Culture

• cultural change seems to be one of the major hurdles impeding an organization’s success
• Culture is more about “The ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society.”
• also, very common that the culture within the same organization varies across various geographies
• When a team/group of cross-functional individuals work together (co-exist and collaborate) for a long period of time in the same organization by respecting and following certain organizational values; they display a unique identity of that group forming their culture
• organizational culture: culture exhibited by all the teams in an organization
• example: agile adoption can be stalled due to a culture of fear
  • fear of getting penalized for a decision going wrong
  • fear of failure to meet the commitments
  • fear of poor-quality deliverables
  • fear to be completely honest and transparent
  • fear to challenge the status quo
  • fear of lack of trust and respect among people
  • etc
• Anonymous Retrospective: to evaluate Culture of Fear
• understanding organization culture is the key to successful Agile adoption
• Scrum also places great emphasis on mindset and cultural shift to achieve business and organizational Agility
• cultural shift involves:
  • organizations must examine their existing practices with a critical eye, try new ways of doing things, and create new opportunities, coupled with commitment and nurturing at all levels within an organization
  • patience, full top-down support, constant learning, bottom-up intelligence
• Agility Attributes
  • self-organization teams
  • continuous improvement
  • frequent delivery
  • effective communication
  • adapting to the changing environment
• seeing people as people, not resources, and taking into account their feelings and needs
• focusing on the correct culture eventually leads an organization toward success in this transformation path
• care about the precise and considered use of language, since any obfuscation reduces transparency
  • we can sometimes find that the pressure is on to change Scrum terms and their meaning, so that change may be "configured" or "customized" to fit the organization
  • Scrum terms of reference can become bent and twisted around those existing contours, and the way we even think about agile change can be tugged at and constrained by organizational gravity
  • The result of acquiescing to such pressure is that
    • little change may actually happen
    • surprise and disappointment amongst stakeholders when the expected benefits do not materialize
  • An important discipline, exert small corrections, early and often, before they build up and we face a crash
• psychological safety (experienced in a group)
  • the belief that no one will be punished/humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes
  • group-level construct: is something experienced by the entire group. As a group, each individual perceives that the group will give them the benefit of the doubt when they take a risk
  • Opposed to trust (between 2 individuals): I as an individual give my fellow team members the benefit of the doubt when I take a risk
  • It's the first step towards great teams, it enables innovation, risk-taking, group decision-making, and much more
  • 3 things you can do as a leader to enable psychological safety
    • Frame the work as a learning problem, as opposed to an execution problem
    • Acknowledge your own fallibility
    • Model curiosity by asking a lot of questions
• 5 dysfunctions of a team
  • 1. ABSENCE OF TRUST
    • The fear of being vulnerable prevents team members from building trust with each other
  • 2. FEAR OF CONFLICT
    • The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles productive ideological conflict within the team
  • 3. LACK OF COMMITMENT
    • The lack of clarity and/or buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they stick to
  • 4. AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
    • The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding each other accountable for their behaviors and performance
  • 5. INATTENTION TO RESULTS
    • The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the team's focus on collective success