I delivered this keynote talk at Infosys / EdgeVerve as part of their internal business excellence event "Utkarsh" at Bangalore, Jan 11

1. What part of
“Agile Transformating”
companies don’t get???
Tathagat Varma
http://thoughtleadership.in

2. Discussion points
• Why change is hard?
• What is transformation
“transformating”?
• Top 10 Agile Transformating
Antipatterns

3. Lewin’s Force Field Analysis
Status Quo New Status
Driving Forces Restraining Forces

5. Why “refreeze”?
“A change towards a higher level of group
performance is frequently short-lived, after a
"shot in the arm", group life soon returns to the
previous level. This indicates that it does not
suffice to define the objective of planned
change in group performance as the reaching
of a different level. Permanency of the new
level, or permanency for a desired period,
should be included in the objective.”
Kurt Lewin, "Frontiers of Group Dynamics",

6. Waterfall, the “Status Quo”
Accompanied, supported,
and reinforced by –
• Mindset
• Talent
• Culture
• Structure
• Process
• Policies
• Practices
• Infrastructure
• Tools
• ...

7. Agile, the “New Status”

8. What really is “agile”?
Mindset
Culture
Process
Methods
Tools

9. So, what is “transformating”?
• A radically different change (“10X”) from a
system’s existing state to a new state,
where…
• The people consistently deliver better
results more efficiently and effectively by
continuously fine-tuning their self-defined
way of working, and…
• The system sustains the new state even
when all support mechanism, rewards and
penalties are withdrawn.

10. Barriers to Agile adoption
VersionOne 10th Annual State of Agile Report

11. Top 10 Transformating
antipatterns
1. Fixed Mindsets
2. Pigeon-holed Talent
3. Component Teams
4. Cargo Cult Agile
5. Waterfall-era Methods
6. Inefficient Tools
7. Factory-style People Practices
8. Spider Organization
9. Culture of Compliance
10. Orphaned transformation project

12. Fixed Mindsets

13. Pigeon-holed Talent
“I”-shaped “T”-shaped

14. Component Teams

15. Cargo Cult Agile
(a.k.a. “Doing Agile”)

16. Waterfall-era Engineering

17. Inefficient tools

18. Factory-Style People Practices
• Narrow job descriptions
• Fixed role and responsibilities
• Individual goal setting
• Predictability-driven KRAs
• Annual performance reviews
• Bell curve / stack ranking
• Lack of team rewards
• Fixed career paths
• Role of first-line manager
• Command-and-control
• Top-down goal-setting
• Promotions driven by “symbols of power”
• …

19. Spider Organization

20. Culture of Compliance
• Predictability and reliability are non-negotiable
• No “sandbox” to test new / bottom-up ideas
• Inspection trumps trust, authority trumps
initiative
• Deviations are shunned and mistakes are
punished
• When “means” becomes “ends”, agile ceases to
be of value
• Agile is the new waterfall!

21. Orphaned transformation
project
• Failure to embed “agile transformation”
results into the mainstream business
results diminishes its importance
• Agile transformating is successful only
when
– Customers are happier
– Business is better
– Employees are engaged

22. Recap
• A robust agile adoption at team-level is
necessary, but not sufficient.
• Starting with individual mindsets, an
organization must address its culture.
• Process is a second-class citizen in an
agile culture. People always come first.
• A successful agile “transformating” has
no finish line!