Leading Change Without Hierarchical Power | Stuart Tipples

Wed Jun 11 2025

Stuart Tipples: Beyond Hierarchy—Influencing Agile Adoption Through Setting the Example and Community Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast...

Summary

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile Storytelling from the Trenches

Episode: Leading Change Without Hierarchical Power | Stuart Tipples
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Stuart Tipples
Release Date: June 11, 2025

Introduction to the Episode

In this insightful episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte engages in a profound conversation with Stuart Tipples, an experienced Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Master. The discussion centers around the intricate dynamics of leading organizational change without relying on formal hierarchical power—a challenge many Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches encounter in their roles.

Stuart Tipples' Background and Role

Stuart Tipples brings a wealth of experience to the table, having served in pivotal roles such as a Scrum Master chapter lead at British Telecom. His journey illustrates the multifaceted responsibilities of a Scrum Master, particularly in environments striving for large-scale Agile transformations.

The Challenge of Leading Change Without Hierarchical Power

At the heart of the episode is the exploration of how Scrum Masters can effectively lead change initiatives despite lacking formal authority. Stuart emphasizes the daunting nature of this task, especially when interfacing with senior executives and directors who operate within traditional hierarchical structures.

"The biggie is how do you, as a Scrum Master, lead change when quite often you have zero formal power, hierarchically speaking... it's super challenging."
— Stuart Tipples [01:21]

Case Study: British Telecom and Agile Transformation

Stuart recounts his tenure at British Telecom, where he played a significant role in the early days of digital transformation. Operating as a Scrum Master chapter lead in a scaled environment, he adopted the Spotify model to foster a community of Scrum Masters acting as change agents across multiple tribes.

"I built a community practice. I did a huge recruitment drive bringing in new Scrum Masters to the organization... they ran their own quarterly retrospectives."
— Stuart Tipples [05:23]

This initiative not only empowered Scrum Masters but also demonstrated to the leadership the tangible benefits of Agile practices, such as the regular retrospectives conducted by directors, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Strategies and Tools for Leading Change

Stuart outlines several strategies that proved effective in driving change:

Community Building: Creating a robust community of Scrum Masters to act as change agents.
Empowerment: Equipping these agents with the necessary tools and skills to influence their respective teams.
Leadership Engagement: Encouraging leadership to participate in Agile practices, thereby setting a precedent for the rest of the organization.
Retrospectives: Instituting regular retrospectives at the leadership level to model Agile behaviors.

"It's one of those metrics of success as a Scrum Master or as any change agent... the behavior continues and it doesn't need you to drive it."
— Stuart Tipples [05:24]

Successes and Lessons Learned

One of the standout successes Stuart highlights is the adoption of quarterly retrospectives by the leadership team. This not only improved their operational dynamics but also reinforced the value of Agile practices across the organization.

"The leadership team sort of drank the Kool Aid and sort of practiced what they preach."
— Stuart Tipples [05:24]

Stuart also reflects on the importance of sustainable change, emphasizing that true success lies in behaviors that perpetuate without constant oversight.

Contrasting Change Experiences

Stuart contrasts his successful experience with a more challenging scenario involving a value stream-level transformation. In this case, external consultancies led the change initiative but ultimately reverted to a waterfall approach, highlighting the pitfalls of top-down transformation without inclusive collaboration.

"They went and built waterfall. And there's many factors to this... the role of a change agent requires us to show up daily."
— Stuart Tipples [10:22]

This experience underscores the importance of involving all stakeholders in the change process and the risks associated with maintaining rigid hierarchical controls.

Key Takeaways and Practical Advice

Stuart distills his experiences into actionable advice for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches:

Focus on Influencing Smaller Units: Instead of attempting to overhaul the entire organization at once, target specific teams or units where change is more manageable and visible.
Celebrate Successes: Highlight and celebrate successful Agile implementations to inspire and motivate others.
Build Relationships: Foster strong, trust-based relationships with leaders and team members to facilitate smoother change processes.
Adapt and Persist: Understand that change is often non-linear and be prepared to adapt strategies as needed.

