Begin as you intend to go on

As an Agile Coach, I always start with a Personal Agility Rating exercise whenever I work with a new Agile team. By ‘new Agile team’, I mean a team with whom I’m working for the first time, regardless of their Agile experience. I do this for two reasons: 1) to set precedence for the kind of Agile we’ll be adopting going forward; 2) to create a common understanding of what being agile really means.

The Personal Agility Rating Exercise (Duration: 10 – 15 minutes)

1. Pass around a deck 4″ x 5″ index cards and a pot of coloured felt tips and ask everyone to take one of each.

2. Ask them to write their full name in the top righthand corner on one side of the card.

3. Ask them to write ‘Agile Values’ as a heading on the card.

4. Tell them that there are 5 Agile Values, also known as the XP Values by Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres.

5. Name Communication as the first Agile Value and ask the crowd what it means to them. Write down the value on a flip chart so everyone can see.

6. Summarise the definition of the value in concrete terms and, where possible, reiterate using the descriptions provided by the team.

7. Ask each person to rate themselves for the given value between 0 – 5, where 5 is ‘I’m the world’s best [communicator]!’ and 0 is ‘Needs a lot more work!’.

8. Tell them that the Agile Ratings will remain confidential between each individual and you (the coach) and will be used as a topic for conversation during 1-2-1 Agile Coaching.

9. Repeat steps 5 – 8 for each of the other 4 remaining values (Simplicity, Feedback, Courage and Respect).

10. Collect the cards immediately after the exercise and continue with the rest of your team building/coaching activities.

The Kit – What you need

• 4″ x 5″ index cards (you can use lined or plain – I prefer lined for writing)
• Coloured felt tips (these help to create a less formal atmosphere for the exercise)

Tips

• Wait for between 10 – 15 seconds for a response before volunteering your definition of each value to encourage team participation.
• This exercise is best done following an ice breaker exercise (especially if the group is meeting for the first time) to put everyone at ease.
• I like to tell a short story about each value to make it more memorable.
• I like to add a small drawing next to each value after it’s been discussed to make its meaning more memorable.
• Ratings should be given as whole numbers only. For instance, if someone is tempted to give themselves 3.5 for Simplicity, I recommend they round down to the nearest whole number because there’s always room for improvement. I then reiterate, however, that as it’s their rating for themselves, it’s ultimately their decision what number they write down.
• The Agile Rating exercise is a great way of entering into a conversation about what being agile really means.

The Personal Agility Rating Exercise for Individuals

I use the the same exercise during my first 1-2-1 Agile Coaching sessions with newcomers to the team.

What do I do next as coach?

Immediate Followup

• Email a picture of each Agile Rating card to the individual for their reference and include several links on recommended Agile resources.
• Stick up the Agile Values poster in a prominent place in the team space to serve as a reminder of the activity and the importance of adhering to the values if we are to become an Agile team.
• Take the poster along with you to subsequent or troublesome meetings as a portable information radiator of what Agile means. In my experience, you don’t have to talk about the poster at all, just having it present and visible is usually enough to encourage Agile behaviour.

Mid-term Followup

• Discuss the Agile Ratings with each team member as part of their first 1-2-1 Agile coaching session.

Long-term Followup

• Choose to exercise the option of asking the team member to do a re-assessment of their Agile Ratings (as required) halfway through the Agile Enablement during a 1-2-1 Agile coaching session.
• Review the Agile Ratings with each team member as part of their last 1-2-1 coaching session with you.

Lessons Learnt about the Agile Values

You can never review the Agile Values too often – if you don’t know what they are, how do you know you’re being agile? Does everyone in your team know the Agile Values? And what about your coach?

The first and most important thing I share with any team I work with are the Agile Values, also known the XP Values from Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres.

The Five Agile Values

1. Communication is a two way thing. It’s about talking and listening.

2. Simplicity is about simple solutions that do what’s required, no more, no less. Simplicity is synonymous with elegance.

3. Feedback has three axes: Giving feedback, receiving feedback and taking action as a result of the feedback.

4. Courage is about taking calculated risks. It’s about facing and voicing the brutal facts. It’s also about creating an environment where people can be courageous.

5. Respect is an appreciation that everyone can add value. It’s also about valuing diversity.

Agile Values++

During our peer coaching, Pascal and I identified two more vital values to add to the set:

6. Trust is about giving people a chance to do the right thing and to do things right.

7. Transparency means sharing information as much as possible to help create more Real Options for all parties involved.

What the Agile Values mean in practice

Newcomers to Agile often ask me: ‘How do you know if someone is really agile?‘ To which I reply, ‘They follow the Agile Values even at times of great stress.’ Those who compromise on the Values can never be truly agile, especially if they get stuck in Denial.

