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Agile Challenge Transcript:

Does anyone have a pencil?

ABERNATHY: Right. So, today we're going to learn all

about Agile. And I'm going to take you through this whole
lot. So, what is Agile? We're going to start with that.
Where does this come from? What is it? When, why, where;
how to do it as well.

But you will leave here with more questions than you have
right now, but they'll all be different questions, because
you'd have answered a lot of questions here today.

So, we'll talk about what is Agile, and then we'll take you
a level up to what is Agile for leaders not just for the
teams. What are the complex issues behind Agile, what's
the wisdom behind Agile. And then we'll talk about where,
when, how and why. We'll talk about the transformation
journey; and finally, we'll have a Q&A session in there.

So, we're going to start with a game. And in this one game
is everything that Agile is. And it's really, really
powerful. So, what I'd like to do is every row, I'd like
one person to hold up a pen or a pencil. Doesn't matter

who. Whoever's got one.

We've got one there. Every row, one person. One person.

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Yes, okay. Somebody pull out a pen, pull out a pencil.

Pull out a toothbrush. Whatever it is. You've got a
finger, okay. He's got a finger, that's good. So, you're
going to be sorry for that, but it's okay.

[ LAUGHTER ]

All right. So, has every row got something? Right. So,
what I want you all to do, now, you can't do the finger.
It's going to be difficult. But you have to touch the
object, everyone in your row, and say your first name. And
what I'm going to do is I'm going to time you. When you're
done, you put up your hand, okay, as a row.

So, you just touch the object, the pencil or whatever it is

and say your name, right. Okay. Your time starts now.
Okay. Keep going, keep going. All right, all right.

So, we have the best one was around six seconds. I saw a
hand go up at six. And there were some at 14 seconds. We
get some. So, now, in Agile, there's only one question you
ask yourself always, just one question. How do I get
better? That's all. So, how do you get better? How do
you do that faster? How do you do that better?

So, your time, iteration number two, your time starts now.
Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay,

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that was great. That went from three seconds to about nine
seconds. So, that was really good. So, you were doing
some running there, and there was some leaning there. So,
you can see some people taking real initiative to get it
done.

So, now we relax and we say oh, yes, that was really
awesome. We went from eight, nine, 10 seconds down to
three seconds. Fantastic improvement. Let's relax. Oh,
no, no, no. I'm going to ask you the question again.
What's that question? How do I get better? How do I get
better? Remember that one.

So, now I'm giving you 30 seconds to think about it, 30

seconds and then we're going to do it again. So, your 30
seconds starts now.

Okay, your time starts now. Hey! How much was that? That
was one second, two seconds? Less than a second. Less
than a second. Isn't that awesome, Sean? Just in three
iterations, they went to less than a second.

So, in that one little game is everything that is Agile,

everything. So, now you're going to help me find out what

is that? What did you do, what did you do to go from

seven, eight, nine, 14 seconds down to less than a second
-- hundreds of percent improvement.

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So, Sean's going to write, and we're going to ask you to

see if you can guess and take a shot at what you did. So,
what did you all do? Can we have some? Sorry.

>> Think.

A You think, okay, good. There was thinking.

>> Practice.

A Practice. You did the practice?

>> Focused on the outcome.

A Aha, you focused on the outcome. Very, very

important. Yes.

>> [INAUDIBLE].

A You adjusted. You learned and you adjusted.

What else?

>> Prepare.

A Prepared. You actually prepared. You took

time to prepare. Did you notice the second time I didn't

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give you time. You notice that? I'm sure in your head,
you knew what you wanted to do, but there was no time
because your boss said go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Doesn't the boss do that sometimes? Start, start, start,

busy, busy, busy. No time. Of course. That's it, isn't
it? There are lots of people recognize that.
Now, now, tomorrow. No, yesterday. What else? What else
did you do?

>> Learn.

A Learn. You learned. What else?

>> Collaborate.

A Collaborate. There we go. We collaborated.

You actually collaborated. What else?

>> Measured.

A Measured. Now, you would not have known if the

changes you made are getting better or worse. The only way
you know that is measuring. At the heart of Agile is

measurement. We're all very good at measuring the

deliverables, measuring the outcome, measuring the
activities, the tasks, but we never measure the process.

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Very rarely. So, you all are going to learn how to measure
the process that you actually do the work. What else?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

A Oh, was there a little bit of copying going on

there? By the way, I'm telling you copying is good. Yes.
You can steal shamelessly, but don't call it that. Call
it borrowing brilliance.

[ LAUGHTER ]

Yes, of course. And you have to learn and watch not just
people within IBM, but people outside of IBM. How are the
others doing it? How are the other people that are doing
the similar sort of work that you all are doing, how do
they do it? What are their measures? What else?

>> Discussed.

A Sorry? Discussed. Yes, you listened to each

other and you discussed it. What else?

>> Agreed.

A You agreed. You made an agreement on the

process. You said okay, we're going to do something and

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let's get together. Right. So, I want to ask you, who was
the project manager? Who was the project manager?

You were the project manager? Was anyone else project

managers? Was there a project manager appointed? No. So,
how did you do it without a project manager? I mean, how
can anything happen without a project manager?