"Change one team, affect what you can change. Change that one team you're working with. That will be contagious because if you're celebrating the success... people will look to emulate that."
— Stuart Tipples [12:24]

Conclusion

This episode provides a compelling exploration of the nuanced role Scrum Masters play in organizational change, especially in environments resistant to traditional hierarchical power dynamics. Stuart Tipples offers both cautionary tales and success stories, enriching listeners with practical strategies to drive meaningful and sustainable Agile transformations.

For Scrum Masters and Agile practitioners seeking to enhance their change management skills, this episode is a treasure trove of insights and real-world experiences that illuminate the path to effective leadership without formal authority.

Notable Quotes Recap:

"The biggie is how do you, as a Scrum Master, lead change when quite often you have zero formal power..." — Stuart Tipples [01:21]
"It's one of those metrics of success as a Scrum Master or as any change agent... the behavior continues and it doesn't need you to drive it." — Stuart Tipples [05:24]
"The role of a change agent requires us to show up daily." — Stuart Tipples [10:22]
"Change that one team you're working with. That will be contagious because if you're celebrating the success..." — Stuart Tipples [12:24]

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Transcript

Vasko (0:04)

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Stuart Tipples (1:11)

Hello everybody. Welcome to our Wednesday the Leading Change episode this week with Stuart Tipples. Hey, Stuart, welcome back.

Stuart (1:19)

Hey Vasco, good to see you.

Stuart Tipples (1:21)

Likewise. So today we explore the murky waters of change. Of course, because we are always involved with some sort of change process. Sometimes it's the team, the organization, and sometimes even ourselves. But whatever the change process it is, we need to have an idea of how we want to navigate it. So that's what we want to learn from you today, Stuart. So share a change process. You were involved with us and tell us the story of how that went from beginning to end. And as you go, highlight for us the tools, the tips, the tricks and the techniques you learned back then that you still apply today.

Stuart (1:57)

Yeah, of course. I think it's an interesting part of the Scrum Master role. The Scrum Master as organizational change agent. Right. Because the big question, the biggie is how do you, as a Scrum Master, lead change when quite often you have zero formal power, hierarchically speaking, should we say organizationally, it's super challenging. It's also really daunting if it's something that you sort of are experiencing for the first time. It's really daunting to be mixing potentially in a C suite with executives, with directors, and you are sort of trying to put forward these quite often cultural change, right? These big changes that are the easier ones, that are the sort of governance and the structures. But when you're starting to talk about sort of big agile transformations that require mindset shifts, and you have to remind directorate and executives in the C suite that it's not just the team that can have to change how they work. You guys are as well and you've got no formal sort of hierarchical power. It's really, really, really tough. I've had a couple of instances where I've been involved in this. We talked earlier about my time at British Telecom and during my time sort of in that sort of Agile arena in digital there were several sort of attempts and run ups at quite sort of large scale change in terms of digital trans transformation. Some achieved a certain level of success, others are happening now since I've left and sort of remain to be seen the benefit of. I think one of the more successful ones that I was part of and sort of helped lead the change on was in the early days of digital. And I had at the time I was working as a Scrum Master chapter lead. So I was working in a scaled environment. We had multiple sort of tribes. We'd adopted the Spotify model quite wide. I'm not sure even Spotify didn't keep the Spotify model. But VT decided it was a good idea to sort of use and I built a community practice. I did a huge recruitment drive bringing in new Scrum Masters to the organization. And what was great was building that chapter, using them as my change agents, right? Getting out into their programs of work, arming them with the tools and the skills, whilst also from my position, a slightly easier position as a chapter lead where I had a space at the table with the C suite and with the directorate. And towards my end of this role, what was great was by no means perfect. As we said, these people are messy, this work is complex and very, very challenging. But one of the great practices that I'd seen my directors in the digital space continue was they ran their own quarterly retrospectives. Now something I suggested early on, we'd seen really great sort of response. They understood and saw the value in this. There is beneficial optics to a leadership team sort of drinking the Kool Aid and sort of practicing what they preach, right?