your teams and company.

A fool with a tool is still a fool!

– Andrea Tomasini

 

Listen to the full interview here:

Agenda

  • 0:30 – Intro Andrea

  • 08:40 – People over processes & tools

  • 14:45 – ORGANIC agility & understanding people/culture

  • 24:25 – Becoming more agile as a leader

  • 28:31 – Experimenting in safe to fail environments

  • 33:25 – Trust as the basis for change & transformation

  • 42:15 – The 3 focus areas to introduce agility

  • 45:05 – 3 biggest mistakes of leaders

  • 48:25 – Debrief Alex & Christian

Validating Change in Small Increments

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A couple of weeks ago, on Feb 17th, I held a webinar on ORGANIC agility Principle #4: Validating Change in Small Increments. As you may know, ORGANIC agility is our meta-process or framework that you can apply to any organization in order to make it more self-organizing, agile and resilient. Principle #4 is the key component concerned with how to design and run experiments in a structured and directional manner.

This webinar was one of the last in our ongoing series on how to naturally transform an organization into something that is more flexible and resilient, however you can look forward to at least one more webinar touching on Principle #5 — more about that later.

Many organizations try to take a “fail-safe” approach to change, by e.g. buying a big model from a consulting agency, marketing the concept internally, and setting milestones. There’s so much money, ego and expectations attached that the change project will simply not be allowed to fail. The outcome can be summed up as the operation was a success although the patient died. The organization becomes agile-in-name-only, the change project is celebrated as a good investment, and would everyone please shut up, you are now agile, just sort it out and do it.

With this 4th principle, we propose that organizational change should be addressed in an agile way. We create transparency, then inspect and adapt our way by the use of small safe-to-fail experiments — small changes that people propose themselves. We reduce the risks and side-effects by leveraging something called “the adjacent possible" and the predispositions of the organization.

This allows the organization to:
  • Work strategically. Set a strategic goal and nudge the organization in the right direction slowly but surely, choosing known interventions as well as more experimental ones.
  • Remove the burden and risk of maintaining several co-existing systems of work for long periods of time. Small changes are easily understood, quickly piloted and rapidly integrated, minimizing the uncertainty, confusion and loss of effectiveness inherent in change.
  • Anchor results in the organization, as champions ask for volunteers to help define and run the experiments. By involving everyone and asking people to pull improvement work, we get more perspectives, ideas and options. We also get more certainty about the applicability of the results, and a wider acceptance throughout the organization.
  • Increase transparency. Everyone hates it when an organizational change program is unexpectedly announced by top management. By having a common strategic goal and a public list of ongoing experiments, everyone — including leaders — can see what is happening and facilitate work in that direction.
  • Base the improvements on organizational reality. We validate assumptions and hypotheses in a safe-to-fail environment, by running small, quick and inexpensive experiments. We can quickly react to emergent patterns and either reinforce or dampen them.
  • Gain a deeper understanding of the organization by studying repeating emergent patterns. The conditions that led a group of volunteers to achieve success in an experiment can be replicated to catalyse change in other parts of the organization.

During the webinar, we explored the concepts behind this principle and looked at some practical tools for managing organizational change in an agile way, including the Agile Strategy Map as well as Dave Snowden’s Safe-To-Fail Experiment canvas.

If you would like to go into more detail with us regarding these topics, please get in touch with us to schedule a call. We also suggest you join our agile42 Community to stay in touch and receive helpful and interesting insights from the agile42 team.

You are also welcome to have a look at our book ORGANIC agility Foundations: Leadership and Organization

If you missed the live session, don't panic! The recording is available online.
Feel free to watch it again and share with your network. It is also available on YouTube.

 

Below you will find the slides, with some further content. Please also feel free to share the slides around.

It was great to have you join our webinar, and see you at the next ones :)