My talk at Target Bangalore's Agile and DevOps Day on 4-Aug.

1. Agile
Leadership
Tathagat Varma
Knowledgepreneur
http://thoughtleadership.in

2. Old World
Big changes every few decades
or multiple years

3. New World
small(er) changes every few quarters
months weeks days daily hour…

4. So, what’s changed?
Things change all the time!
Markets, Customers, Products, Tech, People…
Pace of change has changed!
Episodic => Incremental => Continuous
We also need to change!
Reacting => Responding => Initiating

5. Are old models effective?
Standish Group
Chaos Report 2015
Successful: 29%
Challenged: 52%
Failed: 19%
Standish Group
Chaos Report 1994
Successful: 16%
Challenged: 53%
Failed: 31%

6. Agile Manifesto, 2001
http://agilemanifesto.org

7. What all changes with agile?
Individual
Team
Leadership
Organization (not discussing today)

8. Individual
I T“I”-shaped “T”-shaped

9. T-shaped Individual
TDeepExpertiseina
functionalarea
Broad Ability in
adjoining areas

10. T-shaped Test Engineer
https://blog.scrum.org/professional-scrum-developer/

11. Why stop at T?
http://irisclasson.com/2013/07/08/stupid-question-218-what-are-t-shaped-pi-shaped-and-comb-shaped-skills-
and-which-one-should-i-aim-for/

12. Full-stack Engineers
http://daemon.co.za/2014/04/what-does-full-stack-mean/

13. Unicorn Developers!
https://blog.scrum.org/professional-scrum-developer/

14. Rarity of Skills vs. Value
https://blog.scrum.org/professional-scrum-developer/

15. Mindsets!
Fixed
Mindset
Growth
Mindset

16. Component vs. Feature Teams
UI
MW
DB
BE
f1 f2 f3 f4
UI
MW
DB
BE
f1 f2 f3 f4
Component
Team
Feature
Team

17. Cross-functional Teams

18. T-shaped Agile Team

19. Self-Organising Teams
M
anagem
ent
Responsibility
Team
’sO
w
n
Responsibility
Setting overall direction
Designing the team and
its organisational context
Monitoring and managing
work process and progress
Executing the team task
Manager-led
Teams
Self-managing
Teams
Self-designing
Teams
Self-governing
Teams

20. From Group to a Team…

21. Role of Manager?

22. What is Leadership?
NOT
Leadership
Me
Ego
Title
Role
Pride
Power
Genius
Process
Position
Charisma
Shortcuts
Dictating
Knowing
Hierarchy
Status Quo
Management
Micromanagement
IS
Leadership
We. Team. Action. Doing.
Vision. People. Inspire.
Support. Integrity.
Learning. Humility.
Direction. Networks.
Creativity. Influence.
Openness. Situational.
Right Thing. New
Grounds. Empowerment

23. What is the human side to agile?
Focus on “individuals and interactions”
Emphasis on (direct) “customer collaboration”
Values “responding to changes”
Requires environment to “support motivated individuals and
trust them”
Recommends “face-to-face conversation”
Envisages “self-organising teams”
Continuous improvement through self-reflection and adaptation

24. So, what is agile leadership?
Lead with agility (especially in a “VUCA” world)
Explore new ideas and pursue meaningful innovations
Inspire with Vision, and align with Mission
Shared decision-making and joint accountability
Lifelong learning and developing people
Operating with trust, openness and empowerment

25. Who’s an Agile Leader?
Operates effectively amid uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change
Is knowledgeable about Agile values, approaches, and practices
Surfaces more creative solutions through increased self-awareness, a
growth mindset, and engaging others
Aligns and empowers teams toward delivering more customer value
Personally integrates feedback and experiments, and adapts their ways
Takes a collaborative continuous-improvement approach to
organizational effectiveness
Catalyzes change in others and facilitates organizational change
https://www.scrumalliance.org/agile-leadership

26. Can anyone be an Agile Leader?
Technically, yes!
Executives, middle management, and other
leaders with organizational influence
Leaders who support, lead, or interact with
Agile teams
Any leader sponsoring, requesting, or involved
with an Agile adoption within their organization
https://www.scrumalliance.org/agile-leadership

27. Recap
Agile represents more of mindset, principles, values and
thinking...than methods, processes, vocabulary or tools!
Agile adoption at team level requires a thorough
understanding of agile values and principles
However, scaling agility at organisation level requires agile
leadership at multiple levels
Agile leadership is all about enhanced agility - best achieved
through nurturing agile mindsets, self-organising teams and
a culture of trust, openness and continuous improvement

28. References
Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) PRogram, https://
www.scrumalliance.org/agile-leadership
https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/leadership-agile-
environment
http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2013/03/building-future-
success-t-shaped-pi-shaped-and-comb-shaped-skills.html
https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015/
http://blog.crisp.se/2015/11/10/henrikkniberg/what-is-an-agile-leader
https://www.quora.com/What-is-agile-leadership