Think Like an Agilist: Practicing Agile culture using difficult

scenariosJason Yip

jcyip@thoughtworks.comj.c.yip@computer.org

@jchyiphttp://jchyip.blogspot.com

Raise your hand if you believe culture is important for Agile

Think about what how you understand what is meant by “culture”.

Raise your hand once it’s clear in your head.

Keep your hand up if you believe that your understanding is the same as everyone in the room

“BUT we definitely

consider culture important”

“We don’t have a clear understanding of

culture.”

“We don’t have a shared understanding

of culture.”

Edgar Schein: 3 Levels of Culture

Artefacts

Espoused Values

Underlying Assumptio

ns

Visible organisational structures and processes

Strategies, goals, philosophies

Unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings

IF the foundations of “culture” are assumptions…

THEN in order to understand Agile culture, we need to understand the underlying assumptions of Agile

So how might we engage with our “shared, tacit assumptions”?

Effective tactical leaders think differently about situations than ineffective ones

“What are their interests?” “They’re all out to get me!”

Run students through very difficult scenarios to expose and correct weaknesses in their thinking processes

Deliberate

practice for

culture?

Think Like a Commander

Think Like an Agilist is an approach I’ve created to expose how we think about a situation in order to allow us to practice Agile culture

Our most challenging Agile scenarios!

Talk through your thought process

What would you do? Why?

THINK LIKE AN AGILIST

Let’s try it!

Thinker:Respond to the scenario using think-aloud

Scribe (1 or more):Capture the thoughts; remind Thinker to think-aloud

Think Aloud Protocol

• Describe what you are thinking, feeling, noticing, questioning so that the Scribe can capture it• What do you notice? want? suspect?• What questions do you have?• What actions would you take?• What else is passing through your head?

“Oh yeah, I

actually considered

that”

“I would have thought of that”

But if you were thinking aloud, we can see that you didn’t think of that and didn’t consider it

Warning! Scenarios may will be more unfair than reality• No body language to read• No other background available• Not allowed to ask for

clarification (you can actually ask, but I likely won’t clarify)

SCENARIO ONE

Think Aloud Protocol Template

• Describe what you are thinking, feeling, noticing, questioning so that the Scribe can capture it• What do you notice? want? suspect?• What questions do you have?• What actions would you take?• What else is passing through your head?

DISCUSSION ONE

Assess the response

• What do the Thinker’s responses communicate about his/her underlying assumptions?• For example,

• What factors are important when addressing a problem?

• Who should be involved in problem-solving?• Etc.

• What would you have done differently?• Why? What is different for your assumptions?

END SCENARIO ONE

Did you learn something about your underlying assumptions that you did not previously

know?

Scenario

What do I think?

Why do I think that?

Metacognition Culture

What are Agile assumptions?

1. ?2. ?3. ?4. ?

Other potential assumptions

1. The people closest to the problem should be involved in the problem-solving

2. Smaller steps are better than bigger steps3. Don’t take a step until you know how to validate it4. It’s better to clean up as you go then it is to make a big

mess and fix later

SCENARIO TWO

DISCUSSION TWO

Assess the response

• What do the Thinker’s responses communicate about his/her underlying assumptions?

• What would you have done differently?• Why? What is different for your assumptions?

END SCENARIO TWO

Overall impressions?

REPLAY

Underlying assumptions are the essence of culture

Consider how you think and what you believe (aka

foundation of culture) not just what you do (aka artefacts of culture)

You can practice culture using think-aloud scenarios

Adjustments if you do this yourself• Use small groups (3 – 4)• Use your own scenarios• Focus on the culture you want

THE END