Agile Influence: 8 Strategies to Empower You and Your Team As part of an agile team, we are frequently in situations in which we hope to positively impact outcomes through our daily interactions. People skills are in demand but what are the tools? What can you do to influence and make your team great? Rather than logical argument, cognitive science shows the need to speak to subconscious motivators rather than our rational side. We present the strategies. ​ About Joanna Plumpton I am on my continuous learning journey to develop as an Agile Coach. I have been involved professionally in application development for over 18 years, progressively fulfilling the roles of developer, team lead, development manager, business analyst, project & delivery manager, Agile Coach and Practice Manager in both Product Development and Consulting environments. About Andy Nguyen Andy is an agilist, coach, trainer, influencer and advocate, in constant struggle to challenge on the methodologies and the over-control of traditional management. Currently coaching new Scrum Masters and product owners and apply Agille methodologies across teams.

1. Volunteers needed
5 volunteers who can speak up about their decisions
1 Montreal Canadiens fan
First row volunteers

2. Agile Influence:
8 Strategies to Empower
You and Your Team
Andy Nguyen & Joanna Plumpton
Agile Tour Montreal 2016

3. In.flu.ence /’inflooәns/
“The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of
someone or something, or the effect itself.” Oxford English Dictionary
What’s your situation?
Team
• Circles & Soup - Introduced by Diana Larsen
• http://www.innovationgames.com/circles-
and-soup/
Organization
• Agile transformation
• Middle management challenges
• Introducing new ideas

4. Take Advantage of Shortcuts
• Information overload -> Apply shortcut in context -> Increased persuasion

5. Book References
• Influence: Science and Practice,
Robert B. Cialdini
• Fearless Change: Patterns for
Introducing New Ideas, Mary
Lynn Manns and Linda Rising
• Smarter, Faster, Better: The
Secrets of Being Productive in
Life and Business, Charles
Duhigg

6. 1.Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

15. Takeaways
When team members take initiatives – lead the way
Lead your team to the right initiative with the right questions
Team will be consistent and will congruently work on their
commitment
Even with wrong decision: experiment

16. Takeaways
Expose your team members public commitment
Retrospective
Written ideas > leads on a commitments on a
visible board
Have your team voice their commitments and
make them vote publicly
Definition of done
Displayed visibly

18. 1. Commitment
2.Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

24. Takeaways
Take care of your team first
Reach out first and sacrifice yourself as a leader
Beyond eating last, it’s to offer first
Do care in an empathic way
Time is more valuable than money

25. 1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3.Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

26. Describe the outcomes of a really BAD gameDescribe the outcomes of a really GOOD game

27. Count words occurrence for
Associate
We, us, our
Nous, on
Dissociate
They, them, the Canadians
Ils, eux, les Canadiens

29. conversions

30. 5 Minutes =>
Productivity

31. About
me…
Me too!
55%
Agreement
90% Agreement
+ more value

32. MEMEMEME
UUUU

33. “Just Say Thanks”

34. WIIFM? (What’s In It For Me)
• Know your teammates more informally
than formally
• Enable some initial chatter
• Set the stage – ice breakers
• Do informal events 5à7
• Use photos for remote team members
• Difficulty liking someone?
• Uncover that one aspect of an individual
that you genuinely respect
• Find common personal aspect
• Use positive association
• Ask someone well respected to endorse an
idea – even if they’re not an expert!
• Sincere, tailored, specific appreciations

35. 1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4.Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

39. 12% 18% 33%

40. The Default Rule
• Explicit consent (~5-25%)
• Presumed consent (~85-99%)

41. OK… But how can I use this?
Proximity of behaviour:
• Introduce a new engineering
practice - show success from
another company / your
company / your department
Encouraging the behaviours we
want to see:
• Default – automated reporting
for your lean governance

42. 1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5.Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

43. How much is this mug?
You own this mug, how
much would you sell it for?
You do NOT own this mug,
how much would you pay for
it?

47. Takeaways
Management and executives hate loss aversion
The feeling of missing out on expectations:
Project investment
Abstraction of the issues at hand
Public shame (accountability)
Having a hard time selling quality initiatives: unit testing,
pair programming or mob programming?
New agile practice?

50. 1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6.Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

54. Experiment
High conflict between two groups
Resolutions
Mix up the group composition
More cohesion: mix up kids with the sleeping areas
Make the conditions worse
Believe there is a common hardship

62. Takeaways
What were your best days at work?
Common hardship unites the team
Failure (or pseudo-failure) is an option
It is how you lead a comeback as a leader
One failed sprint for subsequent successful sprints

67. Takeaways
Psychological safety
Have you set the stage for safety: Can we talk about
failures?
Have everyone expressed anything
Is a team member shunned for expressing an opinion?
As SM, you are the facilitator but the leader to a
positive outlook

68. 1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7.Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

72. Internal vs External

73. What’s one step I can try?
• At retrospective:
• Positively recognize and call out
practice and effort
• Have a thank-you or congratulate
section on the wall
• Refuse the labelling of a team
member
• Change perspective when
discouraged:
• Help the team see they have
choices and options

74. 1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8.Authority - Expertise

75. +20%
Appointments
+15%
Signed
Contracts

76. Compliance

77. “Guru on Your Side”
HOW? Ask…
“I know you’re the local <topic> guru but I also know that you’re
interested in new things, so I thought you’d like to hear about
the conference I attended last week…”

78. What can I do?
• Before trying to influence, first reveal
or uncover your credentials
• Introduce new team members
• Guru patterns – help create a
community with technical credibility
and spread the word

79. Wrap Up
Small, practical, costless changes that can lead us to influence others in an ethical way

80. Influence Strategy Cheat Sheet
1. Commitment
2. Reciprocation
3. Liking
4. Social Proof – Consensus
5. Loss Aversion
6. Common Challenge
7. Motivation – Growth Mindset
8. Authority - Expertise

81. Questions?
Thank you!
Andy Nguyen
andynguyen@technologist.com
Joanna Plumpton
joanna@plumpton.name
jplumpto@teksystems.com