Co-Creating Vision for Change Success | Sara Caldwell

Summary

Podcast Summary: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast – "Co-Creating Vision for Change Success" with Sara Caldwell

Episode Details

• Title: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
• Episode: Co-Creating Vision for Change Success | Sara Caldwell
• Host: Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner
• Release Date: December 11, 2024

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte engages in a compelling conversation with Sara Caldwell, an experienced Agile Coach and Scrum Master. The discussion centers around the pivotal role of vision in agile transformations and the significance of co-creating this vision with the entire team to ensure successful change management.

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The Pitfalls of Commanding a Vision

Sara Caldwell begins by reflecting on her early experiences during an agile transformation. Eager to steer her team towards success, she initially took it upon herself to craft a compelling vision solely based on her understanding and aspirations.

"[00:57] Sarah Caldwell: ...essentially what I was doing was command and controlling a vision. I was command and controlling a dream. I was saying this is how you should be acting."

This approach, though well-intentioned, led to a disconnect between her vision and the team's commitment. Sara acknowledges that by dictating the vision without team involvement, she inadvertently stifled the self-organizing nature of agile teams.

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The Shift to Co-Creating Vision

Recognizing the shortcomings of her initial approach, Sara emphasizes the importance of involving team members in the vision creation process. She advocates for leveraging techniques akin to those used by product owners and user experience professionals, such as focus groups, retrospectives, and one-on-one interviews.

"[03:30] Sarah Caldwell: ...lightweight interview questions. What are some things that you value? What do you want us to be doing? What do you want us to be saying."

By adopting these collaborative methods, Sara was able to gather diverse perspectives, ensuring that the resulting vision resonated with the entire team. This shift from a top-down to a bottom-up approach not only fostered greater buy-in but also accelerated the change process.

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Techniques for Collecting Team Narratives

Delving deeper, Sara shares practical techniques for extracting meaningful narratives from team members:

1. Focus Groups and Retrospectives: Utilizing structured sessions to gather collective insights.
2. One-on-One Conversations: Engaging in personal dialogues to understand individual values and aspirations.
3. Anthropological Approaches: Drawing from her background in anthropology, Sara underscores the importance of observation and curiosity over leading questions.

"[06:57] Sarah Caldwell: ...pull from my anthropological background. It's really about, you know, while you are a part of the system team, you're more observing and getting curious and not asking leading questions."

Sara also highlights the influence of Dave Snowden's sense-making tools, which aid in identifying patterns and themes from the collected stories, ultimately shaping a vision that is truly collaborative.

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Creating a Safe Environment for Sharing

A critical aspect of effective vision co-creation is ensuring that team members feel safe to share their genuine thoughts and feelings. Sara points out that in environments laden with bureaucracy or where feedback might be scrutinized by leadership, individuals may hesitate to express themselves openly.

"[06:36] Sarah Caldwell: ...such as creating space for them to really share what matters to them is so important."

To mitigate this, she recommends using anonymous surveys and leveraging tools like ChatGPT to design non-leading questions that encourage honest and uninhibited responses.

"[07:00] Sarah Caldwell: ...ensure that these surveys are not leading and that you're not falling into some of the traps related to how survey questions are structured."

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Host's Insights and Further Discussion

Vasco Duarte complements Sara's insights by reinforcing the necessity of differentiating between setting a strategic direction and co-creating the journey towards it. He draws parallels with project management, emphasizing that roles should evolve to facilitate team-driven work definitions rather than merely documenting and conveying tasks.

"[04:59] Vasco Duart: ...the role of the project manager in this context is to help the people doing the work to define the work that needs to be done instead of documenting and communicating that work."

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Key Takeaways

1. Collaborative Vision Creation: Involving the team in crafting the vision ensures greater alignment and ownership, leading to more effective and sustainable change.
2. Effective Communication Techniques: Utilizing focus groups, retrospectives, and one-on-one interviews helps in gathering diverse narratives and building a cohesive vision.
3. Safe Sharing Environment: Creating a trustful setting where team members feel secure to express their true thoughts enhances the quality of feedback and vision.
4. Adaptable Leadership: Agile leaders should transition from directive roles to facilitators, empowering teams to define and navigate their workflows.

