Learn how to apply Agile practices to change management and organizational development. This presentation was given at the Toronto Organizational Development Network meetup in March 2014.

1. Agile Change Management
Jason Little - jason@leanintuit.com
@jasonlittle
www.agilecoach.ca

2. Get to Know Each Other!
@JASONLITTLE
Arrange yourselves in groups of no more than 5
people
Fill out the information sheets
Introduce yourself to the group
5 minutes

3. Determine Your Team Score
@JASONLITTLE
Designate a score keeper for your table
For each unique answer on your information sheets,
give your team 1 point
Example: If there are 4 people at your table with
different names, give your team 4 points
3 minutes

4. Go Forth and Self-Organize!
@JASONLITTLE
Goal: Maximize your diversity score across the whole room.
4 minutes

5. Round 2!
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Goal: Try and increase the overall score!
4 minutes

6. About Me
@JASONLITTLE
www.leanchange.org
www.agiletransformation.ca
developer
project manager
manager
consultant
Finnish sauna surviver
change artist
writer, speaker

7. 2001
4 VALUES
12 PRINCIPLES
In the Beginning…
@JASONLITTLE

8. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools!
Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation!
Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation!
Responding to Change over Following a Plan
The Agile Manifesto
@JASONLITTLE
While we recognize there is value in the statements on the
right, we value the statements on the left more.

9. AGILE
“Methodologies” were born…
@JASONLITTLE
LEANKANBAN
SCRUM BDD
CRYSTAL
SAFE
DAD

10. …with certifications
@JASONLITTLE
I knight thee…
Certified Scrum Master!

11. What have you heard about Agile?
@JASONLITTLE

12. So, What is Agile?
@JASONLITTLE
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3
AgileTraditional
Customer Feedback Customer Feedback
Customer Feedback

13. Hoooold it!
@JASONLITTLE
Software development != Construction
!
Change Management != Construction

14. http://stateofagile.versionone.com/scale-agile-implementation/
Why companies go Agile
@JASONLITTLE
1. Accelerate time to market
2. Manage changing priorities
3. Better alignment between IT and Business

15. AGILE
YOUR
ORGANIZATION
Agile isn’t about “Agile”, it’s about change
@JASONLITTLE

16. http://stateofagile.versionone.com/scale-agile-implementation/
But after 13 years we have some problems…
@JASONLITTLE

17. …looks like change management does too
@JASONLITTLE
70%http://www.onirik.com.au/industry/cracking-the-code-of-change/

18. lack of ‘structured process’
@JASONLITTLE
http://www.onirik.com.au/industry/cracking-the-code-of-change/

19. Unpredictable nature of people
@JASONLITTLE
http://www.onirik.com.au/industry/cracking-the-code-of-change/

20. The Solution?
@JASONLITTLE
The Standard

21. um, no.
@JASONLITTLE

22. How can Agile help?
@JASONLITTLE
1. Visibility
2. Feedback-driven planning
3. Co-creation of change
4. Acceptance of complexity and un-certainty

23. Visibility
@JASONLITTLE
“If you’re doing change management in
your office, with the door closed, you’re
doing it wrong” - Heather Stagl, Enclaria

24. HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THIS VISUALIZATION?
Visibility
@JASONLITTLE

25. STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION CANVAS
Visibility
@JASONLITTLE

26. WORK THE CHANGE TEAM IS DOING
Visibility
@JASONLITTLE

27. TEAM HEALTH INDICATORS
Visibility
@JASONLITTLE

28. IMPEDIMENTS & ESCALATION PATH
Visibility
@JASONLITTLE

29. Visibility in HR and Change Management
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30. Feedback-driven planning - Daily Standups
@JASONLITTLE
http://itopskanban.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/img_1115.jpg

31. Feedback-driven planning - Retrospectives
@JASONLITTLE

32. Don’t forget the remote folks!
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33. Feedback-driven planning - Lean Coffee
@JASONLITTLE

34. @JASONLITTLE
Feedback-driven planning - System Feedback

35. @JASONLITTLE
Feedback-driven planning - System Feedback

36. Co-creation of change
@JASONLITTLE
WHAT’S HOLDING
BACK THE CHANGE? HOW CAN WE
CONTRIBUTE?
WHAT SUPPORTDO WE NEED?

37. Acceptance of Complexity & Uncertainty
@JASONLITTLE
organizational
change lives
here…
and here…
and
sometimes
here…
but never
here

38. Applying Agile practices to change
@JASONLITTLE
Visibility:
- make your plans transparent
- use daily stand ups from Scrum to manage work
Feedback-driven planning:
- listen to the system and derive tactical plans from feedback
- use Agile retrospectives to collect insights
Co-Create Change:!
- involve the people affected by the change in the design of the chan
- Reduce the Cognitive Gap by spending less time on planning in
isolation
Embrace Un-certainty:!
- lighter-weight planning tools still generate plans!
- Law of Requisite Variety

