Kent Scrum User Group - Why care about your organisational culture

1. Welcome!
Why Care About Your Organisation’s Culture?
Kent Scrum UG

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Our Vision
Individuals and interactions
Working software
Customer collaboration
Responding to change
While there is value in the items on the right, we value the
items on the left more.
Over
Over
Over
Over
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by
doing it and helping others do it.
Processes and tools
Comprehensive documentation
Contract negotiation
Following a plan

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Scrum Education Units (SEU)
Category A: Scrum Alliance Scrum Gatherings
Up to 45 SEUs can be earned at a rate of one credit
per hour of participation in:
• Scrum Alliance Global Gatherings
• Scrum Alliance Regional Gatherings
• Scrum Coaching Retreats
• Scrum Alliance-Sponsored Events
• Scrum Alliance-Endorsed User Group events and
activities.
2 SEUs

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Create some noise!
@KentScrumUG
@DrJojic

5. Why Care About Your Organisation’s Culture?
Dragan Jojic
Head of Culture at Radtac
@DrJojic
1998
Est.

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The problem with change
Are you changing or are you being changed?

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Why do I care about organisational culture?
“Never try to teach a pig to sing.
It wastes time and annoys the pig.”
Robert Heinlein
“…you can’t get there from here”
New England saying from “Which way to Millinocket?”

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What is needed for a successful change?
Source: Jeffrey Hiatt, “ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community” (Prosci Learning Center, 2006)
via Jurgen Appelo, “How to Change the World” (Jojo Ventures BV, 2012)

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Barriers to ‘Agile Enterprise’
“...structural inertia, with layers
and layers of management, and
cultural inertia, which is the
‘this is how things are done here’ attitude”
Prof. Costas Andriopoulos, Cass Business School
Source: “Wake up call to big business as tech-savvy newbies set the pace” (The Times, 8 September 2015)

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Barriers to Agile adoption
Leading causes of failed Agile projects

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Barriers to Agile adoption
Leading causes of failed Agile projects

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Why Care About Your Organisation’s Culture?
Source: The Radtac Blog: Agile Evolved http://www.radtac.co.uk/blog/why-should-you-care-about-your-organisations-culture/
“Everything is much harder and takes longer
if you are rowing against the flow of culture”
12

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What is Organisational Culture?
“The way we do things around here in order to succeed”
William E. Schneider
“Culture is our collective comfort zone”
Marcella Bremer
“The way in which members of an organisation relate
to each other, their work and the outside world”
Geert Hofstede
“Everything we don't have to do”
Brian Eno

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Culture: content and process
Source:William E. Schneider, “The Reengineering Alternative” (McGraw-Hill, 1999)
via Michael Sahota, “An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide” (Lulu.com, 2012)

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Where would you put your organisation?
Source:William E. Schneider, “The Reengineering Alternative” (McGraw-Hill, 1999)
via Michael Sahota, “An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide” (Lulu.com, 2012)

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You and your organisation
1. In what ways does your organisation’s culture
support/hinder you in your everyday work?
2. If it hinders rather than supports you:
– What would you want your leadership to do about it?
– What can you do about it?

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Culture and Agile
Source:Michael Spayd http://collectiveedgecoaching.com/2010/07/
47%
41%
9%
3%

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Culture Pyramid
Values & Beliefs
Norms /
Intrinsic Behaviours
Actions
Results

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Values and behaviours
Culture demonstrates itself through organisational
values and observable behaviours
• What values do you aspire to?
What behaviours would
demonstrate those values?
• Which of those behaviours
can you observe today?
What would you need to do more of?
Which new things would you need to start doing?

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• Assess values and behaviours
• Identify strengths and weaknesses
• Discuss connections
1. Make culture ‘visible’
1. Assess

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‘Kanban from the inside’ values
• Transparency, Balance, Collaboration, Customer Focus, Flow, and
Leadership
Behaviours that demonstrate values (e.g. ‘Balance’)
• We understand how much work our system can accommodate
• We maintain a healthy mix of work based on type, source and urgency
Qualitative assessment scale
1. Little evidence, if any
2. Sporadic evidence, not widespread or consistent
3. Evident, but improvement or more consistency needed
4. Firmly established, widely and consistently evident
Example: values, behaviours and assessment
scale
Source: Mike Burrows, “Kanban from the Inside” (Blue Hole Press, 2014) and www.agendashift.com

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2. Change the culture, change the game *
* Source: Roger Connors & Tom Smith, “Change the Culture, Change the Game” (Portfolio, 2012)
• Analyse gaps between now and the desired state
• Agree what to change
• Start the journey and track progress
2. Act

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Implement feedback loops #1
1st feedback loop: sense and respond
2. Act

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Implement feedback loops #2
2nd feedback loop: reassess & adjust focus for action
2. Act
1. Assess

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Implement feedback loops #3
3nd feedback loop: revisit values and behaviours
2. Act
1. Assess
0. Discover

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Leadership: informs discovery, inspires change
2. Act
1. Assess
0. Discover “Agile makes organisations
work – Leadership makes Agile
work”

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Culture and leadership
Source: Ed H. Schein, “Organisational Culture and Leadership” (Jossey-Bass, 1985)
“Leadership and culture
are two sides of the same coin.
There is a real possibility that
the only thing of real importance
that leaders do is
to create and manage culture.”
Ed H. Schein

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Leadership ‘bookmarks’
“… the best behavior
the leader is
willing to amplify”
Jurgen Appelo
"The culture of any organization is shaped
by…”
“… the worst behavior
the leader is willing
to tolerate”
Gruenter & Whitaker

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Takeaways
• Organisational culture will make or break your
change initiative
• First, make your culture visible
• Change little, change often
• Implement feedback loops,
sense and respond
• Culture is hard to change,
but what else can you do?

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So what will you do about it?
“Change the organisation…
or change the organisation”

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Thank you
Get in touch!
@radtacltd
@DrJojic
45 Beech Street
London EC2Y 8AD
0207 953 9853
enquiries@radtac.co.uk
www.radtac.co.uk
Dragan Jojic
Head of Culture at Radtac
07969 398514
dragan.jojic@radtac.co.uk

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Your Commitment to learn?
All in the public domain:
• Free to download:
– 9th Annual, State of Agile Survey (Version One)
– An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide (Michael Sahota)
– Organisational Culture and Leadership (Ed H Schein)
• Published:
– Kanban from the Inside (Mike Burrows)
– Change the Culture, Change the Game (Roger Conners and Tom
Smith)
– Organizational Culture Change (Marcella Bremer)

33. Questions?
Why Care About Your Organisation’s Culture
Kent Scrum UG