We had a blast providing this content at Anup Deshpande's Silicon Valley Agile Trends & Leadership meetup on 2/20/18!

1. How Leadership can ‘FORM’ an Agile Ecosystem
Brian M. Wills – President, MaxAgility Corporation / VP, Rome Agile, Agile Transformation Services
Enterprise Agile Coach, ICP-Agile Coach
CSM, CSPO, CSP, SAFe SPC, PMP, Certified Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) Practitioner (CLP)

2. Agenda
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation 2

3. Who Am I?
Brian Wills
President @ MaxAgility Corporation
VP, Agile Transformation Services @ Rome Agile
Enterprise Agile Coach
Enterprise Agile Transformation Director
Global Agile Mentoring Program (AMP) Director
ICP-Agile Coach (ICP-AC)
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
Certified LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) Practitioner (CLP)
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant (SPC)
Project Management Professional (PMP)
30-year IT & Software development industry veteran
Contact info
Email: brian@maxagility.com
3Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

4. 4
Client List

5. Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
5Source: Version One – Annual State of Agile Report
Eleven “giants” are out to destroy your Agile Transformation
… and you creating an Agile Ecosystem is critical to winning!

6. Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
6
We are uncovering better ways of producing
valuable, working Agile Transformations by
doing it and helping others do it through
the Agile Mentoring Program (AMP), a self-
organizing, cell-division framework.
-- Agile Mentoring Program (AMP)
Coalition Vision

7. AMP – Education and Mentoring – Track Listing
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
7
Track Name Audience
Agile Team Facilitator (ATF) Agile Coaches (CEC, CTC), ScrumMasters (CSM), Kanban Masters
Agile Product Owner (APO) Product Owners (CSPO), Product Managers, Chief Product
Owners, Portfolio Managers
Agile Team Member (ATM) Dev, Ops, All Agile Team Member personnel
Agile Dev Management (ADM) Dev Managers, Directors, Senior Directors, Executives*
Agile Program & Release Mgmt (APR) Project Managers (PMP), Program Managers, Release Train
Engineers (SAFe SA, LeSS), Portfolio Managers
Agile ENgineering (AEN) Agile Engineering Leadership and Team Members (Architects).
Includes CI, CD, TDD, etc.

8. Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation 8

9. What do you think is a Manager’s #1
question in an Agile Transformation?
9
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
“How does my role change in an
Agile world?”

10. O b s t a c l e R e m o v e rF u n : M a k e W o r k p l a c e E n j o y a b l e
R e w a r d Te a m M e n t o r & C o a c h Te a m
Agile Managers “FORM” the environment for successful transformations:
10
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

11. I get by with a little help from my friends
11Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
• James Prieto
• Jason Covington
• Sasha (Alex) Frumkin
• Simon Chesney
• Carla Gizzi
• Chris Gagne
• David Bakhtnia
• Danny Ortiz-Wills
• Emilia Breton

12. Each “Station” will have a Facilitator
Carla
Gizzi

13. Using our model, we’re going to teach you
how to teach others! #payitforward

14. Fun work environment
Make your Workplace Enjoyable
14Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

15. F u n : M a k e W o r k p l a c e E n j o y a b l e
Agile Managers “FORM” the environment for successful transformations:
15
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
Leadership is responsible for creating an Agile Ecosystem
that is Fun! Create a compelling, thriving workplace where
people want to come in to work every day.

16. 16
Fun workplace?!? Why?
Create Agile
CoE
Grow Scrum
Masters
Educate
Everyone
Cultivate
Community
Measure
Progress
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
43% greater productivity (Hay Group)
33% higher profitability (Gallup)
37% increase in sales (Shawn Achor - Harvard)
300% more innovative (HBR)
51% lower staff turnover (Gallup)
66% lower sick leave (Forbes)
125% less burnout (HBR)
“Happy employees are productive employees!”

17. The Anti-Pattern

18. Divide evenly across the stations in the room!

19. Facilitators will help you brainstorm on ideas to …
Make your Workplace Fun!
Fun Obstacle Remover Reward Team Mentor & Coach Team
Six minutes for group exercise

20. Obstacle Remover
20Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

21. Agile Managers “FORM” the environment for successful transformations:
21
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
O b s t a c l e R e m o v e r
When Team & ScrumMaster cannot remove Obstacles, Functional
Managers are the next level of escalation!
Obstacles include removing barriers in workplace to attain “Happy
employees are productive employees.”

