https://www.productmanagementtoday.com/frs/24916769/the-key-to-agile-team-motivation/email Agile was a grassroots engineering movement that caught most software leaders unprepared. The Agile community was confident that management would recognize the benefits of Agile and adopt its servant-leadership style. Unfortunately, management in larger organizations maintained the directing and controlling management style that had been reinforced throughout their careers, violating the Agile tenet of trusted, self-motivated Agile teams. Agile has been impeded by retention of Waterfall release planning practices and schedule pressure. Management was never taught how to establish the positive and supportive environment necessary to motivate self-directed teams, resulting in disappointing Agile transitions. Organizations can improve predictability by building Agile teams motivated to achieve results. In this webinar, attendees will learn: • Motivation organizational behavior principles for engineering leaders • An alternative to pressure to achieve superior results • How to establish the supportive environment critical for motivation of self-directed teams • How to do Agile the way it was conceived! Engineering leaders are provided with methods and practices supported by established organizational behavior principles they can apply. It’s presented by an experienced engineering leader for product development leaders.

5. Summary
 “Agile” has missed expectations in most organizations
 Management was not prepared for self-directed teams
 Traditional management methods are incompatible with Agile motivation
 Agile transitions require culture change
Agile was conceived as a naturally motivational environment

6. Your Agile teams?
Motivated Unmotivated Pressured
Enthusiastic Collaboration Individual contributors Finger-pointing
Do what’s necessary Wait to be told Accountable
Accept new challenges Avoid accountability Resist new challenges
Overcome obstacles Wait on others Make excuses
Extra effort to meet goals Regular hours Minimum effort to get by
Set and achieve Sprint objectives Meet assigned goals
Miss assigned goals

7. Ideal Agile Development
Initiatives
Product
Manager
Operations
Sales
MVPs
Prioritized
Backlog
Product
Owner
Agile Team

8. Is this your organization?
• Bloated releases
• Missed schedules
• Frustrated and demotivated teams
Product Management
Sales
Operations
• Features
• Schedules
• Priority Changes
Agile Teams
Pressure
Pressure

9. Motivation is an organizational behavior
issue
A reason for acting or behaving in a particular way
English Oxford Living Dictionaries

11. Behaviors
and Results
All results in your organization
are products of behavior
Behaviors can be increased
through positive or negative
reinforcement
Frequent and timely
reinforcement establish intrinsic
motivation

12. Positive
Reinforcement
 Individual anticipates
positive outcome following a
behavior or result
 Example
 Developer recognized by
team for completing a task
on Kanban board

13. Negative
Reinforcement
 Individual anticipates
negative outcome for not
performing behavior or
achieving result
 Example
 Developer completes task to
avoid being called out at
next week’s project
meeting

14. The Nebulous “Employee Engagement"
Goal
Time
R- Minimum to avoid punishment
R+ Added performance in anticipation
of positive consequences

16. Certificate of Appreciation
Awarded to
John Smith
Thank you for your stellar performance!
Kiana Anderson, Operations Manager
Date

17. System of Positive Reinforcement
 Natural positive reinforcement for behaviors that produce results
Agile Development

18. How do we know they’re working as hard as they can?

20. “Intrinsic Motivation”
Stimulation that drives an individual to adopt or change a behavior for his
or her own internal satisfaction or fulfillment. Intrinsic motivation is
usually self-applied, and springs from a direct relationship between the
individual and the situation.
Business Dictionary

21. Intrinsic Motivation?

22. Establishing Habits

23. Traditional Management Training
 Individual accountability
 Delegation
 “SMART” goals
 Project Tracking
 Performance reviews
Irrelevant to self-directed teams and Agile development!

24. Agile
Management
Training
Positive versus negative reinforcement
Empowerment and trust
Systems of positive reinforcement
Agile planning
Supportive management

25. Four Steps
to Agile
Motivation
Recognize the essential leap from
negative to positive reinforcement
Determine your positivity umbrella
Establish your Agile system of positive
reinforcement
Change management behavior from
controlling to supporting

26. Choose the word that best describes
how you feel about your work
1 2 3 4 5
Pressured Frustrated OK Motivated Excited

27. Your Agile Engagement Level
2.5

28. Engagement Survey Components

29. Your Agile team should be achieving Sprint objectives > 90% of time
Let them do Agile!
 Teams set Sprint goals
 Sprints are stable
 Physical Kanban board
 Flexible feature planning

30. Flexible Release Content
Prioritized Features
Sprint
In Release
Target
Out
External Commitments

31. “Culture”
Culture is defined by the pattern of
behaviors observed in an organization
Culture is based on behaviors
reinforced in your organization

32. Where can you establish your R+ boundary?
CEO
VP Product
Development
VP Product
Management
PMO
VP Engineering
Director
Engineering
Engineering
Manager
Higher the better
But higher levels tend to use R-

33. Frequent Social Peer Recognition
Kanban Boards Demonstrations Information Radiators

34. Supportive
Management
 Populated by Scrum Masters
 Obstacles owned by project
or line managers
 Weekly review with director
or VP
Obstacle Complete
In Process

35. Management
Staff Meeting
 Recognition for progress on
Obstacle Kanban board
 Success stories
 Recognize managers for actions
they have taken to support the
systems of positive reinforcement

36. Medical Device Company Example

37. From This...

38. To This…

39. Choose Your Side!