[ APPLAUSE ]

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'll 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. 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.

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.

Yeah, okay. Somebody pull out a pen. Pull out a pencil.

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Pull out a toothbrush, whatever it is. You've got a

finger, okay. He's got a finger, that's good.

You're going to be sorry for that, but it's okay. All

right. So, has every row got something? Right. So, what

I want you all to do, no, 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, just touch the object, the pencil or whatever it is and

say your name. 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. You know, we got some.

So, 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.

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 All right, all right. Okay. Okay. Okay. 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 could see some people taking real

initiative to get it done. So, now we relax and we say oh,

yeah, that was really awesome, we went from eight, nine,

ten seconds down to three seconds. Fantastic improvement.

Let's relax.

Oh, 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? It was one second, two seconds.

Less than a second. Less than a second. Isn't that

awesome, Shawn? 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 all do...what did you all do to go

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from seven, eight, nine, 14 seconds down to less than a

second?

Hundreds of percent improvement. So, Shawn'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? Yeah? Sorry.

>> Think.

>> You think. Okay good. There was thinking.

>> Practice.

>> Practice, you did the practice. Aha. You

focused on the outcome. Very, very important.

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> You adjusted. You learned and you adjusted.

What else?

>> Prepared.

>> Prepared. You actually prepared. You took

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

give you time. You noticed that? I'm sure in your head

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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. Yeah, of course. That's it,

isn't it? There are lots of people recognize that. Now,

tomorrow. No, yesterday. Okay. What else? What else did

you do? Learn. You learned. What else?

>> Collaborate.

>> Collaborate, there we go. We collaborated,

yeah. You actually collaborated. What else?

>> Measured.

>> 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. Very rarely. So, you

all are going to learn how to measure the process that you

actually do the work. What else?

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>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> 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 ]

Yeah, of course, and you have to learn and watch not just

people within IBM, but people outside 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?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> Sorry?

>> Discussed.

>> Discussed. Yeah, you listened to each other

and you discussed it. What else?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> You agreed. You made an agreement on the

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

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 there 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 is no project manager. There is. But the teams very

often have the wisdom of how to do things 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? 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. The second person is just as much a leader

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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 iterate. You want to iterate. You

want to go over. But between the iterations, what did I

do? Yeah, you rehearsed. But between the iterations, what

did you do?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> Sorry?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> Pressure and time and what else?

>> Evaluated the results.

>> Evaluated the results. And what was the

question I asked? 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. Email, very busy, email. So, you have to take time

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to think, and you have to take time to learn. And to look

at your process.

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 the...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 sifting

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 have

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identified. Basically, principles. They're all the

principles of Agile. That's all.

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. Yeah, you respect the 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 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.

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.

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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. Yeah, 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. You'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 talked

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 values. So, Agile is

nothing but a set of human values. Those human values, do

you practice that at home? Do you have it with your

families, with your loved ones?

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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. But 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

wall. Be innovative.

Yeah, okay, hello. Doesn't work. But when you get the

practices and you do the practices, you'll automatically be

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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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