22. Fun Facts!
Teams that remove their
Obstacles in less than 24 hours
double their Velocity!
22Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

23. Anatomy of an Obstacle Board
Obstacle Board
4.
Obstacles
Smashed
2.
Obstacles
Returned
to Team
1. New
Obstacles
3.
Obstacles
Being
Worked
1. SMs place new Obstacles in the "New
Obstacle" area. SM starts with Team
Board and then moves for additional
support to the SoS/Product board then
to the Director board
2. If the owner of the Obstacle board does
not understand the request or
understands it is not their area of
responsibility, they move it to the
"Return to Team" area with a
3. Obstacles being worked are placed in
the working area by the working team
and assigned to a single owner. Status
is often written as progress is made.
4. When the assigned owner convinces the
SM that an Obstacle is closed, the SM
will move the item to the "Completed"
area. Only the SM can accept
Obstacle as closed and remove the
Obstacle from board.
Written Obstacle format:
1) Obstacle: Build
Machine broken
2) Impact: Builds can't be
built and the full team is
blocked
3) What's Needed: Need
new server with xyz specs
<Date if other than ASAP>.
4) Previous Owner:
<Owner from last board>
5) Project: PCCE
6) Date
Promoted/Raised:
4-22-16/4-2-16
7) ScrumMaster:
S.M. Awesome
If the written Obstacle is
not clear then the
resolution will be slowed
down.
23

24. Let’s brainstorm on ideas to …
Remove Obstacles!
Fun Obstacle
Remover
Reward Team Mentor & Coach Team
Six minutes for group exercise

25. Reward Team
25Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

26. Agile Managers “FORM” the environment for successful transformations:
26
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
R e w a r d Te a m
Leadership must change the mindset
from rewarding individuals primarily
to rewarding teams primarily!
While rewarding individuals is still a good thing, the more
important thing is to motivate team-based behaviors.

27. W h o d o e s n ’ t l o v e c h o c o l a t e ? B o w l i n g ?
M o v i e n i g h t s c a n b e f u n ! Te a m h i k e , a n y o n e ?
Reward the Team!

28. Innovative Reward Systems!
Simon Chesney

29. Let’s brainstorm on ideas to …
Reward the Team!
Fun Obstacle Remover Reward Team Mentor & Coach Team
Six minutes for group exercise

30. Mentor & coach teams
30Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

31. Agile Managers “FORM” the environment for successful transformations:
31
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
If a Functional Manager has a technical background this can continue
to be a technical mentoring relationship
This is primarily about becoming a “professional work / life Coach.”
Employees are whole beings who have families and problems and
must know that their direct Leadership authentically cares for them.
M e n t o r & C o a c h Te a m

32. 32
Backlog: Increase Employee Engagement – Gallup’s “Q12” Metrics
Create Agile
CoE
Grow Scrum
Masters
Educate
Everyone
Cultivate
Community
Measure
Progress
Every six months, ask each person on the team these
questions rated on scale of 1 to 5:
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do
my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do
best everyday?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or
praise for good work?
5. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to
care about me as a person?
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

33. 33
Increase Employee Engagement – Gallup’s “Q12” (Cont’d)
Create Agile
CoE
Grow Scrum
Masters
Educate
Everyone
Cultivate
Community
Measure
Progress
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my
development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission of my company make me feel
like my work is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality
work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, have I talked with
someone about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work
to learn and grow?
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation

34. Mentoring & Coaching Team
Self Learning Plan – Recommended Reading
Agile Change
Agents
• Coaching
Agile Teams
by Lyssa
Adkins, Drive
by Dan Pink,
XLR8 by John
Kotter
Product
Owners
• User Stories
Applied by
Mike Cohn
Architects
• Clean Code
by Robert
Martin
Leadership
• Management
3.0 by Jurgen
Appelo
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation 34

35. Let’s brainstorm on ideas to …
Mentor & coach the Team!
Fun Obstacle Remover Reward Team Mentor & Coach Team
Six minutes for group exercise

36. Who has *courage* and wants to tell
everybody what FORM means? (2m)

37. Report out time! Pick one person from your
station and summarize your FORM highlights!
(2m each station)

38. Capture what you can do to implement FORM
at your company! (6m)

39. Before you go …
How can we improve this session for next time?

40. Event Feedback – Anonymous Vote!
Copyright © 2018 MaxAgility Corporation
40
1. How likely is it that you would recommend this
event to a friend or colleague?
2. What changes would the Presenter have to
make for you to give it a higher rating?

41. Thank you!
How Leadership can ‘FORM’ an Agile Ecosystem
Brian M. Wills – President, MaxAgility Corporation / VP, RomeAgile, Agile Transformation Services
Enterprise Agile Coach, ICP-Agile Coach
CSM, CSPO, CSP, SAFe SPC, PMP, Certified Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) Practitioner (CLP)