Many organizations flatten management structure when they transform to agile. It soon becomes obvious that important activities done by managers are still needed. A community can fill these gaps. They can provide morale, governance, learning, and mentorship, recruiting and hiring, mutual support, coordination, sharing, innovation and more! Unfortunately few companies manage to create a strong community. Even fewer empower that community to fill these gaps. This means they are missing the ultimate benefit of community: a strong, empowered community can transform the organization itself! Join Shahin and Shawn in this interactive session to explore communities in organizations. Examine the benefits of building great communities. Learn how to spark the community, and how to support it as it evolves. Hear stories of communities empowered to improve the organization. Learn how to make a community into a driver of positive change.

1. Community-Driven
Change
Shahin Sheidaei and Shawn Button
Agile and Beyond - 2018

3. We LOVE to develop and
be part of communities
Book Clubs

5. “A community is a social unit that comes
together through self-selection, and
self-organizes to satisfy shared needs.”
- Shahin and Shawn

6. Network
A network is a number of
people connected so that
information flows
throughout the network
through social interaction.
There is no clear boundary
for a network. Not all
people in a network
necessarily even know each
other. Some people have
many connections, and
some have few.

7. Group
A group is a number of
people or things that
are located close
together or are
considered or classed
together.

8. Team
A common goal defines them,
they are working together
and helping each other
A group with a common goal

9. Community
A community is a social
unit that comes together
through self-selection,
and self-organizes to
satisfy shared needs.

10. Community
Network Group
TeamSENSE OF BELONGING

11. Exercise

12. ● With your table
● Read through the scenarios, and order them by how easily they could be
solved using a community based approach.
● Top: the most likely you will take a community approach
● Bottom: the least likely you will take a community approach
● You have 15 minutes
Exercise: Problem Solving with a Community

13. Lifecycle of
a Community

14. How To Start
A
Community?

15. Exercise: Community Canvas
● With your table
● Pick a scenario from the list
● Discuss with your table “How to Start a Community?”
● Put stickies with your ideas on your canvas
● You have ten minutes

16. How To Start A Community
Individual
● Find people with shared interests, and schedule a
meeting!
● Find the early adopters in particular
● Start conversations in the hallway
● Expect to have to sell it
● If you can’t sell it, bribe them! (buy lunch or coffee)
● Keep it informal; Make it fun
● Get some quick wins to demonstrate that it works
● Do it on your own time (lunches, after hours)
● Once you have the community started it’s easier to
get leadership support
Manager / Leader
● Be clear with what you hope to get from
communities
● Communicate the importance and your
support for people’s involvement
● Include communities as part of incentives
● Realize that involvement in a community
means people will have less time for their
“regular” work.
Organization
● Don’t introduce hierarchy! See if you can provide what is missing with a community first!

17. How To Support
A Community?

18. Exercise: Community Canvas
● With your table
● Pick a scenario from the list
● Discuss with your table “How to Support a Community?
● Put stickies with your ideas on your canvas
● You have ten minutes

19. As a Community Catalyst
● Create inter-community connections
● Promote communities
How To Support The Community?
As a Community Initiator / Member
● Bring in your whole self
● Be open to letting the community evolve - don’t try
to push your agenda
● Help shape it or evolve it for better
● Keep it simple and informal
● Try for quick wins
As a Manager/Leader
● Communicate value of communities
● Highlight success stories
● Acknowledge & appreciate community leaders
● Create a safe environment where people are
free to question and propose alternatives
● Let it live, no interventions
● Do not ask for outcomes/outputs
● Make time for your people to participate
As an Organization
● Build an environment that allows communities
to grow and flourish
● Help with Logistics - meeting spaces, funding,
Tooling, Communications etc.
● Create “slack” time
● Help shape it or evolve it for better
● Intra-community building promotion
● Helping with external communities. Host
meetups, sponsor conferences
● Avoid solving problems with hierarchies
that could be solved with communities

20. Let’s Pause!

21. How A
Community
Evolves?

22. Signs Of Evolution
● Decline in participation
● Reduced collaborative activities and input from community
● Change of Focus
○ Discussions about mainly a different topic/interest/need than original one
● Irrelevant discussions
○ turns into a complaint session
● People not motivated to tackle new issues

23. Help it Evolve Into Another Community
● Facilitate the evolution! Find out if people want to satisfy a different need.
● Let others lead the evolution!
● Be part of the new!