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a forward-looking statement from Vasco, teasing the next episode focused on defining success for Scrum Masters and the importance of continuous improvement. Listeners are encouraged to rate and share the podcast to foster a community of learning and growth among Scrum Masters.

"[09:18] Vasco Duart: ...how to develop that focus on continuous improvement that is as important for Scrum Masters as it is for teams."

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Final Thoughts

Sara Caldwell's experiences and insights provide valuable lessons for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches aiming to lead successful transformations. By prioritizing collaborative vision creation and fostering an environment conducive to open communication, leaders can navigate change more effectively and ensure that the entire team is invested in the journey ahead.

Transcript

[Vasco Duart]

Hi, I'm your host, Vasco Duart. Welcome to the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast where we share tips and tricks from Scrum Masters around the world. Every day we bring you inspiring answers to important questions that all Scrum Masters.

[Unknown Host]

Face day after day. Hello, everybody. Welcome to our Wednesday the Change Leadership episode, this week with Sarah Caldwell. Hey, Sarah, welcome back.

[Sarah Caldwell]

Hi. Happy. What I sometimes call 14th Monday.

[Unknown Host]

14Th Monday. There you go. There you go. All right, so of course we're going to talk about change. So tell us one of those stories, Sarah, a story of a change process you were involved with. And as you go through that, as you describe what was happening during that process, highlight for us the tools, the tips, the tricks and the techniques you learned back then that you still apply today.

[Sarah Caldwell]

So I'm, I'm going to go back to the original example I had at the beginning of the series related to where I, I first started with my agile journey, where we're going underneath an agile transformation. And as I was learning and growing and I had a number of really great agile coaches and you know, we talk about how vision is a dream with a direction and vision helps us be able to change and vision, you know, puts, puts, you know, helps us with like motivation and getting connected to the work that we're doing. And I was, I was again drinking the Kool Aid, all in, ready to have this vision. And so I went into my office and I spent hours thinking about what our team's vision could be related to this agile transformation, this change, this working in a new way, how we're all coming together as a unit. And I spent hours in my office and I think I came up with a pretty good vision, in my opinion. And then I went around and I circled, I socialized it. I met with everyone on the teams and said, hey, this is our vision here, here's our vision. Look, it's even in color and it's very pretty. Can we all commit and agree to this? And if you aren't laughing by now, maybe, maybe you should be because essentially what I was doing was command and controlling a vision. I was command and controlling a dream. I was saying this is how you should be acting. And you know, it really wasn't enabling our self organizing teams to have input into how that they were working, which I think is, you know, it's obviously an accidental mistake. I had all the good intentions there, but I was making creating a vision a solo act. And when it's the team's rally cry, they weren't in that rally cry. It was what I thought we should be doing. And if I had to do it all over again, and I do, I have an opportunity to do it all over again. Often is I. I like to leverage a lot of what our product owners do and our user experience with the help of our user experience folks is create some focus groups that you know from a scrum mastering standpoint. That can be some of your retros, that can be some casual conversations, that can be some one on ones, you know, and those one on ones can have some like lightweight interview questions. What are, what are some things that you value? What do you want us to be doing? What do you want us to be saying? Remember the future activity like almost any.

[Unknown Host]

So you're kind of extract like pieces of the vision by having these multiple conversations with the team and team members.

[Sarah Caldwell]

Exactly. Like I'm a big fan of Dave Snowden. I have a little bit of a brain crush on him and I really love some of his sense making tools and techniques where you're essentially collecting stories, stories we tell ourselves and then identifying patterns and themes based upon those stories. And those lightweight interviews, those focus groups, those retros help feed that basically kind of heat map of sorts that you're creating and that can ultimately lead into a vision that they create for themselves. So you just kind of end up being maybe the collector consolidator analysis store like wordsmither. But it's really the team like you're pulling their voice and their words into this vision so it becomes less about getting buy in, which is what I was doing. Right. Like I created something in my office and then tried to get buy in, which I find is not as effective as co creating where people feel as though they're part of the change. They are the change, they are influencing the change. And ultimately I think that leads to a quicker change and also more successful change because it's not being passed to them. They're being able to contribute.

