Topics covered at Agile Humans Days 2019: Sustainable Agile, a moral call to the Agile Community; Business agility; Culture change & consciousness; Running a business with a conscious mindset; Virtuous circles of value creation.

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AGILE WITH CONSCIOUSNESS
XAVIER ALBALADEJO

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 Xavier Albaladejo is expert in organizational transformation based on Agile-
Lean principles.
 His work as Executive Coach focuses on strategy processes, organizational
structure and cultural change as part of the digital transformation of
companies, with the aim of increasing their speed and flexibility to better adapt
to the needs of their customers and create more enjoyable workplaces.
 Currently at Partnos - Voxel Group, he has collaborated with Mango, AXA
EMEA-LATAM, Vodafone R&D, Zurich and eDreams.
 Xavier Albaladejo is Director of the Master in Agile Methods of La Salle.
Speaker at various conferences, writes in transformacionagil.org y
proyectosagiles.org. He’s vice-president of Agile Spain, founded Agile
Barcelona and collaborates with Agile Classes in Primary & Secondary.
 Xavier also enjoys hiking, sci-fi and playing bass guitar.
MMA - Máster en Métodos Ágiles
Bio

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Why this talk

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Why this talk

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Why this talk

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Why this talk
Agile, what for?
How can we inject more
consciousness in companies

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Overview
The relationship between:
• Business Agility
• Culture
• CONSCIOUSNESS
Part 1
Creating consciousness
Awakening the organization
• Inclusiveness & ownership
Part 2 A more holistic view: Employees,
customers, society, environment
• Sustainable Agile
• Paradigm change: purpose,
consciousness, sustainability
Part 4 Our responsibility as Agile people
Running a business with a
conscious mindset
Part 3

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The relationship between
Business Agility,
culture
and
consciousness

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Business Agility
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small groups,
guided by purpose
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
CULTURE
Test & learn
Empowerment
Transformation vision

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Business Agility
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small units
guided by outcomes
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
CULTURE
Test & learn
Empowerment
Transformation vision
Customer value
is enabled by them

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Culture
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small units
guided by outcomes
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
CULTURE
Collaboration, motivation, simplicity
Ownership, experimentation, servant leadership
Transformation vision
Thinking together
(combined collective intelligence) to achieve
non-linear outcomes
(product, system, technology)
Customer value
is enabled by them

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Culture
Transformation vision

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Culture
ORGANIZATION
CULTURE
Collaboration, motivation, simplicity
Ownership, experimentation, servant leadership
More difficult (Mindset):
Knowing is not
understanding.
The importance of culture change
Many senior managers don’t really know what
they are buying when they want to “rollout” Agile…
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small units
guided by outcomes
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
Usually we are asked to start here.
Easier (structure & processes).
Can be learned & practiced.
WHAT
Deep “HOW”
They are not conscious that this is not only about performance
and flexibility but a culture change.

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Consciousness
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small units
guided by outcomes
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
CULTURE
Collaboration, motivation, simplicity
Ownership, experimentation, servant leadership
CONSCIOUSNESS
Thinking, deciding & acting considering a broader scope: humbleness, collective intelligence, empiricism
There is still a deeper basis
This should be the starting step in order to
create a solid foundation for change.
WHY / PURPOSE

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Consciousness
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small units
guided by outcomes
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
CULTURE
Collaboration, motivation, simplicity
Ownership, experimentation, servant leadership
There is still a deeper basis
CONSCIOUSNESS
Thinking, deciding & acting considering a broader scope: humbleness, collective intelligence, empiricism

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Consciousness is key for:
• Agile culture
• ……
• ……

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Consciousness
How to make it possible
Model for creating high performance,
scalable and conscious organizations
Click here to know more on the H40 model

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Creating consciousness
Part 1 - Awakening the organization

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Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
Management awareness
Management must set the example and be
thefirst to act consciously
How to achieve this? Creating Awareness & Desire for change by
broadening information & perspective

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Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
Management awareness
How to broaden information & perspective:
Behaviours – (ADKAR)
Surfacing impediments in the trenches:
Bottom-up organization assessment
where people prioritises THEIR problems (ADKAR)
Discover context patterns and singularities (Complexities)
New mental models – Education (ADKAR)
• Micro-trainings (leadership styles, motivation, culture,
structure, complexity, lean flow, etc.) & coaching.
• Stories, anecdotes and visits to other companies.
Communication is never enough – (ADKAR)
• Positive changes and outcomes explained by naming
the underlying principles (teamwork, test&learn,
ownership, …)
• Bottom-up feedback on:
• Values
• Leadership style
• Responsibilities (outcomes)
Reality
Decentralization of decision making
 richer & faster
• Inspirational reflections to open minds.