39. How’s it going so far?
@JASONLITTLE
What have you liked? What have you not liked?
What questions do you hope to have answered?
5 minutes

40. A new model - Lean Change Management
@JASONLITTLE
Behaviour &
Neuroscience
Agile Community
Change Management &
Org Dev
ComplexityThinking
Lean Startup

41. Insights - Understand your system
@JASONLITTLE
ADKAR Assessment
Cultural Assessments (OCAI, Schneider)
Agile Retrospectives
Lean Coffee
Culture Hacking
SCARF - understand resistance
Satir/MBTI - understand responses to change

42. Pick the Options most likely to work
@JASONLITTLE
Agile: Big visible planning tools
SCARF: which Options minimize a threat response?
Kotter: create urgency through Lean Coffee
ADKAR: create awareness via big visible charts
McKinsey 7S: understand complex adaptive systems

43. Experiment and Validate
@JASONLITTLE
Lean Startup: measure experiments, not
vanity metrics
Agile: involve people affected by the change
in the design
Agile: use Kanban for managing and
visualizing the change plan
Kotter: tag Experiments as “quick win” or
“long term”
BJ Fogg - spark motivation or make change
easier

44. #AAB14
STRATEGY
ALIGNMENT
EXECUTION
DEVELOP A FEEDBACK-DRIVEN APPROACH TO CHANGE
The How-to Guide
@JASONLITTLE

45. FRAGMENTATION WWW.THEPRIMES.COM
“RESISTANCE!
TO!CHANGE”
LACK OF
MANAGEMENT
SUPPORT
NO URGENCY!
TO!
CHANGE
LACK OF CLEAR!VISION
Why transformational change is so hard
@JASONLITTLE

46. NO CHANGE!
MANAGEMENT
WITH CHANGE!
MANAGEMENT
WWW.THEPRIMES.COMCOHESION
Fumbling around in the dark
@JASONLITTLE

47. 1
WHAT IS THE VISION FOR THE CHANGE?
HOW WILL WE HELP PEOPLE TRANSITION?
HOW WILL WE MEASURE success?
WHY IS THIS CHANGE IMPORTANT TO THE
ORGANIZATION??
WHICH PEOPLE AND DEPARTMENTS ARE AFFECTED BY THIS CHANGE?
HOW WILL WE DEMONSTRATE PROGRESS?
WHAT’S OUR
PLAN?
PREPARE INTRODUCENEXT1 MONTH
AWAY
REVIEW
TRANSFORMATION
CANVAS
Making strategy visible
@JASONLITTLE

48. 2
Validate with
people affected
by the change
WHAT IS SUPPORTING THIS CHANGE?
WHAT IS HOLDING THIS CHANGE BACK?
HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THIS VISION?
WHAT SUPPORT DO YOU NEED TO CONTRIBUTE?
Feedback-driven planning
@JASONLITTLE

49. 2
USE FEEDBACK TO !
ADJUST THE
TRANSFORMATION!
CANVAS
Validate with
people affected
by the change
WHAT IS SUPPORTING THIS CHANGE?
WHAT IS HOLDING THIS CHANGE BACK?
HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THIS VISION?
WHAT SUPPORT DO YOU NEED TO CONTRIBUTE?
Feedback-driven planning
@JASONLITTLE

50. 3
value
cost
HIGH COST,!
HIGH VALUE
CHANGE AFFECTS
MULTIPLE
DEPARTMENTS
- IE: CHANGE FUNDING
MODEL
LOW COST,!
HIGH VALUE
CHANGE AFFECTS 1 TEAM
OR DEPARTMENT
- IE: PILOT PROGRAM
Co-creating change
@JASONLITTLE

51. 3
WHAT’S OUR
PLAN?
PREPARE INTRODUCENEXT
1 MONTH AWAY
REVIEW
COMMUNICATION WORK
TRAINING WORK
COACHING WORK
Satisfy our need for certainty
@JASONLITTLE

52. 2 VALIDATE WITH!
PEOPLE
AFFECTED!
BY CHANGE
MULTI-TIERED RETROSPECTIVES
LEAN COFFEE
FIND EARLY ADOPTERS
CREATE !
CANVAS1
CREATE
TACTICAL!
PLAN DELEGATION BOARD
EXECUTE WITH SCRUM?
KANBANIZE?
3
MAKE A BIG!
VISIBLE ROOM
MEET AT THE WALL
NO STATUS REPORTS!
4
EXPERIMENT!
WITH CHANGES
IMPROVEMENT CANVASES
DELIBERATE SLACK
5
REVISE !
CANVAS
6
The Big Picture
@JASONLITTLE

