Leading Change In Agile Teams Through Curiosity and Trust | Mike Bowler

Summary

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile Storytelling from the Trenches
Episode Summary: "Leading Change In Agile Teams Through Curiosity and Trust" | Guest: Mike Bowler
Release Date: November 13, 2024
Host: Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Leading Change In Agile Teams Through Curiosity and Trust," host Vasco Duarte engages in a deep conversation with Mike Bowler, an experienced Agile Coach and Scrum Master. The discussion centers around effective strategies for leading change within Agile teams by fostering a culture of curiosity and trust. This episode delves into actionable techniques, real-world examples, and insightful reflections that Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches can implement to drive meaningful transformations in their organizations.

Key Themes

1. Leading with Curiosity
2. Challenging Organizational Mythologies
3. Facilitating Change Through Trust
4. Validating Assumptions
5. Empowering Teams to Explore and Innovate

Leading with Curiosity

Mike Bowler emphasizes the importance of curiosity as a leadership tool in Agile environments. Instead of dictating solutions, he advocates for a questioning approach that empowers team members to explore options and make informed decisions.

Mike Bowler [00:54]: "One of the biggest things that I lead with still is I lead with curiosity. I come in and I ask a lot of questions."

This approach not only fosters a collaborative atmosphere but also encourages teams to take ownership of their processes and outcomes.

Challenging Organizational Mythologies

Mike shares an insightful story illustrating how entrenched mythologies within large organizations can hinder progress. Mythologies refer to entrenched beliefs or "the way things have always been done" that persist without evidence.

Mike Bowler [04:22]: "There's a lot of mythology in organizations. And the bigger they are, the more mythology there is. And mythology is things we believe without evidence."

By validating these assumptions through direct conversations, Mike was able to uncover the underlying barriers preventing change, revealing that often, these mythologies were unfounded or based on misconceptions.

Facilitating Change Through Trust

Trust plays a pivotal role in Mike's strategy for leading change. By establishing trust, he creates a safe environment where team members are open to experimentation and willing to embrace new ideas.

In his first story, Mike navigates through multiple organizational layers, encountering a recurring theme where each level acknowledges the merit of his proposal but cites another group's opposition. This pattern highlighted a lack of willingness to take initiative, rather than actual constraints, ultimately allowing Mike to implement the change successfully.

Unnamed Guest [05:13]: "I kept following this chain up. I went up five levels, and at every level, everybody said to me, oh, that's a great idea. We should absolutely do that. But this group over here wouldn't let us do that."

Validating Assumptions

Mike's methodology includes validating assumptions by directly engaging with stakeholders to confirm the validity of perceived obstacles. This process dismantles unfounded barriers and paves the way for genuine progress.

Unnamed Guest [05:46]: "I was expecting somebody to say no at some point. I was expecting that I would have to start asking them questions about, well, why is it a no?"

Through persistent inquiry, Mike discovered that many of the restrictions were not based on actual constraints but rather on unverified beliefs, allowing him to proceed with confidence.

Empowering Teams to Explore and Innovate

In the second story, Mike illustrates how empowering teams to explore and adopt new methodologies can reveal hidden opportunities for improvement. By introducing testing techniques like Test-Driven Development (TDD) and exploratory testing, he challenged the team's assumption of having "perfect code."

Unnamed Guest [06:06]: "We got them to consider that there actually were a whole bunch of things wrong with their code that they'd not previously considered bugs."

This initiative not only uncovered existing bugs but also highlighted the team's growth mindset and willingness to enhance their quality processes, reinforcing the value of curiosity-driven leadership.

Insights and Conclusions

• Curiosity as a Leadership Behavior: Leading with curiosity fosters an environment of continuous learning and empowers teams to take initiative.

• Breaking Down Mythologies: Challenging and validating established beliefs within organizations can remove unnecessary barriers and facilitate smoother change implementations.

• Building Trust: Trust is essential for teams to feel safe in experimenting and adopting new practices, which is crucial for Agile transformations.

• Empowerment through Validation: Validating assumptions encourages teams to question the status quo and seek improvements, leading to higher quality outcomes.

Notable Quotes

• Mike Bowler [00:54]: "I'm trying not to tell people what to do. And in fact, I'm very clear about that when I first arrive. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you more options so that you can make better decisions for yourself."

• Unnamed Guest [05:13]: "I went all the way up the hierarchy, all the way up, and nobody had a problem with it. Everybody thought it was a great idea. They just thought somebody else would have stopped it."

• Mike Bowler [06:06]: "They said, it's not that we write perfect code right from the beginning, but by our quality process is so good that we never have a bug in production."

Conclusion

In this episode, Mike Bowler provides invaluable insights into leading change within Agile teams by harnessing the power of curiosity and trust. His real-world examples demonstrate how questioning assumptions and fostering an open, trusting environment can dismantle organizational mythologies and empower teams to innovate and improve continuously. Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches can apply these strategies to facilitate effective and sustainable transformations within their own teams and organizations.

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Stay tuned for future episodes of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, where Vasco Duarte continues to explore essential Agile topics and shares wisdom from Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches around the globe. For those looking to deepen their Agile practice and enhance their leadership skills, this podcast serves as an indispensable resource.

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.

[Mike Bike]

Face day after day. Hello, everybody. Welcome to our Wednesday this Week with Mike Bike. Hey, Mike. Welcome to the show. Thanks. So we are talking about change today. Of course, it's the Change Leadership episode, and we want to focus on a whole process so that we get an overview of what are the key steps in that particular process. As you go through the story of that change process, highlight for us the tools, the tips, the tricks, and the techniques you learned back then that you still apply today.