Now, you self-directed. You self-adjusted. Now, don't get

me wrong, Agile does need project managers so it's not that
there's no project manager; there is. But the teams very
often have the wisdom of how to do this is very well. And
Agile sort of uses that wisdom of the team, the wisdom of
the crowd to get the best solutions out there, right.

What's their leadership? Did anyone in your team show

leadership? Yes, was there a leader? Was there
leadership? Okay. Was it only one person? No. That's
it. Anyone can show leadership. and that's very important
in Agile.

You need to all be leaders to take the opportunity. Now,

sometimes leadership can be the first follower. This is
very, very tricky, actually. You think the person who gets

up is the leader. But if nobody follows them, that

person's alone.

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The second person is just as much a leader as the first.

So, remember that. It's all forms of leadership. Now,
what did you all do that actually made you go better and
better and better? What did you do in the cycle of it?

You repeated. You iterated. You want to iterate. You

want to go over. But between the iterations, what did I
do? Yes, you rehearsed. But between the iterations, what
did you do?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

A Sorry? Pressure and time and what else?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

A Evaluated the results. And what was the

question I asked?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

A How can I get better. So, when you work, we

very rarely give us time to stop and look at how we're
doing it. We're always running about and doing things,

very busy, very busy, e-mail, very busy, e-mail. So, you
have to take time to think, and you have to take time to
learn and to look at your process.

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So, there are practices in Agile that will make you do this
to actually look at. And it's fun. It's not like, oh, we
have to go for another meeting. No. These are fun things
that you will do, and I'll give you some clues of how to do
it and how to do it in a fun way as well.

So, what about the ideas? Where did that idea come from?
At the end, you were holding the pen, you all touched it
and you said your name together. You didn't say it one
after the other; you said it together. Where did that idea
come from? Where did all those... was it one person who
was in, who was in the innovation department here?
Anybody?

No. You don't need an innovation department. Ideas

bounce, and when you listen to somebody and you watch
somebody, you pick up on that idea and you think, oh, okay,
why not do this. And you've said this, somebody else says
that, and that's how innovation happens. It's not sitting
down, now we shall innovate. It doesn't happen that way.

And innovation happens when you're having fun as well. So,

we've got quite a list of things there that you all have

identified. They're basically principles. They're all the

principles of Agile. That's all.

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Now, underneath that, what did you all do, what were the
values you showed to each other to actually do those
principles? What were the human values that you showed to
each other?

>> Respect.

A Respect, yes. You respected each other. You

didn't say, if Mary said, "why don't we get up," shut up.

[ LAUGHTER ]

You didn't do that, because then there's no respect. It's

finished, straightaway finished. So, you have to respect
each other.

What else was underneath? Trust. You had to trust each

other. You didn't think, oh, if I give him my pencil,
he'll open the door and go away home, because he needs a
pencil. You thought about it, I know, but...

[ LAUGHTER ]

But you trust each other. You trust each other that you're

working towards the same outcome. You trust each other

that you will work towards, let's say, achieving the goals
that you'll have discussed.

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What else? So, in Agile, there are two other very

important values. They're human values. They're not
values you have to go to school to learn; they're in us.
One is courage. I call it the mother of all values,
because without courage, it's difficult.

Do you notice how it's a bit difficult to stand up, to say

something in such a big crowd as well. It takes a little
bit of effort, even to put your hand up and give a
suggestion, doesn't it? Be honest. Yes, it is. It takes
courage. So, you have a lot of set ways.

What is that, BTMT 193, BTMT 196. All your processes, all
your procedures, we're going to challenge them. We're
going to challenge every single one of them, because you're
going to find out if that's going to stop you getting
better or help you getting better. So, you need courage.

And the last one is openness. You must have certain amount
of transparency, certain amount of openness. Now, if you
don't share your outcomes, if you don't discuss, if you
don't collaborate, you said you'd talk to each other. Then
you won't be able to achieve it. You must have honesty and

openness.

So, if you look at the board there, we've got a list of

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values. So, Agile is nothing but a set of human values.

Those human values, do you practice that at home? Yes? Do
you have it with your families, with your loved ones?
Exactly. It's the same human values. They're nothing
different.

On this side, these are the principles. So, on top of

these values is a set of principles that you automatically
knew. Nobody had to teach you how to do all this. You
just knew it.

So, let us supposing we take photographs of that now, and

we make posters and put it up on every wall in your
building. Will it change the way you work? No. But we
all know these values and principles, so why won't it
change?

It won't change because we have behaviors, and the only way

to make these values and principles come alive is to have a
set of practices. So, when you practice something, doing
it a certain way, then your behavior changes. When your
behavior changes, you live the values and principles. That
becomes your habit. That becomes your culture. And that's
what Agile is, agile is a way of working.

But most other things, they'll just tell you these are your
principles, these are your values. Let's put it up on the

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wall. Be innovative. Yes, okay, hello. It doesn't work.

But when you get the practices and you do the practices,
you'll automatically be innovative, right?

So, that's all Agile is, a set of values, principles, and

practices that will change your behaviors and create a
great place to work and a great culture.
[END OF SEGMENT]

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