We know that organisational culture can be shaped by the worst behaviours leaders are willing to tolerate, but can culture be shaped by the best behaviours that leaders are willing to amplify? How can Tech Leaders function as coach, business driver, purveyor of purpose and enabler for their teams? What is the balance between “getting out of the way” and enabling self-organising teams to contribute and thrive within their ecosystem? What questions do great Agile leaders ask themselves about decision making, communication, delivery, learning, rewarding right behaviour and innovation?

1. Effective Agile Leadership:
A practical model for Agile Managers
Katrina Kolt
Agile Coach,
Latitude Financial Services

2. Impediments to Agile Adoption
VersionOne State of Agile Survey 2015
Image: Used with permission - AxisAgile.com.au/scrumtroopers
Lack of management support
Company philosophy or culture at odds
with core Agile values
External pressure to follow traditional
Waterfall processes
Lack of support for cultural transition

4. Complicated = not simple, but ultimately knowable
Jurgen Appelo

5. Photo: bcamm - Forest Stream on Mt Donna Buang near Warburton

6. Complex systems exhibit:
• Feedback loops
• Spontaneous order
• Hierarchical organisation
• Emergent organisation
• Numerosity – indefinite quantity of individuals

7. Complex = not simple and never fully knowable, given that too many
variables interact.
Jurgen Apello

8. A complex adaptive system is a dynamic network of interactions.
It is a system in which individual and collective behaviour mutates and
self-organises, corresponding to a change-initiating event or collection
of events.

9. Photo: Flickr, Marcus Crafter, Fern Leaves
Coaching lens
I share knowledge, skills and perspectives to development my people
Business lens
I maximise product lifecycle profits
Purpose lens
I connect my people with the purpose of what they do
Enablement lens
I enable my people to thrive within their environment

10. Management responsibilities:
• Decision making & problem solving
• Communication
• Delivery
• Learning
• Entrenching success & right behaviour
• Continuous improvement
• Innovation

11. Decision Making & Problem Solving
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams a model of delegated decision making?

12. Appelo’s Levels of Delegation
1. Tell – 1. Tell – making the decision as the manager
2. Sell – convincing people of the decision
3. Consult – getting input from team before decision
4. Agree – making the decision together with the team
5. Advise – influencing the decision made by the team
6. Inquire – seeking feedback after decision by team
7. Delegate – no influencing, letting team work it out
http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/agile-management-authority-delegation

13. Decision Making & Problem Solving
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams a model of delegated decision making?
Business lens
Do I delegate enough control to allow my people to maximise product
lifecycle profits?

14. Decision Making & Problem Solving
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams a model of delegated decision making?
Business lens
Do I delegate enough control to allow my people to maximise product
lifecycle profits?
Purpose lens
Have I conveyed the organisation’s strategy to my people, so that they
have the right information for decision making?

15. Decision Making & Problem Solving
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams a model of delegated decision making?
Business lens
Do I delegate enough control to allow my people to maximise product
lifecycle profits?
Purpose lens
Have I conveyed the organisation’s strategy to my people, so that they
have the right information for decision making?
Enablement lens
Does my team have a delegation board that encourages them to make
decisions and solve problems as appropriate?

16. Example of an Appelo Delegation Board
1. Tell – 1. Tell - Relocate to other office building
2. Sell - Replace Waterfall with Scrum
3. Consult – Select new team members
4. Agree – Choose logo for business unit
5. Advise – Select architecture or component
6. Inquire – Sprint length and delivery
7. Delegate – Coding guidelines and pairing
http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/agile-management-authority-delegation

17. Communication
Coaching lens
Is communication with my people face to face, authentic and regular?
Do my people feel comfortable to initiate contact with me as much as I
do with them?
Do I know those I manage on a personal level?
Am I open to being influenced by those I manage?
Have I created an environment where individuals and teams are able to
disagree where appropriate, negotiate, compromise, agree and
commit?

18. Communication
Business lens
Do I have a Kanban board to communicate progress on my goals?
Do I use Agile practices to establish the sort of two way communication
required to maximise product lifecycle profits?
Do I insist on right fit ways to communicate the status of work?

19. Communication
Business lens
Do I have a Kanban board to communicate progress on my goals?
Do I use Agile practices to establish the sort of two way communication
required to maximise product lifecycle profits?
Do I insist on right fit ways to communicate the status of work?
Purpose lens
Am I out and about interacting with my people, to create opportunities
for two way conversations and interactions about our organisation’s
purpose and strategy?
Do I favour two-way communication to convey purpose and strategy,
over group emails and formal forum events?

20. Communication
Enablement lens
Am I effective communicating across organisational boundaries and
hierarchies?
Is my communication underpinned by an understanding of the
complexity of the organisation?
Do I communicate to effect change within a complex system?

21. Delivery
Coaching lens
Do I give my people the Agile expertise and tools to deliver?

22. Delivery
Coaching lens
Do I give my people the Agile expertise and tools to deliver?
Business lens
Do I ensure that my teams work at a sustainable rate to maximise
delivery?

