Title: "A Provocation": Transformation is Always an Inside Job

1. I do not feel myself to be the author of this keynote address. Rather, it was given to
me, in a downloading movement that I experienced as a form of grace.
I hope that by the end of this talk, that will not seem like nonsense, or mere
sentiment.
My job was to wait – to wait patiently, and later to wait impatiently; to empty myself
to what wanted to be spoken through me. To study my subject, then to allow myself
to become a vessel. In the middle of a meditation on the plane over, the download
began, and I felt gratified. May my words serve to inspire and support you.
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2. I want to begin with an outsider’s perspective on your country.
This is my second visit – the first was six years ago, in 2014. When I was here, I was
struck by the character of your people – humble, earness, servers. The people I met
seemed to delight in serving me. They touched me deeply. I felt humbled.
Priyank offered me the chance to return, and I did not hesitate. Being back, I love this
place even more than I did then. My belief is that India is the birthplace of human
consciousness; consciousness and awareness have been the focus of my work for
many years – in terms of human development, the ability to lead people, and the
capability to catalyze transformation.
You may not know if, but in the US where I come from, the practice of yoga has
become very popular in the past 15 years or so – it is one of the latest trends for
being both healthy and hip. But there’s an irony -- as you likely know, yoga was not
invented in the US – often perceived as the land of innovation. So when and where
was it invented? Several hundred years ago, when America was born? Several
thousand years ago, when Christ walked the earth? No – yoga was first established at
least 5,000 years ago. In India.
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3. Another idea that is popular in Agile circles is that of servant leadership. Americans
are, frankly, not natural servants. So for us, serving is a bit of a challenge. For the
Indian people that I met, serving was their very nature; they could not help but serve.
So, Indians have a natural advantage in this game of increasing consciousness and
serving.
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4. So, let’s consider this in the context in which we are together. We are all want to
make Agile work in our organizations. We have different levels of experience,
different levels of belief in whether Agile can do the trick – but we all want it to work.
Most of us know it can work.
And the truth is, across the planet, Agile is one of the evolutionary responses to the
complexity that we experience. Those that recognize its promise are ahead of their
peers. Their consciousness, your consciousness, is just a little more advanced.
Will you help me spread this message? Will you turn to a neighbor, and tell them –
you are ahead of your time! And then, when you have greeted someone this way,
turn to someone else – not the same person, and let them say the same to you – you
are ahead of your time.
So, we are a little ahead of our time. What do we do to help out our colleagues? Why,
we educate. We advise. We (attempt to) persuade. We research. We find more facts.
We teach and teach and teach.
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5. I believe I should know. At this point, I have taught several thousand Scrumm
Masters, Agile coaches and managers. I have heard their tales. I have shared their
frustrations. And, does our persuasion work? Does the training transform? We’d like
to think so. But when we look at the facts, we are confronted by the reality that it
typically does not.
Somehow, we are falling short of the promise of Agile. Relative to what we know is
possible, we feel frustration, disappointment, apprehension. Agile is not working like
we knew that it could. What is wrong?
Before we go on, I want to tell you about someone who was my boss at one in my
career. His name was Curtis. Curtis was a leader. He wanted the best for his people.
He studied Lean so he could become the teacher of a class in Lean to raise the level
of his team. Curtis trusted me; he let me influence him, because he knew I had
something that could benefit him and his organization. He did not need to show that
he was in charge or that he knew more than me. Instead he allowed me to guide him
in the areas I knew better than he did. He trusted me and therefore he got the best
out of me.
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6. Let’s look at two different aspects of human growth. One of my teachers -- an
American philosopher named Ken Wilber -- has studied human development froma
psychological, a spiritual and a leadership point of view. He distinguishes between
Waking Up and Growing Up.
Waking up is our gradual realization, from a spiritual point of view, that despite the
separation and difference that we feel in our ego story, the ultimate reality is that we
are all unified, that we are really just one consciousness. This is what is taught by the
worlds great religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. This is the
development that those in India have a big head start in.
The other area, Ken calls it “Growing Up” – is more about psychological development.
It is evolving from being driven by Power, to conforming to a preestabished Order, to
wanting Success, to hoping for Community, to seeking Synergy. Many developmental
scientists have studied this path, and the advance in human and leadership potential
it allows for. Lest you think my message is a mainly a spiritual or religious one, let’s
look at this from a business point of view.
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7. This chart describes the three levels of human development that 90% of the worlds
leaders occupy. If we look at the effectiveness of a given leader at each level, we see
a noteworthy trend. Leaders at the first level – where frankly most leaders are – is
only at the 40th percentile. What that means is that of 100 leaders in a room, 60 will
be more effective than this person. That is not so good. The reactive level does not
really work, and even when it does, it has a high cost.
The second level, the Creative, is not about creativity. It is about being driven by a
vision, not driven by fear of failing. A leader centred in this level, if put in a room with
100 leader will be better than 65 of those 100 people. That’s pretty good. That means
they are a competitive advantage to their organization.
The final level is where transformation can happen. Leaders at this level – only 5% of
the population or so, will be more effective than 90 of those 100 leaders.
So, does leadership effectiveness tie to business performance? Let’s look.
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8. This started as a study of 500 organizations by The Leadership Circle in
collaboration with Notre Dame University. They created a Business Perf Index
that they had participants rate each organization against. They decided if
there was an affect of leadership effectiveness, they would see it at
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9. The main point to make here is that, because Torbert’s Strategist stage of
development is the sixth in his seven action logics, it is a higher order level of
consciousness that is leading the successful organisation transformation efforts. They
are able to lead effectively in the face of the VUCA factors present in large scale
change.
Conversely, those leaders who measured at a pre-Strategist stage of consciousness
weren’t able to successfully lead that large and complex a transformation effort.
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11. When we implement Agile, we concentrate on the Integral upper right quadrant,
denoted by IT. We implement Green-Teal complexity level practices.
We hope to do it with a Green Teal mindset from the upper left perspective.
But we attempt this transformation in Amber-Orange Cultures and Structures. Like
planting avocado seed in sand. The fruit does not flourish.
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