The pronouns “I”, “we”, “us” and “them” can either pave or block the way towards Agile effectiveness, depending on how they are used. Have you ever come across the “us” vs “them” culture at some point in your career? Where people say things like “We can’t do anything, we’re waiting for THEM to finish that piece of work!” Or “We can’t change the system and process, we have to live with it.” This passive victim stance is easy to take. You can just sit back and wait things out. You don’t have to take ownership. Even better, you now have all the time in the world to focus on what you as the team are working on. You throw things over the fence and wait for others to act on it. It gives the illusion of being efficient with your time within the team, as you can parallelise the work. And did you ever come across “I” vs “we”? Maybe you have, but you just haven’t thought about it as a thing yet. I define “I” vs “we” as the culture of individuals focussing on THEIR individual work and goals over the TEAM’s work and goals. This sometimes happens much more subtly than “us” vs “them”. In this hero scenario the individual takes full ownership of HIS work item. The good intention is to parallelise work within the team, so that everybody is best utilised. Both scenarios have good intentions at their heart. But do they really lead to the best way of delivering valuable outcomes as early as possible, as per the Agile Manifesto and its principles? This session will cover the dynamics of these two cultures and how they fit into the Agile landscape. It will give you the elements to look out for in your teams as well as in your leadership. And lastly you will leave with heaps of ideas on how to utilise known Agile practices to make a difference towards a more effective culture.

1. Image by Terence l.s.m https://www.flickr.com/photos/tlimphotography/9005678646
Of Heroes and Victims:
'I' vs 'We' & 'Us' vs ‘Them’
@erdbeervogelLASTConf Melbourne 2016
Victoria Schiffer
Agile Coach @SEEK

2. Image by BoredWithACamera https://www.flickr.com/photos/mleung311/8854935471
Hero

3. Image by dualdflipflop https://www.flickr.com/photos/duald/8567139561
Victim

4. Image by John Loo https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnloo/17064585918
“Us” vs “Them”

5. Image by emilio labrador https://www.flickr.com/photos/3059349393/8000156483
“I” vs “We”

6. The Problem?

7. 1. The Environment / System
Image by jacilluch https://www.flickr.com/photos/70626035@N00/14327910926

8. Under pressure
Image by alex.ch https://www.flickr.com/photos/alex-photos/11107135436

9. Old Patterns
Image by ionascloset https://www.flickr.com/photos/33657268@N04/5352666733

10. Learned & Unquestioned Behaviours
Image Source - Article on http://www.throwcase.com/2014/12/21/that-five-monkeys-and-a-banana-story-is-rubbish/

11. There’s no time!
Image by Emilio_13 https://www.flickr.com/photos/emil_kabanov/6680106641/sizes/l

12. We don’t sharpen our tools
Image by Murph4513 https://www.flickr.com/photos/murph4513/5795270418

13. Leadership Reliance
Image by Fort Rucker https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortrucker/5688374614

14. 2. The Individual
Image by DavidSpinks https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidspinks/4211976336

15. Sense of Achievement
Image by Masa Sakano https://www.flickr.com/photos/alpiniste/16277383280

16. Image by 9volts https://www.flickr.com/photos/voltnap/6837258700
Personal Preferences

17. Image by psd https://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/5298483
Individual Skills & Expertise

18. Image by oatsy40 https://www.flickr.com/photos/oatsy40/7631270960
Crappy Jobs?

19. Personal vs Team Goals
Image by Jason H. Smith - https://www.flickr.com/photos/92147157@N07/8374386253

20. Image by a4gpa https://www.flickr.com/photos/a4gpa/2769036151
Attitudes & Assumptions

21. 3. The Team
Image by Janne Aaltonen https://www.flickr.com/photos/janneaaltonen/6829657478

22. Dependencies
Image by Jurgen Appelo https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurgenappelo/5201869924

23. Throwing things over the fence
Image by https://www.flickr.com/photos/bambe1964/8712728824

24. Not taking Ownership
Image by https://www.flickr.com/photos/a2gemma/1448178195

25. 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
http://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions

26. Alignment & Goals
Image by StockMonkeys.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/86530412@N02/7987532186

27. The Solution!

28. Image by iT@c https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomascarvalho/10524182535
“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.”
(Henry Ford)

29. You can control & influence things!

30. Ask, don’t Tell!
Image by Veronique Debora https://www.flickr.com/photos/debord/4932655275

31. Give Feedback!
Reduce Blindspots
Image by Ross2085 https://www.flickr.com/photos/9610484@N05/2946806039

32. Cut down on Leadership Reliance
Image by DaveCrosby https://www.flickr.com/photos/wikidave/3281267303/sizes/l

33. "A single arrow is easily broken,
but not ten in a bundle.”
(Japanese Proverb)
Image by Rob Lee https://www.flickr.com/photos/roblee/540800091

34. Know your End Goal!
Image by StockMonkeys.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/86530412@N02/7987532186

35. Invest in Planning!
Image by yoppy https://www.flickr.com/photos/spilt-milk/144434446

36. Image by Jim Larrison https://www.flickr.com/photos/larrison/8173715751
Always know & see your
Team’s Scoreboard

37. Image by Kinchan1 https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdbaskin/6221299151
Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose!
(Daniel Pink)

38. Limit your WiP
(Work in Progress)
Image by mayrpamintuan https://www.flickr.com/photos/mayprodrigo/7659894300

39. Why change?
The Benefits

40. Alignment
Shared Purpose
Image by Tim Green aka attach https://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/2886029422

41. Higher Effectiveness
Image by Tony A. https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplea4/15228944302

42. Higher Quality
Image by Ben Sutherland https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/4146918418

43. Happy Customers :)
Image by zoetnet https://www.flickr.com/photos/zoetnet/5105766609/sizes/l

44. Happy Teams :)
Image by Five Furlongs https://www.flickr.com/photos/fivefurlongs/4341742565

45. Take Action!

46. You can control & influence things!

47. Image by CJS*64 "Man with a camera” https://www.flickr.com/photos/16210667@N02/13328459305
Take Ownership!
Ask Forgiveness, not permission!

48. Experiment!
Practice makes perfect.
Image by ♔ Georgie R https://www.flickr.com/photos/funfilledgeorgie/14895313189

49. Image by Terence l.s.m https://www.flickr.com/photos/tlimphotography/9005678646
Of Heroes and Victims:
'I' vs 'We' & 'Us' vs ‘Them’
@erdbeervogelLASTConf Melbourne 2016
Victoria Schiffer
Agile Coach @SEEK