Todd Wilson Presentation AgileCamp Dallas 2015

1. Mindful Agile
Transformation
Framework
Todd Wilson
todd@mindfulATF.com
(702) 290-5210

2. What is Mindful
ATF
An adaptive organizational
development framework that
bridges agility and
organizational development
empowering leaders to drive
sustainable change.
Evolutionary

3. How Mindful
ATF Works
Explains and Exposes
Environment & Phenomenon
Rather Than
Simplify and Reducing
Complexity

4. Today’s
Intention
Introduction to missing
components necessary for a
sustainable agile
transformation.
Sneak Peak

5. Synthesis of Mindful
ATF
• Thought Leadership
• Mindfulness
• Clearing
• Upsets
• Adaptive
• Perspectives
• Socialization
• Agility
• Maturity Continuums
• Phenomenology
• Ontology
• Leadership
• Consciousness
• Neroscience
• Cognition
• Cynefin (Kanevin)
• Psychology
• Spiral Dynamics
• Finite & Infinite
• Presencing
• Emotional
Intelligence
• Distinctions
• Change & OD

6. The Need
Complexity of
Organizations
LEADING CAUSES OF FAILED AGILE
PROJECTS
SURVEY
“In cases where agile projects were unsuccessful,
most respondents pointed to lack of experience
with agile methods (44%). Of note, two of the top
five causes of failure were related to company
culture – company philosophy or culture at odds
with core agile values at 42% and lack of support
for cultural transition at 36%”
(Version One 9th Annual State of Agile Survey)COMPLICATED / COMPLEX
SURVEY
Complicated: Stratified Reductionism, highly
efficient predictable and repeatable processes at
scale
(Fredric Taylor, Scientific Management)
Complex: System approach, high dependencies,
less predictable, speed to resolution
(McCrystal, Team of Teams)
CULTURE
The behaviors and beliefs
characteristic of a particular
social, ethnic, or age group:

7. What is changing?
• People
• Process
• Structure
• Strategy
• Reward
Star Change Model (http://www.jaygalbraith.com/images/pdfs/StarModel.pdf)
People
Environment
Leadership
Practices
Performance
Structure
Processes
Culture

8. Institutionalizing Change
John Kotter
1. Create Urgency
2. Build Guiding Coalition
3. Form Vision
4. Raise an Army
5. Enable Army
6. Generate Short Term Wins
7. Sustain Acceleration
8. Institutionalize the Change (succession)
www.kotterinternational.com

9. Who is responsible?
Executives
Sr Leadership
Managers
Team Members
Executive Team
Guiding Coalition
Thought Leadership
Team Membership
Network Node & Fail Over

10. Executive Team
• Create Urgency
• Build Guiding Coalition
• Form Vision
• Raise an Army
Continuum Workshop
Exposes maturity continuums
Defines the guiding coalition
Develops a transformation vision
Empowers the coalition
Reveal the System

11. Maturity Continuums
Leadership
TransformationalTransactional
Command &
Control
Adaptive
Principles
&
Practices
Process &
Reductionist
Idealized influence attributed
to charisma, idealized
influence behavior attributed
to beliefs and values,
inspirational motivation,
intellectual stimulation,
individualized consideration
Contingent rewards,
management-by-
exception passive,
management-by-
exception

12. Human Development
Continuum (Don Edward Beck, Spiral Dynamics)

13. Transformation Vision
ptive unlike HR Programs of the past Mindful ATF bridges agility,

14. Guiding Coalition
Enable the army
Generate short term wins
Sustain Acceleration
Institutionalize Change
• Seek out opportunity for agile adoption and transformation
• Prioritize agile adoption efforts
• Provide resources for areas of opportunity
• Create goals for adoption efforts (% of agile teams etc)
• Remove program and portfolio level impediments
WHAT
HOW

15. Thought Leaders
Enable the army
Sustain Acceleration
Institutionalize Change
WHAT
HOW
• Create possibilities within the areas of opportunity
• Distinguish environmental phenomenon enabling
mindful and tactical interventions
• Shape environment enabling acceleration of teams
• Prioritize interventions

16. How it works together
Building Thought Leaders
Building Executive Team
Building Guiding Coalitions

17. Know your Self
• Multiple Mind
• Multiple
Perspectives
• Find Authentic Self
Values System
Perspectives
Bias &
Judgement
Cognitive
Dissonance
Presencing
Breakthrough
Val
Mary
Mike
“Most fun doing the most amount of work”
“2 x 120”
“I stand for the success of others”

18. Know your Work
• Find Authentic
Work
• Socialize to
Current Work
(as needed)
Authentic
Self
Distinctions
Judgement
(Free)
Cynicism
(Free)
Let Go
Breakthrough
Cause in the Matter
Contribution
Compassion
Stand for Others Success
All Possibilites
Nothing hidden, no distance
Fix systems not people
Open Mind
Open Heart
Open Will
Mike: 1st vs 2nd
Harmony is hard
Melody is easy