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Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
Create a shared “mental” space
1. Common Purpose – To create
alignment of individuals
Management duties
Simon Sinek

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Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
2. Creating more responsibility
– This is not a zero-sum game
Think as if you’re in this company
with a group of friends, “it’s yours”
Empowerment  ownership
 you have tougher conversations:
straight to the main issues, proposing
objective, broaden options.
Management duties
Create a shared “mental” space
1. Common Purpose – To create
alignment of individuals
Stop complaining and waiting for
someone (manager) to fix the problems.
The “organization” does not exist.
We are the organization!
Stop complaining & let’s be protagonists!

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This needs of
People
development
+ Information
Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
2. Creating more responsibility
– This is not a zero-sum game
Put teams in direct contact with real customers!
Management duties
Create a shared “mental” space
Responsibility giving authority
1. Common Purpose – To create
alignment of individuals
Accountability
+ Motivation.
+ Feasibility.
+ Security net.
Shared purpose
Boundaries
+ Values, principles & rules
• Doing the things you have committed to, without fear of punishment.
• Taking responsibility for the things you can do something about.
Autonomy

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Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
Lead by example and encourage behaviours:
• Humbleness.
• Having no fear to test new approaches.
• Eagerness to learn.
Counterexample:
using meetings to create fear
• Fear  Underperforming organization.
• Self-protection, creativity is killed,
the organization held back.
Management - culture traits to successfully start a
transformation journey
• Meetings (cultural hack).
• Recognition of positive behaviours and
collaboration.
• Stop talking about “me” but “we”.

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Creating consciousness - Awakening the organization
Teams
We want to awake the giant
Warning if the speed of consciousness of the
management is slower than the rest of the
organization.
They’ll think and live as if they where in a different
company. A continuous de-tuning among both
sides can be dangerous.

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Inclusiveness & ownership
Increase the consciousness of the whole organization (management &
people) by working together on the company culture and structure.
Benefits:
• Better options:
• Value, impact, performance.
• People engagement:
• Creating ownership of solutions.
• Listening to people, recognition.
Examples of things to co-create:
Positive energy, recognition & fun
Otherwise, it’s end up being too tough and exhausting.
Important during these exercises:
Management duties
CO-CREATION
 Culture & Values
“System evolution”:
 Teams co-creation
 Inclusive governance
of the shared mental space

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Creating consciousness
Part 2 - A more holistic view

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Creating consciousness - A more holistic view
Employees
Customers
Shareholders
Short-medium
term purpose
Suppliers
Virtuous
circle of
value
creation
Complex
system
Company’s purpose:
Nevertheless, we’re not paying the true
cost of things: “externalities” (in, out,
production)
Customers?
Shareholders
Agile
Employees?
• Product development
• Teamwork & Motivation
• Continuous improvement
More
equitable
wealth
distribution
We need to broaden the stakeholders concept.

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Creating consciousness - A more holistic view
Society
Environment
Virtuous
circles of
value
creation
Long term
purpose
Consciousness: Far more than only creating customer & shareholders value.
Complex
system
Employees
Customers
Shareholders
Short-medium
term purpose
Suppliers
Company’s purpose:
Employees
Customers
Shareholders
Nevertheless, we’re not paying the true
cost of things: “externalities” (in, out,
production)
More
equitable
wealth
distribution
Providing value to all of them is a consequence of acting consciously.
We need to broaden the stakeholders concept.

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Creating consciousness - A more holistic view
Triple Bottom Line (TBL o 3BL)
Success is measured (accounting framework)
by triple impact:
• Financial (economic).
• Social (people).
• Environmental (or ecological).
“Profitability” concept also includes
Society and Environment, therefore
Sustainability.