24. Letting The
Community Go

25. Signs Of End of Life
● Decline in participation
● Reduced collaborative activities and input from community
● Change of Focus
○ Discussions about mainly a different topic than original one
● Irrelevant discussions - turns into a complaint session
● People not motivated to tackle new issues

26. Let it Go
Every good thing comes to an end.
● Have a positive end of life event. A Community wake!
● Thank members, guests, leaders, managers and anyone involved.
● Share learnings on building communities
○ Encourage others to do so
○ Offer help to others to become the next community initiator

27. Lifecycle of
a Community

28. Community and
Change

30. Organizations & Agile
Hierarchies are traditionally organized around
disciplines.
It’s better to organize around the value
stream (i.e. work). Teams are cross-functional.
But people in the same role in different teams
have less interaction with each other.
A community will fill the gap!
This (theoretically) allows easy governance
and transfer of information within that
discipline.

31. Problem Solving Strategies
Authoritative
Give the responsibility for solving the problem to a
small number of people (for example, management).
Competitive
Have two or more groups work on a solution and
choose the best one.
Collaborative
Engage all stakeholders in order to find the best
possible solution for all.
Roberts, N.C. "Wicked Problems and Network Approaches to Resolution".

32. Problem Solving Strategies
Authoritative
Easy to facilitate. The solution might not include all the
perspectives required to tackle the problem. Solution
might be biased to the needs of the deciders.
Competitive
Takes advantage of human competitive urge. Can
undermine cohesiveness of the group.
Collaborative
Can be difficult to facilitate shared understanding and
commitment to the problem solving.
Roberts, N.C. "Wicked Problems and Network Approaches to Resolution".

33. Problem Solving Strategies
Collaborative
Agile principles state that we should use collaborative
solutions for one class of complex problems. We use
teams to deliver value to our business.
There are a lot of other types of problems where we
should consider using collaborative solutions.
Communities are that tool.
Roberts, N.C. "Wicked Problems and Network Approaches to Resolution".

34. "Using a simple tool to solve a complex
problem does not result in a simple
solution."
- Larry Wall

36. Organizations & Change
Transformations are not easily accepted in
organizations.
People will be more bought in to the change if
they feel included.
“People don't resist change. They resist being
changed.” - Peter Senge
A community leading the transformation
means the people doing the changing are the
same ones decided what needs to change!

37. The point is there are many ways to build a community, support it, and grow
it.
The greatness is the strength of it, if you build a community around
something, it will be there for many years, the power is very strong. We
encourage you to use a community approach when possible, and if not, think
twice to make it possible. However, it is not for all problems.
Let us share some of the interesting things about change and communities
with you. Resistance to change, ...
Community is a Change Catalyst

38. Communities And the Growth of Agile
Salt Lake City Agile Roundtable
London Xtreme
Tuesdays Club
The C2 Wiki

39. Communities And the Growth of Agile
Your Company?

40. Let’s Pause!

41. ● Its definition is vague, meaning it’s Flexible!
● It can take Many Forms and Types
● It is relatively Easy to Start
● People with autonomy are More Motivated
● There is usually Little Resistance for it
● It Addresses Many Different Needs
● It should Evolve to meet other needs
● It naturally Dies Down when the need is met
Communities & Change Key Takeaways

42. Find
Us
Here
Shahin Sheidaei
shahin@sheidaei.com
@sheidaei
/in/sheidaei
Shawn Button
shawn@leanintuit.com
@shawnbut
/in/shawnbutton

43. “Community Scrabble” - http://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/wooden-tile/images/community.jpg
“Community Party” - William White on Unsplash
“Starting Blocks” - Braden Collum on Unsplash
“Pizza” - Carissa Gan on Unsplash
“Beer” - Quentin Dr on Unsplash
“Subway” - Adelin Preda on Unsplash
“Cafe” - Seemi Samuel on Unsplash
“Working at Table” - Climate KIC on Unsplash
“Coffee Table” - Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Photo by Guillaume Bolduc on Unsplash
Photo by Hidde Rensink on Unsplash
Photo by Christian Søgaard Moen on Unsplash
Photo by Efe Kurnaz on Unsplash
Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash
Photo by Foto Garage AG on Unsplash
Photo by Nick Abrams on Unsplash
“Bee” by Kelsey Krajewski on Unsplash
Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash
https://pixabay.com/en/change-list-pin-arrows-1076220/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Organization_chart_wide01.svg/800px-Organization_chart_wide01.svg.png
https://pixabay.com/en/halloween-ghosts-happy-halloween-1746329/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewhurley/6254409229
“Stove org chart” - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Organization_Chart_of_a_large_Company_Manufacturing_Stoves,_1914.jpg
“Collaborate Over Table” by rawpixel on Unsplash
https://pixabay.com/en/post-it-note-memo-paper-1495148/
https://unsplash.com/photos/KrHNUF7rd3U
Image Credits