2. People 2.1. Culture

When talking about Agile culture, it is usually referred to as a set of shared values, principles, and behaviours as well as certain practices. A good point to start is the Agile manifesto1, with its description of the core principles such as the following, which are particularly relevant for our workbook:

• Individuals and interaction over processes and tools

• Limiting work in process

• Self-organization

• Continuous and incremental delivery

So how can an Agile culture be created? Isn’t culture per definition something that cannot be changed directly? At least that’s something that we hear at every corner: “You can’t change culture directly. It is too complex for that.”

The good news is that we are not that powerless after all. Culture can be changed—somewhat directly even. Of course, social systems are complex in nature and therefore a mechanistic approach will fail. In complex systems mono-causal explanations don’t work. Changing a culture is not as linear as modifying a machine. However, there are things that can be done to influence the behaviour of people within an organization. After all, we can change the framework conditions within which culture emerges. Changing these conditions requires working on the formal side of an organisation. This can take different forms. Examples could be to introduce new processes or establishing new pathways for communication. Setting up new/different roles could also be an example of this. In a law firm, frameworks that can be changed to cause a culture change are new systems for revenue and bonus sharing or new commercial models (e.g. value pricing).

The informal side of an organization (=culture) will react to changes on the formal side. So, after changing something on the formal side, we need to observe what emerges. From this we can learn more about how our system reacts and deepen our understanding of how we can change it.

It seems impossible to talk about Agile culture without mentioning the infamous Agile mind- set. We won’t go into too much detail here, but there are a few things to consider. First and foremost, consider your wording carefully. People generally don’t appreciate it if someone wants to mess around in their heads. So, talking about how you want to change their mindset can produce a good amount of resistance against whatever you are trying to achieve. Instead of trying to change people’s core beliefs, try aiming at observable behaviour. After all, what someone’s values and core beliefs are is not that relevant if the results are there. In other words: start with providing a frame for desirable (observable) behaviour and an Agile mindset can follow. Or not. It’s not necessarily relevant. What’s relevant is that things work, and value is delivered.

Story

Our team groups itself

Alice’s idea to make her team more independent of her as an attorney is indeed a match—self- organization is a key principle in Agile work.

It was the right decision to give Agile a try with a distinct project, a medium-sized matter in this case. They will not be able to change the whole law firm in one go and this project seems to have features that are a fit for Agile. That said, if they determine it is not working, they could still go back to their standard way of working.

Now that Alice, our partner in the firm, has decided to work in an Agile manner, she needs to set up the team. It is evident that the Agile team will consist of herself and her associates: Fiona and Gabriel. However, she’ll need to decide whether Igor as the IT specialist will be part of the team or someone they might just selectively ask for help. Similarly, on the client’s side, Bob and Caleb might or might not be part of the team. Later that evening, this starts to trouble Alice as she has no experience and no answers. The next morning, she decides that she will share her open questions with the team, so they know the reason for the delay in the setup. About two hours after their team meeting, Gabriel comes into her office and asks her whether she would be okay for him to openly discuss the matter, which she is. He has come up with a suggestion for the team setup, which Alice is curious about. It turns out that Fiona and Gabriel had discussed the matter and have found they share a very similar feeling: try it out with a small team, i.e. a core group consisting of the three of them. After hearing the argument, Alice concurs and decides they will go for a small team for this project.