In my experience, Respect is the toughest and most important value because it forms the foundation for the rest. You have to respect others and yourself to really make the other values count.

The Telltale Heart

I regularly meet Agilistas who appear to respect others and themselves, yet they are incapable of accepting feedback and taking action. According to Marshall Goldsmith, the only correct response to any feedback is: ‘Thank You’. What do you say when someone gives you feedback?

As an Agile Coach, the greatest challenge for me on any Agile Enablement gig is The Wall. And I don’t mean the Project Wall (aka Kanban Board), the one with the iteration backlog on display for all to see, where stories and tasks take their turn journeying across the columns of TODO and In Progress before finally reaching DONE.

The Wall I speak of is a metaphorical one. Everyone has one. One person’s Wall may well be different from someone else’s. I can only share with you what mine looks and feels like. The most important thing is to be able to recognise yours when you come up against it. Recognising the Wall is one small, yet significant step towards winning the struggle against yourself.

I know I’ve reached the Wall when:

• I’ve stopped listening.
• I refuse to ask for feedback.
• I refuse to ask for help.
• I’ve stopped learning.
• I think I’m right and everyone else is wrong.

The Wall at its most extreme means:

• I’ve run out of answers.
• I feel helpless.
• I feel like running away and leaving it all behind.
• I’ve lost hope.
• I question everything I represent: from my areas of expertise and skills to my years of experience.

In summary, The Wall is when self doubt gnaws at your bones trying to get to the marrow. It’s when you refuse to face the brutal facts about yourself and start making up stories in the hope of magicking away The Wall through make-believe.

Agile and The Wall

Agile Enablement is tough because Agile demands continuous improvement. Continuous Improvement means being on the constant lookout for problems and facing the brutal truths when we find them so that we can deal with them through process and/or people improvement. It’s only natural that Continuous Improvement at an organisational level results in growing pains on a grand scale.

Rules about The Wall

1. You have to confront The Wall.
2. You have to develop an understanding of how The Wall has come to be in order to identify ways of getting over it.
3. You have to climb over The Wall. You cannot just skirt or workaround it.

Dealing with The Wall as an Individual

Here’s what I do when I find myself or a team member facing The Wall:

1. Take a break.
2. Find a quiet place to sit and think.
3. Find out how others are feeling about the situation in a 1-2-1.
4. Ask for feedback.
5. Perform a version of a temperature reading.
6. Put checks in place and assess progress.
7. Rinse and repeat.

Dealing with The Wall as a Team

1. Take a break.
2. Hold an impromptu team retrospective.
3. Mine for key issues.
4. Brainstorm possible causes for key issues.
5. Brainstorm possible solutions for key issues.
6. Commit to trying out 1 – 3 possible solutions as a team.
7. Put checks in place and assess progress.
8. Rinse and repeat.

Beware of Wallflowers

Be on the look out for perpetual laggards who choose to hang around The Wall. No one forces them to stay there, as they kick stones at the foot of the Wall, like aged teenagers smoking their cigarettes by the bike shed trying to look cool long after the bike shed is gone. Offer help by way of a 1-2-1 conversation to identify options that may help them go over The Wall.

The Secret to Scaling The Wall

• Always apply the Agile Values: Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage and Respect
• Apply two additional Agile Values: Trust and Transparency
• Practice Real Options thinking
• Take responsibility for yourself
• Find meaning in your work
• Find ways you can add value
• Strive to improve continuously
• Strive to enjoy what you do – the amount of fun you have is in direct correlation with the chances of you being able to scale The Wall

There’s one more thing about The Wall you should know: there will be many incarnations of The Wall you’ll have to face. The trick is to focus of scaling the one that’s blocking your way right now. Another one will inevitably spring up elsewhere on your journey and that’s good news because we need The Wall to keep our brains agile and our bodies nimble. The Wall also keeps us honest about how agile we really are.

A training gig in Helsinki means an early start for Christmas celebrations this year since everything is covered in snow. My Finnish guides help brighten up my brief, yet adventurous, 4-day visit with their cultural commentary.

‘There’s no specific Finnish word for “please”.’ It seems that it’s implied in the structure of what you say and how you say it. ‘That’s why Americans think we’re rude,’ exclaims one Finn.