53. WHAT cHANGE ARE WE MAKING?
WHY IS THIS CHANGE IMPORTANT TO THE ORGANIZATION?
HOW WILL WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
We are adopting agile and lean methods to build a product
development organization that delivers valuable solutions
to the market in 6 months or less.
- Motivate staff by removing constraints from existing processes!
- To prevent business from sourcing vendors because it is too slow !
- Our business partners feel we’re too slow and too expensive
- Reduce median project delivery time from 11 months to 6 months!
- Employee engagement scores
An Example
@JASONLITTLE

54. HOW WILL WE SHOW PROGRESS?
WHO IS AFFECTED BY THE CHANGE?
HOW WILL WE SUPPORT PEOPLE THROUGH THE TRANSITION?
# of teams adopting new practices!
Agile fluency model as a guide!
Everybody!!!!
- Weekly lean coffee!
- Employee-led transformation team supported by external coaches!
- Change champions team (early adopters)!
- Monthly retrospective involving all teams!
- Executive steering committee and impediment escalation process
An Example
@JASONLITTLE

55. Another example
@JASONLITTLE
courtesy of Gerry Kirk - www.gerrykirk.net

56. An Example: Aligning teams
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57. TEAM VISION
STRONG SUPPORT
WHAT IS WORKING AGAINST THE CHANGE?WHAT IS SUPPORTING THE CHANGE?
SEVERE BLOCK
OPTIONS PREPARE INTRODUCE REVIEW
COST
VALUE
??
prioritization of work
too much business pressure (hard dates/scope)
“lower cost” shouldn’t come at the expense of quality
lack of connection between teams and management
lots of dependancies
transparency of the transformation (IE: big visible wall!), coaching for business teams, agile education for support and governance
teams (soa, change management etc), follow Scrum (org guidelines), stop fixing date and scope
- learn how to make smaller stories
- better release planning (currently
planning sprint to sprint only)
- come to meetings more well prepared
- team take responsibility for SOA
decisions, Env Mgnt
- identify dependancies with other teams
- work on creating better
stories

58. STAFF MUST KNOW WHY VP TRANSFORMATION CANVAS
EMPLOYEES MUST OWN THE CHANGE EMPLOYEE-LED TRANSFORMATION
TEAM, CHANGE AGENT NETWORK
OUTSIDE SUPPORT INTERNAL TEAM SUPPORTED BY EXTERNAL COACHES
What makes a good change management program?
@JASONLITTLE

59. COMMUNICATION LEAN COFFEE, MULTI-TIERED RETROSPECTIVES,
BIG VISIBLE ROOM
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY TRAINING, COACHING AGREEMENTS,
MANAGEMENT 3.0, AGILE JEOPARDY (SOON…)
ENGAGED EXECUTIVES EXECS ATTEND LEAN COFFEE AND RETROS, GEMBA!
@JASONLITTLE
What makes a good change management program?

60. FEEDBACK-DRIVEN APPROACH TO PLANNING!
!
APPLYING AGILE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT IDEAS!
!
MAKING IT FUN!!!
!
NOT SOLEY RELIANT ON COACHES/CONSULTANTS!
!
COACHES AND EMPLOYEES ALIGNED VIA COACHING STANCE
AGREEMENT!
!
TRANSFORMATION TEAM IS BUILDING/SUPPORTING THEIR OWN
ROADMAP/CHANGE PROCESS
Why Lean Change Management is a better approach
@JASONLITTLE

61. Which do you prefer?
@JASONLITTLE
Option 1: Lean Coffee about today’s topics
!
Option 2: Practice building a change canvas
!
Option 3: understand why motivating people to change is
hard

62. The Canvas
@JASONLITTLE
WHAT CHANGE ARE WE MAKING?
HOW WILL WE HELP PEOPLE TRANSITION?
HOW WILL WE MEASURE success?
WHY IS THIS CHANGE IMPORTANT TO THE ORGANIZATION??
WHICH PEOPLE AND DEPARTMENTS ARE AFFECTED BY THIS CHANGE?
HOW WILL WE DEMONSTRATE PROGRESS?
WHAT’S OUR
PLAN?
PREPARE INTRODUCENEXT1 MONTH
AWAY
REVIEW

63. Feedback
@JASONLITTLE
On a sticky note, please write…
1) How valuable was this session on a scale from 1 to 10?
2) Optional: leave a comment about how I could make it
perfect next time

64. LEARN HOW TO COMBINE
INNOVATIVE IDEAS FROM:!
!
- LEAN STARTUP
- CHANGE MANAGEMENT
- NEUROSCIENCE
- AGILE AND LEAN
- ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT!
!
GET A SAMPLE CHAPTER AT
WWW.LEANCHANGE.ORG
www.leanchange.org
@JASONLITTLE