19. Understand Contextual
Phenomenon
• Environment
• Leadership
• Motivations
• Performance
• Mindset
• Value Systems &
Culture
Distinction
Inquire
InsightBreakthrough
Socialize
Institutionalize
Cause in the Matter
Contribution
Compassion
Stand for Others Success
All Possibilites
Nothing hidden, no distance
Fix systems not people

20. Beliefs & Fallacy Logic
• Default Mode is to arrive at beliefs (emotional)
• Our brains reward us (dopamine)
• Brains have several levels, primitive and evolved
• The frontal lobe of the neocortex is the most recently evolved
• The brain stem is most primitive (breathing, balance)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Satisfy the most primitive needs first
• Most of our thinking is subconscious thinking
• Beliefs live in the subconscious brain

21. Changing Belief
• People find it difficult to
change long held beliefs
• Mindful ATF substitutes new
dopamine hits for old beliefs Authentic
Self
Distinctions
Judgement
(Free)
Cynicism
(Free)
Let Go
Breakthrough
Cause in the Matter
Contribution
Compassion
Stand for Others Success
All Possibilites
Nothing hidden, no distance
Fix systems not people
Open Mind
Open Heart
Open Will
Motivation location

22. Needs & Motivations
• Control (we are not victims of the universe
• Simplicity (as means of control)
• Stereotypes (boil things down)
• There Meaning for our lives (superstition)
• Big effects must have big causes (JFK or 911)
• Ego (adaptive - occurring world is shaped by ego)
• Avoid social embarrassment (avoid inconsistency)
• Resist admitting error (threats ego)

23. Cognitive Dissonance
• Holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time
• Avoid it through compartmentalizing
• Update both or one belief (rationalize belief)

24. Seek Reason not
Rationalization
• Rationalization: Having an outcome and finding
support for that outcome
• Reason: having data that develops an outcome
We fool ourselves with rationalization!!!

25. Deceiving the Brain
• Senses are constructed
• Perceptions are not
passive they are
reconstructed
We see what’s not there
We draw connections
Patter Recognition
Confabulation- fills in blanks

26. Expose Perceptions
• We are biased by our perceptions. To have an open
mind Mindful ATF expose perceptions
• Language as Filters
• Knowing what filters to remove…accelerates
consciousness
• Build new filters

27. Building New
Filters
Practices build
cognitive ability
Authentic
Self
Distinctions
Judgement
(Free)
Cynicism
(Free)
Let Go
Breakthrough
Cause in the Matter
Contribution
Compassion
Stand for Others Success
All Possibilites
Nothing hidden, no distance
Fix systems not people
Open Mind
Open Heart
Open Will

28. Removing The Unnecessary
Listening
Screens
Clearing Cognitive
Dissonance
Preventing Upsets
Seek to understand
Rather to be understood

29. Shaping Occurring World
• Once Self is known then
effectively shaping the system
is possible
• Ontological self is adaptive
and can sculpt Occurring
world for others
• Knowing what to take away…

30. Expose the World
People
Mindset
Consciousness
Values
Listening
Environment
Culture
Expectations
Leadership
Socialization
Phenomenon Interventions
Environment
Leadership
Motivation
Performance
Mindset
Culture …
Knowledge
Process
Practices
Principles
Composition
Structure …
ConcretePlan
Envision
Goals, Objectives, Measures

31. Cynefin (Kanevin) Model by Dave Snowden
"Cynefin" is the state of
being influenced by
multiple pasts of which we
can only be partly aware:
cultural, religious,
geographic, tribal, etc. “It
describes that relationship:
the place of your birth and
of your upbringing, the
environment in which you
live and to which you are
naturally acclimatised.”Default Decision

32. Sense making not
Categorization Decision Model
• Obvious - relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all, the
approach is to Sense - Categorize - Respond and we can apply best practice.
• Complicated, in which the relationship between cause and effect requires
analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert
knowledge, the approach is to Sense - Analyze - Respond and we can apply good
practice.
• Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be
perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe - Sense -
Respond and we can sense emergent practice.
• Chaotic, in which there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems
level, the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and we can discover novel
practice.

33. Mindfulness
1. The quality or state of being conscious or aware of
something.
2. A mental state achieved by focusing one's
awareness on the present moment, while calmly
acknowledging and accepting one's feelings,
thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a
therapeutic technique.

34. Mindfulness
Practices
• Exposing Distinctions
• Establishing Axioms (self-evidently true.)
• Presencing (Theory U)

35. Educate Yourself
Learning - is finite
Education is infinite
Thank you,
todd@mindfulATF.com (702) 290-5210