‘The Finns advocate and live by the principle of Work-Life balance.’ Many of the people I meet seem to work at a sustainable pace. It’s remarkable how some folks respond to fewer daylight hours by making the most of their dark afternoons and evenings.

‘The Finns work hard.’ I’m told it’s a matter of pride that many people here work hard. No Finn wants to be regarded as a lay-about. If this is true, then it’s a good example of what Dubner and Levitt describe in Freakonomics as a social incentive that influences human behaviour (the other two being financial and moral incentives).

‘The Finns are straight talkers.’ They tell you what’s what, no messing about. It requires some serious listening – whether you want to hear it or not. In return, they really listen to what you have to say.

‘Helsinki’s a pleasant place to work.’ Most of the non-native Finns I meet tell a similar story of how they ended up in Helsinki by chance. ‘I came here as a student and have stayed on ever since!’ beam a number of Finns.

‘The Finns are a friendly bunch once they get to know you.’ I wonder if it’s because good company helps keep the winter blues at bay. That and Lapland being less than 100 kilometres away.

Casual Observations

The Finns seem to talk more about the weather than even the Brits. I feel right at home as folks spend their lunchtime commiserating one another on the rain and long for a winter with snow to brighten the long darkness.

Most people I meet from around the world wish they worked in a flat structure at work. One Finn insists his boss isn’t just the bloke who sits next to him, but also a good friend. ‘What happens when you make a mistake?’ I ask. ‘He tells me and we work it out,’ he nods, smiling.

The Gift of Giving

During my expedition in search of Christmas presents, I stumble across an unusual sight: the Free Hugs campaign at the main train station. ‘If I give you a hug, may I take your picture? It’s for my blog,’ I explain. Distracted by the phenomenon, I mistake their offer as a commodity instead of a gift.

Nonetheless, I give and get a hug. What a great idea.

‘We’re part of a global movement to increase happiness in the world,’ says one of the young women as a matter-of-fact.

‘Do you come across strangers you would rather not hug?’ I ask.

‘Yes!’ replies the shorter of the two gifthuggers.

‘But we hug them anyway!’ insists the taller one.

Now that’s dedication.

Playing to learn about the Theory of Constraints

It’s 5 pm on a Thursday night and everything’s already pitch dark outside. We need at least 7 players to play the Bottleneck Game created by Pascal Van Cauwenberghe but we only have 6 eager participants. Being an Agile Coach has taught me to be resourceful (think Macgyver), so I roam the corridors for a couple more minutes in the hope of netting a few Agile enthusiasts keen to learn a thing or two about process improvement and bottlenecks.

To my surprise, I don’t just find one, but two volunteers: Darren and Paul. Both Darren and Paul have been extremely helpful and supportive with our fledgling Agile teams to date. I’m glad the promise of an Agile game and Halloween chocolates prove more enticing than a visit to the gym. It’s also a sign that I’m working with a learning organisation.

Favour Brain over Brawn

The Bottleneck Game (also known as ‘I’m Not a Bottleneck, I’m a Free Man!’ teaches us about the Theory of Constraints (TOC). According to the Theory of Constraints, every organisation has at least one constraint which limits the system’s performance in terms of its goal. The theory states that we can improve a system’s throughput learning how to recognise and deal with a system’s constraint (also known as a bottleneck).

The 5 Focusing Steps

Step 0: Make the goal of the system explicit.
Step 1: Find the constraint.
Step 2: Exploit the constraint.
Step 3: Subordinate everything to the constraint.
Step 4: Elevate the constraint.
Step 5: Rinse and repeat.

Lessons We Learnt Today

• If you’re rushing, you’re probably stressed – slow down instead and you’ll improve your quality as well as increase your throughput
• Apply improvement changes one at a time
• Always measure the throughput before and after applying improvements to verify their effects on the system
• Cross-training helps improve the throughput of a team
• Small, incremental changes can make a big difference to throughput.

Process Improvement is the New Sliced Bread

Don’t let inertia become the constraint. Help your team and your organisation become more agile by striving to be a bit better than you were yesterday every day. Thanks to Alison, Suresh, Bhavna, Paul, Mark, Darren, Jo and Genevieve for being such professionals as employees of The Boats and Hats Company!

The Theory of Constraints is clearly a hot topic as Pascal’s also run the game with one of his clients over in Paris. You can read a more comprehensive account of the Bottleneck Game as played by our French Agilista counterparts here.