23. Delivery
Coaching lens
Do I give my people the Agile expertise and tools to deliver?
Business lens
Do I ensure that my teams work at a sustainable rate to maximise
delivery?
Purpose lens
Do I provide the goal and strategic direction, allowing my people to
define how they meet requirements?
Do I trust my people to figure out how to meet requirements?

24. Delivery
Coaching lens
Do I give my people the Agile expertise and tools to deliver?
Business lens
Do I ensure that my teams work at a sustainable rate to maximise
delivery?
Purpose lens
Do I provide the goal and strategic direction, allowing my people to
define how they meet requirements?
Do I trust my people to figure out how to meet requirements?
Enablement lens
Do I trust my people to resolve problems?
Do I challenge them to balance delivery with managing accrual of
technical debt?

25. Learning
Coaching lens
Do I share knowledge, skills and perspectives with my people to foster
their professional growth?
Do I understand the role that mastery plays in helping individuals feel
more engaged in the work they do?
Do I emphasise and model the value of life-long learning?

26. Learning
Coaching lens
Do I share knowledge, skills and perspectives with my people to foster
their professional growth?
Do I understand the role that mastery plays in helping individuals feel
more engaged in the work they do?
Do I emphasise and model the value of life-long learning?
Business lens
Do I foster practices that drive experimentation and learning to
maximise product lifecycle profits?

27. Learning
Purpose lens
Do I help my people understand the value of what they’re delivering, so
that they develop a sense of purpose?
Do I expose my people to customers, suppliers and other world views to
connect them with customers?

28. Learning
Enablement lens
Do I create a culture where it is safe to fail?
Do I reward teams that experiment to learn?
Do I take a systems approach to learning, understanding that to resolve
impediments, I must see the whole, rather than just the component
parts?
Do I use lean techniques to focus on the entire value stream, to
measure and learn?
Am I am a driver for development of strong chapters and communities
of practice to support both new and expert practitioners?

29. Acknowledging Success &
Rewarding Right Behaviour
Coaching lens
Do I teach individuals and teams that it is important to acknowledge
and celebrate success?

30. Acknowledging Success &
Rewarding Right Behaviour
Coaching lens
Do I teach individuals and teams that it is important to acknowledge
and celebrate success?
Business lens
Do I measure the success of individuals and teams simply by their
output, or by their focus on activities that relate to the core value
stream?
Do I bring doughnuts when we get through a tough story or sprint?
Do I wait until release of a product to acknowledge the effort of those
involved, or do I thank my team regularly?

31. Acknowledging Success &
Rewarding Right Behaviour
Purpose lens
Do my people feel valued?
How do I know this?

32. Acknowledging Success &
Rewarding Right Behaviour
Purpose lens
Do my people feel valued?
How do I know this?
Enablement lens
Do I reward people who resolve problems across the entire value
stream?

33. Continuous Improvement
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams how to embed continuous improvement through
Lean and Agile techniques such as retros, kaizen and improvement
katas?

34. Continuous Improvement
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams how to embed continuous improvement through
Lean and Agile techniques such as retros, kaizen and improvement
katas?
Business lens
Do I reward individuals and teams who regularly implement
improvement activities to maximise lifecycle profits?

35. Continuous improvement
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams how to embed continuous improvement through
Lean and Agile techniques such as retros, kaizen and improvement
katas?
Business lens
Do I reward individuals and teams who regularly implement
improvement activities to maximise lifecycle profits?
Purpose lens
Do I energise and engage my people to drive continuous improvement?

36. Continuous Improvement
Coaching lens
Do I teach my teams how to embed continuous improvement through
Lean and Agile techniques such as retros, kaizen and improvement
katas?
Business lens
Do I reward individuals and teams who regularly implement
improvement activities to maximise lifecycle profits?
Purpose lens
Do I energise and engage my people to drive continuous improvement?
Enablement lens
Do I make time for my team to implement improvement?
Do my people have the autonomy to implement improvement?

37. Innovation
Coaching lens
Do I model and teach collaboration, risk sharing and acceptance of
failure in order to learn?

38. Innovation
Coaching lens
Do I model and teach collaboration, risk sharing and acceptance of
failure in order to learn?
Business lens
Do I promote ways of working that foster innovation through
continuous experimentation?
Do I run hack days?
Do I reward great ideas?

39. Innovation
Coaching lens
Do I model and teach collaboration, risk sharing and acceptance of
failure in order to learn?
Business lens
Do I promote ways of working that foster innovation through
continuous experimentation?
Do I run hack days?
Do I reward great ideas?
Purpose lens
Do I recognise that without autonomy, there will be no opportunity for
my people to innovate?

40. Innovation
Coaching lens
Do I model and teach collaboration, risk sharing and acceptance of
failure in order to learn?
Business lens
Do I promote ways of working that foster innovation through
continuous experimentation?
Do I run hack days?
Do I reward great ideas?
Purpose lens
Do I recognise that without autonomy, there will be no opportunity for
my people to innovate?
Enablement lens
Do I create a generative culture that enables my people to think
innovatively to resolve impediments?

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