Conflict in Agile Teams
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This document discusses the importance of conflict in agile teams. It notes that conflict is necessary for good ideas, innovation, and creativity to occur as it involves human interaction, argument, debate. It also references that peace is not the absence of conflict but the ability to cope with it. The document suggests agile teams need conflict and provides several approaches for addressing conflict such as using a fist of five technique, focusing on people over process, building empathy, and using conflict tools.
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Conflict in Agile Teams
- 3. Conflict refers to some form of friction, disagreement, or discord arising within a group when the beliefs or actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable to one or more members of another group. Wikipedia
- 4. Why is conflict important? For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate. Margaret Heffernan Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas. Donatella Versace Peace is not absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it Ghandi
- 5. Patrick Lencioni - 5 Dysfunctions of teams
- 8. Context
- 9. Wider Org Incentives • Draw a picture of competing incentives
- 10. The General
- 14. Business Analyst
- 19. Fist of Five
- 26. Sweep the Sheds Follow the spearhead Champions do extra Keep a blue head Leave the jersey in a better place
- 27. Pic of Lego Model
- 28. Feedback
Editor's Notes
- My name is Stephen Mounsey and today i am going to talk about conflict in agile teams. I am from a small town in the lakes called Appleby and its really nice to be talking at Agile Manchester so a big thanks to the organisers for letting me come here and speak. My twitter is my name so that’s handy and that is the blog sketch and scrum where I write slightly longer things mainly just thoughts for myself and as a cathartic practice. I work for a small consultancy based out of Leeds called Infinity Works. Today i am going to talk about why conflict is an important issue for us agilists, how many organisations are set up for conflict and talk about the critical conflict in a lot of organisations and then talk about a particular team I worked with who were very high conflict and what i tried to make them a more effective team. Bet you are all thinking you are here for an argument…..
- Today i am going to talk about why conflict is an important issue for us agilists, organisations are set up for conflict and talk about the critical conflict in a lot of organisations and then talk about a particular team I worked with who were very high conflict and what i tried to make them a more effective team. So you saw the title and though ahh conflict, i am going for an argument Monty Python style https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTmBjk-M0c
- Conflict refers to some form of friction, disagreement, or discord arising within a group when the beliefs or actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable to one or more members of another group.
- People have studied conflict levels and where no conflict was induced team members were more flexible in their thinking and more creative in their problem solutions. Which is kind of what we do we solve a lot of problems, business, technical problems to create capability. Studies have shown that problem solving abilities reduce in high conflict situations. You actually lose IQ points. However when participants anticipated a competitive hostile negotiation or high conflict flexibility and creative thinking decreased. Cognitive load created by high conflict inhibits our thinking process The call to an Agile coach scrum master is to help the team see that the right level of conflict as normal - and useful - if it remains constructive. Conflict seething just below the surface is clearly not constructive however
- Agile gives us a cure for the top but not for the bottom Why is conflict important Absence of trust; Google analysis of their teams and Psychological safety was the number one factor – the team needs to feel safe to raise differences Conflict, a fear of conflict the teams have artificial harmony and don’t debate and discuss ideas https://medium.com/positiveslope/kill-the-elephants-in-the-room-before-they-kill-you-9ccfbcc429fb – Scott Belksy Ultimately, you want a team that values conflict as a means to making bolder decisions and taking the required risks for a more exciting end.
- Agile gives us cures for each inattention to results - Sprint reviews, retrospectives accountability - Stand ups and sprint goals Commitment - Timeboxes, retro actions, sprint goals but not the bottom two psych safety - Google Conflict - Agile doesn’t give you any tools for that not even the 14 hours of training you get to become a Scrum MASTER??? https://wordpress.com/post/sketchandscrum.com/590
- Collaboration means conflict Consensus based decision making means conflict Transparency means conflict Agile places a premium on transparency. Transparency allows problems to surface and be squashed. Without transparency, problems can fester, grow and ultimately become insurmountable. But with the good comes the bad. With increased transparency, there is also an opportunity for more disagreements, and conflict within the team and with external stakeholders. The trick is to understand how much of the team's time should be dedicated to resolving the conflict. Agile principle: Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- Lot’s of tech debt Highly conservative company Been through an agile transformation - trying to do Scrum (scrum master academy) Within a regulated industry Shared services team rest of company product teams Which is just a bad idea anyway really became a finance team. Product teams with VMOST and missions PO from relevant business areas What was my role- Agile coach working across 5 squads embed agile practices
- Shared vision and goal to unite the team. Everyone pushes towards that shared goal Not Spotify model – matrix management and everybody had competing individual priorities even within the team. Talk through. Also mention the bonus scheme We also had a classical IT critical conflict the Infosec Ops and Development – reference Dev Ops Handbook. Each of these had competing priorities. Ivory tower architects Are you kidding yourself that you are part of a team but you are actually following your own personal agenda? if we argue from entrenched positions rather than the spirit of mutual exploration we are unlikely to get far quote
- Can anybody guess what role the general might have been? Pushing work into the team, when can we do this, how can we do that Doing lot’s of things at once for the team and both personally Only ever at half a meeting Gantt chart – Pushing own planning agenda. Team heavily resistant Command and control PM who thought PO was not important and he had control. Worked behind teams backs. Try to make decisions on behalf of teams crow bar pieces of work into the team. The Gantt chart! Sit down with the team and the PM and facilitate a discussion
- Doesn’t want the detail Delivering a roadmap Motivating the team – always very positive Delivering an Aston martin via helicopter Mis understand – No business context not a subject matter expert given we were Wanted the Last word Pushed the team to do more points than they wanted. Didn’t listen to the team
- Anybody recognise this person? Yes its dennis form Jurassic Park I am totally unappreciated in my time! We can run the whole park from this room, with minimal staff, for up to three days. You think that kind of automation is easy? Or cheap? You know anybody who can network eight Connection Machines and de-bug two million lines of code for what I bid this job? Because I'd sure as hell like to see them try! Never Wrong Own rules - pulling ticket into sprint without telling anyone Doesn’t test even though its in the team definition of done. Thinks this should be done by testers with the right mindset Lazy – Wouldn’t do tickets. Outside smoking getting drinks, talking to people (Reminds me of the man from Jurassic park
- Loads of product knowledge No tech experience – doesn’t want to get involved Devs can’t test Never Wrong Confrontational almost a bully at times - never admit was wrong Last word in an argument Testers had problems with the PO in particular because they challenged him on understanding and detail. if we argue from entrenched positions rather than the spirit of mutual exploration we are unlikely to get far quote – @flowchannle sensi
- Kept the team together acted as scrum master Lot’s of upfront analysis, personally over analysed all situations Worried Organised Felt the business were his customer and worked hard to satisfy them
- Roles and responsibilities – Herculean doughnut (tasty cupcakes) Stack of post its white board. Take a post it discuss it with the group and then upon consensus put it on the board Gets the team to agree and discuss where they want to put it Not a top down old school RACI matrix
- High conflict stand ups, retros. People talking over each other, summarising hell. I took retros at the highest conflict moments. People in retro with laptops phones, disrespecting work SM was doing. Stress coaching bringing people within the team back to competency mode. Listening and allowing emotion to subside and good thinking to resume. Stress coaching – zombie apocalypse, oxytocin, picture of loved ones, phone someone you love Listening - Calm people down when emotions emerge good thinking fails Nancy Kline quote Shared SM role Foam ball - Talking over each other (Need strong facilitation, take it down a level, raising voices) Rotating facilitation of stand up, dysfunctional scrum game Summarising hell – people putting there own slant on things, never ending stand up! Ending ritual, retail for life or fist pump. (you can do this with remote teams too)
- Prep Read some books – Crucial conversations reference (Conversations about winning) Agile coaching section on conflict and mediation Models Asked colleagues Conflict Lunch and Learn Conflict Session (Pizza)Introduced the models Scale and tools Ran some exercises and scenarios split into teams and discussed how we would deal with them
- Lyssa Adkins – Coaching agile teams Agile conflict Level 1: In the level 1 of agile conflict, the agile team identifies the problem rising in the project. The team discusses and shares about the problem among the team members and also along with the agile project leader. This level of conflict is a constructive problem solving phase that is common to all high level agile projects. Agile conflict Level 2: In level 2 of agile conflict, the conflict becomes a matter of disagreement among the agile team members. The agile team members begin to distance themselves from each other. Due to various problems they stop taking the initiative for resolving the conflict. Although this level doesn’t witness an open war but all the team members ideally wait for some other to enter and resolve the conflict. Agile conflict Level 3: In level 3 of agile conflict, multiple problems left unresolved causes difficult positions inside the agile team. Different groups within the same team are build up and every agile team member stand supporting on one or the other group. In that case the conflict becomes like a contest and more than resolving the issue the focus is more highlighted on winning rather than compromising. Agile conflict Level 4: In level 4 of agile conflict the contest becomes a crusade. In this level the groups started thinking that the other group will never change and therefore must be decimated. Positions get replaced and the only focus is on protecting one’s belonging group. Agile conflict Level 5: In level 5 of agile conflict, the conflict becomes a war where no solution seems to be arising. Here, it literally heads to complete destruction by mutual consent. This is the highest difficulty level of agile conflict.
- One of the challenges of a consensus-based approach is to understand if you have found an inclusive solution and reached agreement, or if you need to continue the process and do more work. An agreement scale helps you with this. Roman Pichler Fist of five – 5 - I whole-heartedly endorse it 4 - I agree with minor reservations 3 - It’s not great but I can support it 2 - I disagree 1 - I veto the proposal. Thumbs up down neutral too, adopted on occasion by the team
- Thomas Killman Conflict Instrument model to the teams. Parenting I have two kids 3 and 2. They have arguments get annoyed with each other. If Ayrton is annoying you come and find an adult. Talk to Ayrton Crucial conversations silence or violence. Try to stay in dialogue Competitive At the competitive level, a person takes a position and sticks to it. Company owners and upper management often negotiate from a competitive level of conflict resolution. With the competitive level, the leader states what he wants. The leader should be persuasive and have the knowledge to back up the request. This style is useful for fast decisions or when there is a lot of resistance to change. If not careful, the person who uses this level of conflict resolution may offend others. Collaborative (Working to get the team to this win-win not always possible) At the collaborative level, all ideas are deemed important and considered. Collaboration takes a look at all of the needs and opinions of a situation and tries to come up with a solution that uses the best of those ideas. Kilmann, in his book "Introduction to Conflict and Teams: Enhancing Team Performance Using the TKI," recommends using this style when there is a history of extreme conflict in a group. Compromising The compromising level accomplishes a solution that keeps everyone partly happy. However, each person will still need to give up something to come to a compromise. Kilmann recommends the compromising level for situations where a deadline is knocking at the door and the conflict prevents completing a project. Accommodating Use an accommodating level in situations where the outcome is not vital, but solving the conflict is. Using this style means the leader gives up his own stance on a situation and allows others their way. It can help bring peace to a volatile situation and build goodwill, so when management must use a different level, employees are open to a more assertive tone. Avoiding At the avoiding level, the person simply refuses to make a decision. Kilmann warns that this is a particularly weak response to conflict but that it can be appropriate in situations where the outcome does not matter. Another time to use this level is when there is a person better suited to make the decision but he needs incentive to step into a leadership role.
- Anybody know what this is. Yes Mortal Combat. You didn’t think you were coming for a quiz of the 90s did you! Initially tried letting the team go at it and raise disagreements No one looked forward to the retrospectives argumentative and attacking – Abandoned usual retro formats focused on building empathy within the team for others roles. Positive Feedback format. I am going to run you through a few of the retrospective formats i used. Created a safe space for the team to air disagreements Having a team let it out sessions were not working. Conflict only escalating People on their laptops in meetings. Restarted, call people out. One where JM had to call people out was devastated, felt like he was pulling the team through his agenda. Breaking team agreements
- Retrospectives with Empathy the empathy survey. post it an improvement the team could make something which had gone well. favourite band and last meal. Names in hat pass the hat around and ask the first person to read out the name and then guess the answers that person had given. Trying to get them to out themselves into the team members shoes. Also good because limited amount of possible improvements Grren – red empthy
- Gifted appreciation as an intro. Has been adopted by scrum masters continues to be used regularly.
- Renewing our vows (50 ideas for retros) Definitely not adhered to. Attack in almost every meeting. Elements in here that feel more like a contract than a agreement Definition of done also a contract but not adhered too Crafting and re-crafting a working agreement Agile manifesto people over process
- Good to Great teams Sweep the Sheds Follow the spearhead in Maori, whanau means 'extended family'. It's symbolised by the spearhead. No D************s Champions do extra Keep a blue head Leave the jersey in a better place eams
- Sweep the sheds - Personal humility follow the spearhead - in Maori, whanau means 'extended family'. It's symbolised by the spearhead. No D************s Champions do extra - Finding that incremental small improvement. Similar to team Skys 1% improvement Keep a blue head - blue head optimal state, staying grounded. NLP anchoring staring at the furthest point in the stadium Leave it in a better place -
- Team behavioural analysis - barefoot coaching course PG Cert Lego model make a model as a team to model your last iteration mark behaviours Reflect back Better if more invested in the game - run it in teams with a winner and prize
- Taking each person aside having a chat asking things from them. NO blame, stays between me and them. I had no agenda, independent party with no power – nothing went further Hard for me as a people pleaser Context Wrap – Jurgen Apello Describe your context. List your observations. Express your emotions. Sort by value. End with suggestions. Non-Violent Communication
- Dev/Test collaboration Sit them together BDD as a means of collaboration between dev and test Test insisting things should be fixed (unit test example) No blame Team agreements – Dev just bring a card in and not talk to anyone (pull everyone into a room and talk about it). Test blockers, testing the UI >>> BDD
- Whats next! Created with HR a Conflict session get each team in a rom and talk specifically about conflict. Kilman method, extroverts/introverts. Session for the teams to specifically discuss conflict. stephen coveys emotional bank account Stress retro – How do you notice when Reading Hostage negotiation
- Empathy stops the winning at all costs behaviour Voting works well, conflict scales to realise when we are too high and come back to a productive level of conflict Challenge to us as team members and coaches is to see disagreement as positive to teams but not to allow that conflict to go too far up the conflict scale