Learn About Bottlenecks with Your Friends and Family

Origami isn’t just for work, it’s for learning, too! The “I’m not a Bottleneck! I’m a Free Man!” game by Pascal Van Cauwenberghe and Portia Tung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Belgium License.

Today’s a special day for my team: we’ve got one more day before our Iteration 1 Show & Tell and, of course, it’s Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. During the second part of our standup this morning (what we call ‘Information Broadcast’ where we share useful information among the team outside of the 3 usual three questions answered in a standup), I’m told that everyone will be praying to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. It’s natural to want a share of good fortune, so I ask by way of a reminder: ‘Will anyone be praying for us to reach a burndown of 0 story points by Thursday morning?’ And everyone laughs.

This is Day 18 with my team and I’ve learned many things from them including some Agile lingo in Hindi:

• Grahak means Customer
• Sahayog means Collaboration
• S’mmaan means Respect

How did I come across such useful learnings? It’s thanks to one of the first team exercises we did: translating the team’s values as well as the Agile Values into Hindi. Seeing the team tackle that translation exercise is one of the most memorable events I’ll be taking with me when the time comes to move on to my next Agile team. I hope the translation exercise will somehow help Agile endure.

At an Agile Conference

Agilista: A top Agile presenter always has a ‘thing’.
P.: Really? Like some kind of disease perhaps?
Agilista: (Rolls his eyes) No, something that makes them special.
P.: Ah. (Long pause) I tell Agile Fairytales.
Agilista: I’m being serious you know.
P.: So am I.

Agile Fairytales Hits the Mainstream

This Tuesday evening marked another of Agile Firsts. It was the first time for me to run an Agile Fairytale on client site. Agile Fairytales helps us remember the lessons we learned as children but have since forgotten. Who knows? Perhaps this event heralds the start of Agile Fairytales going mainstream after its first appearance at XPDay London 2007.

A Laugh a Minute

Fifteen of us bundled into a sleek, glass-walled meeting room to transform it only moments later into the play space for Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Why Me? You can read more about the Snow White and Seven Dwarves Game here. You can also download the game and play it for free* with your team, family and friends.

Having Fun is Serious Work

Many of the participants described the session as fun and full of laughter. The highlight for everyone was the chance to mingle with colleagues we had never met before, tasked with assembling a project team with a tangible goal and deadline. And the twist? We had to staff our projects with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, all the time leveraging their strengths, recognising the value everyone brings to a team, warts and all.

And they all lived happily ever after…

Many thanks to the game players for their invaluable session feedback in exchange for Haribo Tangfastics and marshmallows. “Thanks!” to Natasha, Graham, Jo, Bhavna, Lissa, Ashutosh, Neeraj, Bruce, Chi, Nick, Ponvizhi, Sanjeev, Suresh and, of course, Andy.

Agile Fairytales Coming to a Place Near You

If you want to learn how to become a more effective team player and team builder, come play The Snow White and Seven Dwarves Game at AYE and XPDays Benelux. I look forward to seeing you there!

*The Snow White and Seven Dwarves Kanban game is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK license.

‘No one enjoys their job as much as you do. You have way too much fun.’

– Grumpy

Agile Games Day

This Monday marked the day of yet another of Agile Firsts. It was the first time in Agile history that the XP Game and Business Value Game were played, back to back, in a single day, at work.

Learning Through Fun and Games

The day began with a frenetic ice breaker exercise during which participants introduced themselves to three different people, tasked with finding out three interesting facts each about one another, spending only three minutes per pair. What’s striking about this exercise is the rapidity with which folks are able to identify the things they have in common in so short an exchange, such as their mutual passion for cricket and life experience as parents with small children.

XP Game Teams: The Ones vs Agilites

Next, we moved straight onto the first game of the day: the world-renowned XP Game invented by Pascal Van Cauwenberghe and Vera Peeters. The XP Game is a great induction into what being part of an Agile team feels like. Who would have thought that blowing up balloons, building houses out of cards and folding origami paper boats and hats could teach you so much about iteration planning, estimating and velocity? Thanks to Pascal and Vera, work is made fun again, with quality built into everything we do.

Witness the intensity of concentration on furrowed brows in the pictures. Can you feel the buzzing activity as folks work hard at completing user stories with the highest business value possible? Now, look around your work place. Are you surrounded by such enthusiasm and dedication? If not, playing the XP Game with your team may be an antidote to corporate inertia and ennui.

