Session Title: The Blindfold Phenomenon Session Abstract: When Gandhi was lynched in South Africa, his response to the guy who lynched him was of forgiveness and connection. He denied giving any punishment which was way beyond the norms and that is what differentiated his leadership for change throughout his life. Business leaders like JRD Tata and Steve jobs led the way for their businesses, by challenging the existing norms. One common thing in almost all these success stories are that, the leaders in each of these push their own limits before they can lead a change. These limits are the ones we call as blindfold phenomenon and they are not easy to uncover. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a leader in large corporation or an aspiring leader, your ability to influence change can be constrained by your own blindfolds. Change can be difficult, frustrating or it can also be liberating and a positive journey. Are you ready to uncover your own blindfolds that is holding you from your own next big change? Are you ready to uncover blindfolds that may be holding your team, your client or your organization? I bring to you my own experiences as an Agile leader and share with you the strategies to uncover blindfolds and how to overcome them.

1. THEBLINDFOLD
PHENOMENON
ASUTOSH RAI
AGILE, BEHAVIORAL AND LEADERSHIP
TRAINER
SELFLEARN EDULABS

2. AboutMyself
Train individuals and teams in
Agile Mindsets, Behavioral Skills,
Scrum and Agile Leadership.
• Come with experience as Developer, Scrum
Master, Agile Coach, Development Manager,
Leadership and Behavorial Trainer for over
18 years.
• Trained as Experiential Educator
• Focus on bringing shifts in behaviors that
drive relationship, innovation and delivery at
workplace.
• Train educators in leadership to bring shift in
relationships, thinking skills and self-esteem
thereby bringing positive impact in children.
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3. Behaviorsorpoliciesthatyouthinkneedstochange,forteamsand
organizationstobemoreagile.
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4. TrueorFalse
1. We do not need a dedicated Scrum master in team, any team member can play scrum master role.
2. Top performers in teams must be rewarded and recognized, so they stay motivated
3. Hierarchical structure helps in faster decision making and provides clarity in roles and responsibilities.
4. Conflicts are not good for agile teams.
5. Technical skills are a must for Scrum master, only then the scrum master can be valuable to scrum team.
6. Arranged Marriage is better than love marriage.
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5. Writedownonerecent
emotionalexperienceand
thereasonsbehindthe
emotions
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6. Belief,Behaviorand
ResultsTree
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7. 7
 Scrum Master assigning tasks and stories to team
members
 Intention – Team is able to accomplish sprint goals.
 Observed Consequences
 Team members look for scrum master for task assignments.
 Team members more focused on completing the work assigned
to them instead of taking collective ownership.
 Lower level of self-organization, team members look-up to scrum
master to drive organization.
 Leadership compares velocity of teams
 Intention – Team gives their best
 Observed Consequences
 Team shifts focus from quality delivery to getting high velocity
numbers
 Team members start to hide defects to ensure that the velocity is
counted.
 Teams unwilling to experiment or take risk
LeadershipBehaviors,OrganizationalPoliciesandtheirconsequences
 Leadership changes software dev process without
engaging team members
 Intention – Team delivers with better quality and better
speed.
 Observed Consequences
 Decrease in team ownership.
 Reduced motivation
 Increase in conflicts
 Not my problem phenomenon
 Speed of work reduced instead of increasing, as was originally
intended.
 Organization has a policy to reward and recognize top
performers in each teams.
 Intention – Team is motivated to give their best
 Observed Consequences
 Reduction in team work and individuals want to outshine each
other.
 Members do not take collective responsibility.
 Blame game when things go wrong

8. BUILDATOWER
USINGCUBES
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9. BLINDFOLD
PHENOMENON
BLINDFOLDS THAT PREVENTS US
FROM CHANGING OR LEADING
CHANGE
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10. 1
 Scrum Master assigning tasks and stories to team
members
 Intention – Team is able to accomplish sprint goals.
 Why do I think that team will not be able to accomplish
their sprint goals, if I do not assign tasks/stories?
Blindfold: They do not take ownership of tasks/stories by
themselves, so will not self-organize.
 Leadership compares velocity of teams
 Intention – Team gives their best
 Why do I think that team will not their best, if I do not
compare their velocities?
Blindfold: Competition motivates people to deliver more
UncoveringBlindfolds
 Leadership changes software dev process without
engaging team members
 Intention – Team delivers with better quality and better
speed.
 Why do I think that team will not deliver high quality and
with better speed, if I engage them in coming up with
improvements needed in dev process?
Blindfold: They do not have enough experience and will make
mistake.
 Organization has a policy to reward and recognize top
performers in each teams.
 Intention – Team is motivated to give their best
 Why do we think that team will not be motivated to give
their best, if we do not reward them individually?
Blindfold: Without individual rewards, they do not have any
other reason to give their best.

11. KublerRossChangeCurve
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12. Question – Challenge and then How else?
 Why do I think they will not self-organize? How else can
I get them to self-organize?
 Why do I need competition to motivate team members?
How else can I motivate?
 Why does teams need lot of experience to improve
their dev process? How else can I get them to improve
their dev process?
 Why do I need individual reward to motivate people?
How else can I motivate my team members?
 My teams have the ability to self-organize, they will
learn
o Possible emotion: Calm, curious, happy
o Paradigm: Trusting, supportive
 My teams are intrinsically motivated to take on
challenging work.
o Possible emotion: Calm, curious
o Paradigm: More trusting, supportive
 My teams have the capability to improve their dev
process
o Possible emotion: Calm, curious
o Paradigm: supportive, collaborative, coaching
 My team members are individually motivated to give
their best
o Possible emotion: Happy
o Paradigm: trusting, coaching
Reframe – technique used in CBT
Howtoovercometheblindfold?
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13. THANKYOU
Asutosh Rai
9535188880
asutoshrai@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asutoshrai/
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