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Creating consciousness - A more holistic view
Communities to look at
• Assessment of a company’s impact
on its workers, customers,
community, and environment.
• Amendment of legal governing
documents to require their board of
directors to balance profit and
purpose.
Examples of more conscious companies
Why and How
• Purpose.
• Culture.
• Conscious leadership.
• Interest groups: employees,
customers, providers and
shareholders.
H40 model

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Creating consciousness - A more holistic view
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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Creating consciousness - A more holistic view
CX &
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Quick validation & flexibility
ORGANIZATION
Small units
guided by outcomes
TECHNOLOGY
Continuous delivery
CULTURE
Collaboration, motivation, simplicity
Ownership, experimentation, servant leadership
CONSCIOUSNESS
Thinking, deciding & acting considering a broader scope: humbleness, collective intelligence, empiricism
Higher purpose, respect to stakeholders (shareholders, customers, employees, society, environment)
Business Agility
main characteristics:
Benefits
• Business sustainability & resiliency.
• Adaptation to change and emergent innovation.
• High performance in value flow.
• Engaged people, talent attraction and retention.
• Acceleration towards the organization higher
purpose - progression for humankind.

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Consciousness is key for:
• Agile culture
• Company sustainability
• Society progress and environment sustainability

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Running a business with a
conscious mindset

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Running a business with a conscious mindset
Some values and principles for a better world and more sustainable
businesses:
Higher purpose over profit
Respect to stakeholders (clients, providers, employees,
society and environment) over personal benefit
Collaboration over competition
Servant leadership over management
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more ;)

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Benefits:
 Acceleration towards the organization higher
purpose: common good, value and prosperity for
society.
 People driven organization by having customers,
providers and employees as real stakeholders.
 More engagement, talent attraction and retention
thanks also to having a company with more
transcendent purpose.
 Long term business sustainability, deeper and
stronger business resiliency based on talented
people and customers who value genuine purpose on
creating value in an healthy way.
 Progression for humankind thanks to companies
collaborating for long term visions.
 Collaboration over competition,
real alignment with human nature.
Running a business with a conscious mindset

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Our responsibility as
Agile People
Sustainable Agile

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Our responsibility as Agile People
World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate
Emergency
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806

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Our responsibility as Agile People
Agile Manifesto
Sustainable pace for people when working
Motivated individuals
Sustainable Agile
Society EnvironmentWeneedto
extendit
2001
2019

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Sustainable Agile - Implications for Agile
Company purpose &
Business models
Product development
1
2
Sustainable Agile
Society Environment
We have to review
how we are Agile
and doing Agile

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Sustainable Agile - Implications for Agile
• What is the purpose of our company?
How is it impacting people, society and
environment?
• With this holistic view, what kind of business models are we putting our effort on?
• Are they inherently non-sustainable? (Everyday they increase the societal & environment debt).
• What are we doing regarding this?
Company purpose &
Business models1
Can we devote our Agile skills to businesses that help to achieve a rapid cycle change?

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Sustainable Agile - Implications for Agile
We live in a complex environment,
we cannot only have a fragmented view
of a set of interrelated systems.
Interrelated
systems
People
(customers, providers, employees)
Society
Environment
Sounds familiar? 

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Sustainable Agile - Implications for Agile
• Design products / services
considering sustainability for employees,
society and ecological environment …
• … and even collaborating
with these stakeholders in creating
integrated solutions
Like a “cross-functional team”!
Product development2

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Sustainable Agile - Implications for Agile
• Quickly and regularly get feedback
on the effects of your product/services with
a broader vision.
• Scaling up adjusted solutions.
• We should DEEPLY ANALYSE these
complexity factors (systems thinking) BEFORE
and AFTER launching our products instead of
moving too fast to create solutions.
People
(customers, providers, employees)
Society
Environment
Product development2

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Conclusion: Paradigm change

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Higher Purpose Consciousness Sustainability
Conclusion: Paradigm change
We should help / work for these types of companies 
H40 model
A company’s business sustainability will depend on:

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Conclusion: Paradigm change
Agile is reaching the business world leaders
and line of mind researchers:
Profit with purpose is also gaining relevance in their mindset:

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Conclusion: Paradigm change
Agile is:
• Adaptation to change and innovation.
• Operational excellence.
• Engaged people.
• ... and sustainability.
Our goal: Talking about Agile and not including sustainability
should sound “not very Agile”
We have to raise the level of consciousness and educate.
This is what we do in the agile community, teach people to work better.
Our elevator pitch for ExCom’s:

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Sustainable Agile
TOGETHER WE CAN DO SO MUCH
Sustainability as a fundamental and inescapable principle of well done Agile