This document discusses motivational factors for Agile teams in non-Agile organizations. It summarizes key ideas from Dan Pink's book "Drive" that intrinsic motivators like purpose, autonomy and mastery are more effective than extrinsic motivators for jobs involving creativity and problem-solving. The document then discusses the presenter's experiences applying these concepts to their Agile teams through shared visions and values, empowering cross-functional teams, continuous improvements and recognition programs. The goal is to motivate teams to better serve customers and the business through an Agile approach.

1. Agile team motivators in a
non-Agile organization
Reality or myth?
Agile Goa 2013
Manjunath MV

2. 2 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
• Currently: Agile Coach @ GE Healthcare, India
• 17+ years in the IT industry; 5+ years in the
Agile world
• Previous employment included:
ThoughtWorks, India
• Email: manjunath.mv@ge.com
Cell: +91-90083-07313
• My favorite books:
 Bhagavad-Gita
 The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo
 The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
 Coaching Agile Teams – Lyssa Adkins
• My favorite quote:
“Think BIG. There are unseen forces ready to support
your dreams..”
About me

3. 3 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
First, food for thought!
What are the likely contributors for this situation?
Your customer and you
wanted to feel like this:
You and your customer
ended up like this:
During and upon completion of your project:
instead…
Entire world is ours!

4. 4 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
• Individual heroism
• Dependencies on several external teams whose availability is a
premium
• Misalignment in goals of different stages of the processing
pipe – teams/org vs. Customer
• Long (and/or phased) release cycles – typically 12-18 months
SDLC
• Collaboration with transparency bottlenecks – many
handshake points
• Agile practices in ‘Silos’
• Few pilot teams with inadequate experience
• Force fit into existing processes
Possible contributors
Can Agile be a silver bullet here?
What helps in delivering the ‘right solution’ to the customer?

5. 5 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Our focus today: motivation factors
Key factors:
• Motivated team
• Collaborative environment promoting transparency and
continuous, validated learning
Delivering the solution
Popular choices in the market today:
• Agile – Scrum, XP, Hacking,…
• The Lean Startup
• What else have you heard/seen?
Based on:
1. Drive – excellent book by Dan Pink
2. Results of our experiments with our teams

6. 6 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Dan Pink’s Drive – my key takeaways
Surprising Truth about Motivation:
Carrots and Sticks are counter-productive for any job that
requires conceptual, creative thinking:
 Is there any such job in the Agile world ?
Exercise:
Break into smaller groups, discuss and identify 3 motivation
factors.
Two studies funded by the Federal Reserve Bank and done by
economists at MIT / University of Chicago / Carnegie Mellon
university:
1. MIT students
2. Madurai India

7. 7 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Dan Pink’s Drive – my key takeaways
Surprising Truth about Motivation:
Carrots and Sticks are counter-productive for any job that
requires conceptual, creative thinking:
 Is there any such job in the Agile world ?
Key drivers for motivating people:
 Purpose (Transcendental)
 Autonomy (Desire to be self-directed)
 Mastery (Get better at stuff)

8. 8 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Our experience summary - purpose
Shared vision
• Quarterly releases – what matters to the business?
• Team Core Values (Game) - what matters to YOU? :
 Maximize customer satisfaction
 Keep it simple
 Teamwork
 Commitment
Consistent messages from the Leadership
• Why Agile? (business view)
• What do you need to be Agile? (leadership commitment)
• Pioneering journey in our world (of packaged applications & GE businesses)!
• Different leaders, different occasions
 Team meetings / All Hands
 Roundtables
 Recognition events, etc
More about the Values Game:

9. 9 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Cross-functional team
• Core + dependent roles
• No longer separate teams of Producers & Reviewers/Approvers
• Empowered team for quicker decisions and faster delivery of a shared goal
Continuous Improvements
• Both “just do its” and “big rocks”
 Agile retrospectives
 Lean workouts
“just do its”
 Eliminate duplicate test cycles/environments
 Embed CM engrs into the scrum team
 VM-Tester pairing for reviews
“big rocks”
 Reduce IQ time to two days from eight days
 Documentation simplification
 Enterprise grooming
Our experience summary – autonomy

10. 10 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Our experience summary: mastery
What worked/is working?
• Crawl - walk – run, incrementally!
[Shu-Ha-Ri model of Martial Arts]
• Opportunity to experiment with different
roles
• Recognitions and timely celebrations
 TEAM rewards/recognition
 Dinner/lunch after key milestones
 Cake/snacks before new release

11. 11 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
Our experience summary: business
results
Enabling business… with Agility

12. 12 /
GE Presenter and Event /
9/23/2013
What next?
Autonomy/Mastery:
• Agile Champions Team Award:
 Each team picks their three improvement areas over next three months
 The team sets their target bar
 Demonstrate results after three months to rest of the organization
 In addition to formal recognition, share knowledge and help other teams too!
 Of course, all teams start on their next set of 3 improvements in the coming quarter
Purpose:
• At work for a healthier world
 Build better products, faster (The Lean Startup)
Mastery:
• Scrum Champion Individual Award:
 Nominated by peers based on prior sprints
 One nomination per team
 Exemplary incremental improvements, challenged status quo and/or introduced new processes
that improved the productivity or quality