[Unknown Host]

One of the key things for me in this story is the recognition that no matter how good a vision we might be able to create, it's still not their vision.

[Vasco Duart]

Right.

[Unknown Host]

Like, and when we do this, and I really like that you referred to the techniques that proctors and user experience people use. Right. We are there to hear what the people who are actually actors in the change want the change to be right. Now that doesn't mean that we don't have a direction. Of course we might still have a direction like overall agile adoption because of X, Y and Z. Fill in the strategic or organizational goals that you might have, that direction is still there, but the way that we get there needs to be co created with the people that actually need to change. And if we go back to the, to the concept of project management which we were talking about, it is so counterintuitive to someone with a project management background that actually the role of the project manager in this context is to help the people doing the work to define the work that needs to be done instead of documenting and communicating that work, which is usually what project managers end up doing themselves. What did you learn about this aspect of collecting the narratives or stories, as you called it, from the teams through the one on ones, the retrospectives and other means. Like, what are some of the key tips you can share with us about that aspect of collecting those different stories from the team members?

[Sarah Caldwell]

I was on mute. I had to clear my throat. Tips on how to show up or show up in the sessions that I ran or what specifically.

[Unknown Host]

So when we go and we talk to teams, so let's say we are in a retrospective, right? And when we are in a retrospective, you know, there's maybe a structure, there's a sets of questions like, what are some of the concrete things that you think have helped you to really be able to extract, to surface those voices from the team?

[Sarah Caldwell]

Yeah, great question. It's a lot of, you know, I really pull from my anthropological background. You know, I studied anthropology as a minor in school. And it's really about, you know, while you are a part of the system team, you're more observing and getting curious and not asking leading questions. So you're just there to bear witness to what is happening and encouraging people to think and draw their own thoughts. Because oftentimes people don't spend a lot of time thinking about the things that you're going to be asking them for. Like, you know, the value, what they value in work and what they value as a whole. And so getting curious, being vulnerable yourself, creating space for them to really share what matters to them is so important. And how you show up to that is just as important. Because if you show up and you're just running through a list of questions and you're, you're asking like, yeah, but don't you think type of tone, you're likely not going to get people's truest thoughts here. Another thing that I think is important, you know, we're thinking about system dynamics is do people feel safe to share what they really feel? If they feel as though you're going to use that like to report up to a leader or use it against them, they might hold their cards closer to their chest. So if you're working in a place where there you may feel like there's a lot of bureaucracy and that data is being used against teams, you can work to create these sorts of conversations in a more autonomous way. So maybe through some surveys. I recommend using ChatGPT to ensure that these surveys are not leading and that you're not falling into some of the traps related to how survey questions are structured.

[Unknown Host]

So one important aspect of what you said is that the way we show up is very important and the type of questions we ask is very important, whether it is face to face or through a survey. And there's a lot of research out there on how to ask questions that elicit people to share something that is within them, rather than to confirm our biases, which is quite easy to do with leading questions. That was a great story. Thank you for sharing that, Sara.

[Sarah Caldwell]

Thank you.

[Vasco Duart]

Leading change is one of the core skills we must acquire, but it is only one of the steps towards our success as Scrum Masters. Tomorrow on Success Thursday, we will talk about how to define success for the Scrum Master role. We'll cover tips on how to measure your way to that position and most importantly, how to develop that focus on continuous improvement that is as important for Scrum Masters as it is for teams. See you tomorrow. I really hope you liked our show and if you did, please why not rate this podcast on Stitcher or itunes? Share this podcast and let other Scrum Masters know about this valuable resource for their work. Remember that sharing is caring.