Roles and Responsibilities

Next up was a team exercise to define what being an Agile Team Member means. ‘Agile’s about being creative,’ cautioned one participant as he put coloured pen to paper and started scribbling. ‘It’s nice to work in a colourful team space,’ he added with a shy smile.

Business Value Game: The Cake Eaters vs The Cake Snatchers

To complete the Agile Games Day, we played the all new Business Value Game, also brought to you by Pascal and Vera. What’s striking about the games Pascal and Vera create is their relentless pursuit of learning through fun and games. The games demonstrate time and time again that to do great work, you have to have fun.

The most important lesson that runs through both games is collaboration. To win, you have to work as a team. If it’s that simple, why doesn’t everyone do it?

Imagine. It’s 10.15 in the morning. The team’s just finished their daily standup. One of your team members seems to have gone missing.

The Office

(In an open plan office)
S.: Morning!
P.: Morning. (Pause) Everything all right?
S.: Sorry I’m late. I had to go to the vet.
P.: I didn’t know you had pets.
S.: I don’t.

It turns out Sruthi had found a sparrow lying injured on the road on her way to work. She immediately took the wounded bird to a local vet, but they refused to look after it, so Sruthi took it home and made it a comfortable little bed on her kitchen table. She then fed it some milk before setting off to work again.

Sruthi and I had had another of our 1-2-1 Agile Coaching sessions the week before. I learned that she loved animals and would like to be a vet if she could do anything else other than her current job as a Java developer.

On that fateful morning when Sruthi saved the sparrow, we both knew that her detour wouldn’t negatively impact the project. The project deliverable was being integration-tested and we had to wait until the US dev team came online in the afternoon (UK time) before she could do any more testing.

Just before Sruthi went back to her desk, I asked her what state the sparrow was in. She said she couldn’t see any external wounds, but that the bird seemed very weak. ‘It’s likely the bird won’t be alive when you get home tonight,’ I said. Sruthi looked surprised. It was the first time I had to deliver that kind of bad news on a client engagement.

The next morning, the sparrow was gone, but Sruthi and I both knew we did the right thing.

Folks who are genuinely agile, understand that people and trust are at the heart of Agile. Is there anyone on your team you don’t trust? Why don’t you trust them? What does what you think about them tell us about you?

I’m in Toronto for Agile 2008 with Pascal Van Cauwenberghe to present two sessions: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Why Me? and Les Neuf Cases (known as ‘The Nine Boxes‘). Being away from home is great because it gives me time and distance to reflect on my Agile Enablement gigs both past and present.

Nothing is Impossible

Imagine. You’re a new recruit for the first Agile team in your global organisation. It’s Day 6 of your first ever iteration. The team has been working late for the past couple of evenings. The team believes things can change. The team’s doing their best to deliver.

Team in Action

(The open plan office is empty but for the one team still busy at work.)

Coach: A core Agile principle is sustainable pace.
Team: (Silence)
Coach: Deathmarching isn’t agile.
Developer: (Silence. Then) Everyone outside the team is watching. (Long pause) They want us to fail.
Team: (Stoic silence)

One Ring to Rule Them All

The next day, I speak to the project manager on the team and raise the issue of the pressure the team feels they’re under. ‘There are others in the organisation who want us to fail,’ I say. He remains silent but for a moment then replies with a bold smile, ‘That’s because they’re afraid of what will happen when we succeed.’ We both knew then that success was by no means certain. What we were certain of, however, was that the team would try their hardest to make it a success.

That was a defining moment for everyone on the team. Their stoicism was something so much stronger than an individual’s desire to prove others wrong. This was camaraderie in action, each member united with one another by the weightiest of burdens they were helping to carry. Hope. The hope that things can change for the better.

Hate Something, Change Something, Make Something Better

Over the next few days after my conversation with the team on that fateful summer evening, the team started leaving work on time. They understood that working late was merely hiding problems due to the way teams have always worked in their organisation. They knew that becoming agile meant maintaining a sustainable pace and addressing difficult problems head on instead of working longer hours.

Never Say Never

Fast foward to the end of the three-iteration-long release. The technical lead who reviewed the code delivered described the quality as ‘some of the highest quality code’ he’d ever seen. After four weeks in end-to-end testing, only one defect was found.

It’s a humbling experience to work alongside folks determined to learn and change in spite of being surrounded by a sea of cynicism and resistance. That’s what makes my heart sing as an Agile coach. Do something that makes your heart sing. Today.