Imagine you’re on an agile development team—and something feels weird. People disagree constantly, and when they finally do agree, no one commits to deliver the solution. Vocal team members dominate the conversation. You don’t trust your teammates. They don’t trust you. This isn’t a team. It’s just a group of people. Does this sound familiar? Because people are people—not interchangeable robots—building high-performing, self-organizing teams takes specific skills and a lot of work. In his experience working with agile teams, Robb Pieper has often taken on the role of therapist—or even an organizational marriage counselor—to break through the people problems that prevent teams from being successful. He discusses specific ideas and techniques for building trust, team building, trust issue debugging, and conflict mining to create and sustain high-performance teams. Robb believes every team needs someone to fill the role of helping coach people through the complicated issues that prevent teams from delivering more effectively together than separately. Can you be that person?

1. AW12
Improving the Team
11/16/2016 4:15:00 PM
Your Agile Team Needs a Therapist
Presented by:
Robb Pieper
Responsive Advisors
Brought to you by:
350 Corporate Way, Suite 400, Orange Park, FL 32073
888--‐268--‐8770 ·∙ 904--‐278--‐0524 - info@techwell.com - http://www.stareast.techwell.com/

2. Robb Pieper
Responsive Advisors
Robb Pieper is Principal Consultant and founder of Responsive Advisors, a
management consulting firm focused on holistically improving organizations. He’s
a Scrum.org certified trainer and coach having taught agility to thousands of
people across the country. Robb has helped numerous clients outside of software
development increase agility in circuit board development, financial risk
management, human resources, data warehousing, and business intelligence.
Robb solves problems often ignored in the agile community, like teaching
managers how to work with agile teams and individuals how to work with their
teammates on a human level. Robb knows that agility is a business problem, not
just a software problem. Robb applies his passion and diverse background to
building amazing cultures and learning organizations.

4. 91%
9%
Source of Agile Implementation Issues
People Problem
Framework Problem
Your mileage may vary

5. Common Team/individual Problems
• Still burned by a past experience, cant get over it
• Don’t get along
• Doesn't give or receive feedback well
• Not effective, working hard

6. Coach? Therapist?

7. What coaches say is the difference
Coaches
• work with the future
• Help make healthy clients
better
• work with the conscious
mind
• work is time-limited with
specific desired behavioral
outcome
Therapists
• work with the past
• work with pathology and
illness.
• work with the unconscious
mind.
• work is open-ended, with
understanding as its primary
aim

8. “The Difference Between Coaching and Therapy is Greatly Overstated”

9. What does Dr. Bader do all day?
Helps clients with
• actualizing client’s potential
• promoting growth
• improving work efficiency and productivity
• overcoming inhibitions
• resolving symptoms

10. What else does Dr. Bader do all day?
Touches on the past if it helps the client master
habits, feelings, and thoughts that hold them
back.

11. What else does Dr. Bader do all day?
Help make healthy people healthier and alleviate
the suffering of people who are, frankly, sick.

12. What else does Dr. Bader do all day?
Addresses self-limiting behavior fueled by
thoughts, feelings and beliefs about which a client
may be unaware.

13. What else does Dr. Bader do all day?
Focuses on client's interactions within the social
systems in which he or she is embedded.

14. Your agile team needs a therapist.

15. Robb Pieper
• Principal Consultant / founder
• 15 years working with technology teams
• Agile trainer & coach by day
• Public speaker by…other day
• Specializes in fixing broken agile implementations
• Secretly wants to be a therapist

16. • Building teams
• Trust
• Conflict

17. Team building…uhg.

18. It turns out people
aren’t robots

19. Ever you been on a high-performing team?

20. Did it take longer than a week to gel?

21. Before you gelled, were there any major conflicts?

22. Did you establish any unique customs / inside jokes?

27. 1996
1996

28. Storming
Nor ing
Forming
Performing

29. Bruce Tuckman - 1965

32. Trust

33. Ever worked on a team with

34. ü Communication issues
ü No feedback
ü No conflict
ü Sub-team formation
ü CYA behavior

36. Inattention to Results
Avoidance of Accountability
Lack of Commitment
Fear of Conflict
Absence of Trust

38. Baroness Onora Sylvia O'Neill of Bengarve
Philosopher and crossbench member of the House of Lords
Trust is well placed if it’s directed to
matters in which the other party is
reliable, competent and honest —
so, trustworthy....If we want others
to trust us, the first step is to be
trustworthy.

40. Conflict
• Use it for good, not evil
Conflict

41. Does your team disagree more than agree?

42. Is that working for you?

43. “If two people agree on
everything, one of them is
superfluous”

45. Working
toward
win-win

46. DYSFUNCTIONAL CONFLICT
• Characterized by:
• Disrespect for one another
• Unprofessional behavior
• Trust erosion
• Team destruction
When debate is not based in facts,
emotions might take over.
Working at Win-Lose outcome, will more
likely be a Lose-Lose.
Dysfunctional conflict
Working
toward win-
lose

47. What can I do about it?
How can I get quiet
people to talk
How do I get the
dominators to back
off?
How do I get the
group to have good
conversations?

50. ?

51. References
• Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development
• Baroness O’Niell Ted talk on Trust
• Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen