Program teams and departments will naturally form tribes, its human nature. It is the culture of the tribe that dictates its effectiveness. So, how do you move beyond a positive culture within a specific agile team to creating an entire program or department that people want to be a part of? When we launch agile programs, we tend to teach our teams about the methodology, how their roles will change and how we expect them to be collaborative. What is often forgotten is the need to help these large program teams bond, foster their sense of belonging, shape their values and instil respect for one another. Successful Agile at Scale requires explicitly creating and sustaining these attributes, building a culture beyond team’s individual identity to create a sense of tribal unity. Presented at RallyON in Washington, D.C, June 2014.

1. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
CREATING AGILE TRIBES:
The secret to succeeding
with Agile @ Scale
RallyON, 9th June 2014

2. “Birds flock, fish school, people tribe.”
- David Logan

3. DUNBAR’S NUMBER

4. SCALING AGILE
From an agile team…..
…..to an agile team of teams

5. “Teams create their own realities and control their
own destinies to a far greater extent, and far
sooner in their lives, than we generally
recognize”
- J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams

6. Stage 1:
Life
sucks!
Stage 2:
My life
sucks!
Stage 3:
I’m great!
Stage 4:
We’re
great!
Stage 5:
Life’s
great!
5 STAGES OF TRIBAL CULTURE
Source: Tribal Leadership by David Logan

7. “Businesses often forget about the culture, and
ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't
deliver good service from unhappy
employees.“
– Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos

9. 3 YEARS LATER….

10. A tribe is a group of people connected
to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin

11. CONTINUOUS “HUMAN” INTEGRATION
9:00am 9:15am 930am
9:45am
When people share rhythms with others they
develop stronger emotional bonds and are
more likely to pitch in for the common good
- Bob Sutton, Scaling Excellence
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/03/communication-cadence-heartbeat-of.html

12. CHAPTERS ARE THE GLUE
If each squad was fully
autonomous and had no
communication with other
squads, then what is the point
of having a company? Spotify
might as well be chopped into
30 different small companies.
- Kniberg & IvarssonSource: Scaling Agile @ Spotify

13. SHARED EXPERIENCE
13
13
“…vulnerability-based trust cannot be
achieved overnight. It requires shared
experiences over time…”
- Patrick Lencioni
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/01/unity-day-creating-one-team-culture.html

14. GO TO THE GEMBA
"Farming looks mighty easy when your
plow is a pencil and you're 1,000 miles
from the corn field."
— Dwight Eisenhower
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/07/leading-through-vulnerability.html

15. AGILE TEAM OF AGILE LEADERS
“the only way to systematically ensure
that you have great people at every
level is to ensure that you have great
leaders at every level – leaders who
make the people around them better"
- James Parker
CEO Southwest Airlines
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/04/being-agile-team-of-agile-leaders.html

16. LEADING THROUGH VULNERABILITY
“Vulnerability is the last thing I
want you to see in me, and the
first thing I look for in you.”
- Brene Brown
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/07/leading-through-vulnerability.html

18. VISION
Having a compelling direction is a key
condition for team effectiveness…
- J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams

19. IDENTITY
As people begin to act differently,
and as their identity evolves, it will
reinforce the new way of doing
things.
- Chip & Dan Heath, Switch

20. CELEBRATE AS A TRIBE NOT A TEAM
When you’ve celebrated moving
from 1 to 2, and then from 2 to 3,
you gain confidence that you can
make the next advance
- Chip & Dan Heath, Switch

21. Employee NPS data makes the people side of the business far more
transparent and subject to learning and experimentation.
Fred Reichheld, The Ultimate Question 2.0
On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend working in
______ to a friend or colleague? Why?
QUANTIFYING CULTURE
http://www.prettyagile.com/2013/11/measuring-team-happiness.html

22. A tribe is a group of people connected
to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin

23. We made it safe for what were already an
exceptional group of people to be their
exceptional selves at work.”
- Em Campbell-Pretty
IT’S NOT JUST FORCED FUN

24. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
QUESTIONS?