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, one of the biggest things that I lead with still is I lead with curiosity. I come in and I ask a lot of questions. I'm trying not to tell people what to do. And in fact, I'm very clear about that when I first arrive. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you more options so that you can make better decisions for yourself. So that's very clear. But then as we're digging into problems, I try to lead as much as possible with curiosity. Let me give you an example. I came in with one team. I was. I was working with one of the developers, and I made a suggestion about something that they might want to do. And I said, what if we tried this thing? And I don't even remember what the thing was, but it doesn't matter. I said, what if we tried this thing? And the developer said to me, that would be a great idea, but my team lead wouldn't let us do that. Okay. So I went over to the team lead and I said, here's the thing we've been talking about. What if we tried something like this? And the team lead said to me, oh, that's a great idea, but the architect wouldn't let us do that. So I went and talked to the architect and I explained, this is what we're doing, and what if we tried something like this? And she said, that's a great idea, but this other group over here wouldn't let us do that. And I kept following this chain up. I went up five levels, and at every level, everybody said to me, oh, that's a great idea. We should absolutely do that. But this group over here wouldn't let us do that. Five levels up I went. And so finally, I just went back to the developer and I said, here's the conversations I've Had I talked to your team, lead to your architect, to this group, to that group, I went all the way up, and everybody thought it was a great idea, and everybody thought that somebody else would stop it. So what do you think? Should we just try it? And we tried it, and it turned out to be great. It turned out to be something that was positive. Everybody assumed that they wouldn't be allowed to do it, but nobody was actually willing to try, go and try something. Now, I do need to caution you that there are some environments where it's not safe to try something like that. And in this. This is a case where I wasn't sure. At this company now, at this company, it totally was safe, but I was still new at the engagement, and I didn't know if it was safe at this point, so I wanted to try it. So I went all the way up the hierarchy, all the way up, and nobody had a problem with it. Everybody thought it was a great idea. They just thought somebody else would have stopped it. So by leading with curiosity and asking these questions, I was able to get us to a better place. And this is sort of a typical thing. We see this in a lot of places. I'll give you another example. I came in to work with a development team, and they said I wanted to introduce them some testing techniques, some TDD and just exploratory testing and other things. And I was focusing on how this was a quality issue. And they said, let us just stop you right there. We have perfect code. And I was a little bit taken aback. I thought, okay, well, you're pretty cocky. You think you've got perfect code here? I said, tell me more about that. They said, it's not that we write perfect code right from the beginning, but by our quality process is so good that we never have a bug in production. I thought, that is wonderful. I said, would it be okay if I showed you these techniques anyway, and if you decide they're not useful to you, then you don't have to use them. And that was great. So I went through and I showed them all of these different techniques, and within two hours, we'd found about half a dozen bugs in their production code. So by asking questions and saying, would it be okay if. And what if we tried this? And can I show you something else? We got them to consider that there actually were a whole bunch of things wrong with their code that they'd not previously considered bugs.

[Mike Bike]

Yeah. So coming back to the first story, one of the cool things about that is that there's a lot of mythology in organizations. And the bigger they are, the more mythology there is. And mythology is things we believe without evidence. Right. Like, you know, it just is like that. Why it is, I don't know, it just is like that. That's probably a way in which those show up. And I really like that approach of, okay, well, let's assume that's true and validate it. Right. Let's just ask that person that you said wouldn't allow us to. And you know, if they say no, that's fine. We're not going to go against them, but we're going to validate. And you did that for a few times. And of course, after a while, you realize actually no one really wanted to have any influence in that. It was just that mythology taking over, right?

[Unnamed Guest]

Yes, yes.

[Mike Bike]

And what I like about that story is how the strategy you used, you called leading with curiosity. The strategy that you used allowed you to figure out, where does this mythology go? Because it is possible that there would be such a person in that chain that would say, yeah, that's right, you're not allowed to do it. And some things are not allowed in some companies, some for good reasons, other for bad reasons. It doesn't matter. But you led with curiosity. That is, you validated the assumptions, right?

[Unnamed Guest]

Yes. And honestly, I was expecting somebody to say no at some point. I was expecting that I would have to start asking them questions about, well, why is it a no? Help me understand what. What constraint is in the environment that would make this untenable. And I was somewhat surprised that nobody had any objection at all. It was just they always thought that somebody else would.

[Mike Bike]

And then in the second story, what I was surprised by, because the first story is about leading with curiosity, and in the second story, it was more like the other way around, kind of you triggered their curiosity. Right. And it wasn't about you. Okay, let's find out. No, it was about you. Okay, I understand. I accept what you're telling me. I'm not disputing that. But what if we just try it anyway, right. Just in case, and if you don't like it, you can leave it behind. And what we do with that approach is more like triggering their curiosity because they look at you and say, okay, this experienced person says that this could be useful. Why not? I mean, what do we got to lose? We don't need to use it in the future. Right.

[Unnamed Guest]

And again, I had no preconceptions when they said to me, we have no bugs in production. I believe them.

[Mike Bike]

Yeah. And that is the part about leading with curiosity is like, you start from the perspective of that's true and let's explore that further. Mm, yeah. And I think that that's really a key aspect in this. Let's call it a leadership behavior because it is a leadership behavior to lead with curiosity is that accepting that it might just be true, we don't need to dispute it. We can just move on and be curious about what happens next. Right? Excellent story. Thank you for sharing that, Mike.

[Unnamed Guest]

Oh, you're welcome.

[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, 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.